saratkanur

Darren ,Eshmel , Jamail, Adrian and Charles , dissimilar men living vastly different lives, but willing to give another man a chance- me.

Darren , unnaturalised frenchman, fornicator exrtaordinaire, cuntlicker in air plane toilets, a ugly man who attracted women like a bare light bulb drew flies in monsoon rain and kissed them, positive juices flowing through veins instead of blood, , guaranteed to make anybody he met happier by at least 33 degrees,a worker of miracles, laughing at death when gnawing cancer ate him from inside.He gave me my first break

Eshmel Jumouke Benabe, the Egyptian, polygamist, polyeverything, greedy for money, women , men, food ,drink and pornography ,but ready to wait and ferret .Calculating ,intuitive opportunist , a compulsive note downist - he even transcribed telephone conversations with his wives.My mentor ,until a bitter power struggle pitted us against each other.

Jamail Asheri,Iraqi scion, heterosexual ,ambitious, thoroughly convinced about the rights of man ,volunteered for a dictator's army because he believed one day he would change his world from within .Refusing to stand down, he fought to make real that dream and died reaching for that .He let me discover my inner strength. .

Adrian Nash, Irish, homosexual, youngest in his famliy , difficult to describe, lived with his mother because he could not bear to let her live alone. Warm, kind, just missed being a catholic priest,tried to live like one and repented for not being able to do so, a forerunner of modern day gay bishops and held sodomy was okay but gommorah was uh-hoe. One of the few civilian casualities of the war. He died for me.

Charles, American ,black,millionaire,self confident to the point of disdain, who had bought a house in the most exclusive part of the town because somebody at the golf course had asked him "and, where do you live?" and had his chauffer stay there,educated at MIT, intelligent , typical American know how enthusiast and powerpoint presenter.Remorseless, even when he sold out on me.

And along with three women, were part of my life ,affecting unforeseen turns in my life to this day as I pen the final and most poignant time of my life and I discover I had another life unlived from the day I set out on that journey from college to man to father.

Someone laid a hand on my shoulder .I had popped some pills with a swig ,I felt a heaviness and could not respond, pegged back into the sand by an unwillingness of my mind and I wanted to sleep, close my mind shut, to escape the upwelling of regret and stanch the heaving spasms of sorrow, reliving the cruel fate dealt to Adrian.

Adrian was a complex man given to manic moods and sought companionship from another human being and I liked him and spent much of our free time together leading to some speculation that we had a sexual relationship, which was not true, just that we could mentally reach each other in an easy friendship where you do not feel intimidated or compelled to please.

Thoughts flooded my mind, the few months spent with him had left a longing , a need to see and hear him. I felt a pain. Once he had read us Keats' ode to a nightingale, infusing the rendition with images of longing and death, that now I heard that in my mind and could see him fade away while only painful memories of him remained.

"Mr. Charles Lambert...... says it's important".he handed me the set. I tried to tell him the sadness I felt, but he cut me off and said

"I know .....Sergeant Graham says there are twelve intact trucks, I want those trucks moved to Al Sagayah
in eight hours. Do what you have to do".

A small speck appeared on the horizon and steadily became larger,a chopper, the swish of it's rotors cutting the air and it descended and hung an inch above the road. A soldier in the battle dress with patches of light green and brown hopped down and ran in a low arc towards me while within seconds the injured and the dead were lifted onto the chopper and it swung away and up.

"You have twelve trailers intact, I want them moved . Call your nearest emergency station , organize and get the two damaged vehicles off the road .I need the metal gratings , move it on to another trailer and I want them at Al Sagayay eight hours from now." The soldier spoke like a machine

Two trucks and trailers lay immobilized on the narrow road, it would take roughly eight to nine hours to organize and mobilize the heavy equipment to move them,so we cut the stays on the flat bed truck and pushed the pallets of gratings of the edge on to the concrete , hacked the straps and lined the gratings on the sand and moved the convoy around the wreckage. It took some time,the effort and toil took my mind off Adrian and we were in Al Sagayay much ahead of the time. Later on I send back a team to bring back the rest of the stuff lying on the desert road.

Much later, in a passing conversation, I realized Charles had put me in charge of the operation to get me out of the shock.Any of the men in uniform with our convoy would have done it easily.

I was tired and mentally exhausted and took me some time to realise I was back in Kuwait.