MY FATHER,S TEARS

MY FATHER,S TEARS
, after miles of empry landscape and empty stomrestaurant, scarcely more than a lean-to,
minuscule
a
achs,
advertised itself with a wooden arrow. We stopped the rented
Renault and with trepidation walked across the grass, singlefile, feeling again huge, as when we trod deeper into that fragrant bus. We halted when a man emerged from the shack
bearing a table, and a boy emerged carrylng chairs. With an
arr of amusement all around, this furniture was set on the
grassy earth, in a spot we lightly indicated. From the shed
were produced in time wine, rice, kebabs, and Cokes, which
we consumed in sight of the Atlantic, of beige cliffs, and of
vast pasrures grazed by , single donkey. Wb were the only
customers, for all we krerr, that this beautiful restaurant by
the sea had ever had.
sea, where
Even on the rough back road to Thfraout, into the stony
hills of the Low Atlas, with the gas gauge saying zero and not
a house, not a sheep or goat, in sight, z little girl in a dip of
the unpaved track held out a handful of flowers. The road
here had become one with the rocks of a dry riverbed, so our
Renault was moving slowly, so slowly she had time, when she
saw we were ffuly not going to stop, to whip our fenders with
the flowers and to throw them at the open car window. One
or two fetl inside, onto our laps. The rest fell onto the asphalt
beside her feet. In the rearview mirror I saw the little girl
stamp her foot in rage. Perhaps she cried. She was about the
age of Genevieve, who expressed empathy and sadness as the
girl diminished behind us and dropped from sight.
In Tafraout, Caleb could not stop staring at a man so badly
crippled he seemed a kind of spidpr, scuttling across the
packed earth on his arms, his little body dragged betrveen
them. FIe didn't b.g, indeed, he moved about like a local figure of some importance, with urgent business to conduct.
:8:
Morocco
North of Agadir, we were in our rrrorr
minutes to dinnertime crawl b1', and '[,
traffic on the road outside had stoppei.
quickly, and were talking to the drir-e
young man in soft-colored work clothe
cab with bowed head, nodding, noddin
questiorls. taffic was held up on borh
stayed on our side, mere tourists, bur ir
cult to
see what had happened. Som.
eclipsed by a wheel of the truck. Unde
when the police fetched the morher. \
and looked.
FIe was pale when he rerurned to ou
didn't make his comical monker- tace.
there was to see. *You don't want to sea
"It was a little girl," h. later told us.
The mother was short and \4-ore blac
raced up and down the bare slopes oir
road, splitting the skies with her uncrr
lating, while men raced after her, rryrni
they failed to catch her, the excited cr
train of clumsy bodies her grief in iis
trailed behind her. No American coula
:
she made; all the breath of her chest rr'3
the heavens that had so suddenlr-. poi
blow. Ancient modes of lamentarion su
formance was so naked and pure \\-e rri
We had not been meant to witness m
When two men caught her at last an
arms, she collapsed in a faint.
We found the climate we had hope
beach there was a wide beach but. rhc
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