Sahara

by Oscar Luis Rigiroli

  The role that Graciela had assigned herself filled equally the void produced by the spatial distance of her biological mother. Charfadine still needed that female role in her life.

  Finally, Cristian was also making a balance of the night. Definitely his maximum objective was fulfilled that night. His family had accepted so far his two wives and his son, so different and coming from so far. Possible issues arising from race or culture, and the fact of being bigamous had been buried and limited to predictable gossip that would last some time.

  Zoubaida asserted that night her right as first wife and dragged Cristian to her bed. While she wrapped her long legs around him she told him.

  “You peasant, make love to your Lady with all your strength.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Six months had elapsed since the arrival of the family in Venado Tuerto; Zoubaida and Charfadine had already acquired a certain rudimentary handling of the language were managing their house. Hubert had completed his first year and was in the permanent company of his cousins which predicted a happy childhood. Cristian collaborated with rural chores in the family farm, which meant making long and intense workdays, interrupted by frequent rains, sometimes torrential which appropriately fecundated the so-called pampa húmeda, part of the best agricultural land in the country and the planet.

  Zoubaida was in intermittent contact with Chad, and had spoken to Souady the day prior to her departure from Paris for N'Djamena, where she could at last get together with her husband. After the last and laborious communication she discreetly met Cristian who was returning from his work in the fields. When she told him that she needed to talk with him it did not surprise him, since he had somehow noticed the process his wife was undergoing.

  “Today I have spoken directly with my father. The Government has appointed him within a Committee composed of officials, politicians and tribal leaders who are designing the new Chad, after the recent civil war and the infinite series of coups and revolutions.” The woman took a brief respite before continuing. “They have appointed members of several delegations abroad that will have mission of getting international political, financial and commercial support for this process. I've been nominated within one of these offices in the Americas, by my personal knowledge of the exiles during the years that I've been working with them, and my performance in the diplomatic areas.”

  As she saw her husband frown she added.

  “It is a crucial stage in my country and I cannot skimp my effort, only because of family reasons.”

  “Only because of family reasons? Only for your family?” Reproached bitterly Cristian.

  “You know how happy I've been here with yours, but it is a decisive stage in my life, that I don't want to see truncated.”

  “We are also are part of your life.”

  “And I absolutely want to include you at this stage. That why I'm talking to you, to see how we can reconcile career and family.”

  “What do you propose?”

  “I need us to move to Buenos Aires. Although in this country there is not a large African community, there are embassies and consulates, and the means of communication and transportation that I need.”

  “Transport. What do you mean?”

  “I will have to travel with a certain frequency to United States, Europe, and also occasionally to Chad.”

  The discussion stopped being purely discursive and Zoubaida began to use the means of persuasion that always gave her such good results with her husband, who ended up giving his consent to the requirements of his wife. She only asked him to convince Charfadine and anticipated that it would not be an easy task, because the girl had integrated very quickly to her new environment and was reluctant to everything which would bring instability.

  Cristian had returned from Buenos Aires, where he had rented a small apartment with three bedrooms in a middle class neighborhood, quite crowded but well connected. Gonzalo and Eduardo offered once again to move the family of four people and their belongings, which had increased considerably in the months they lived in Venado Tuerto.

  Zoubaida was exultant by returning to a large city with an offer of goods and services of international level, and access to international contacts that her new semi-official role imposed her. Charfadine instead knew in advance that she would miss the quiet town that he had enjoyed in their rural CHAPTER, and above all the support and containment she had found in the Colombo family, notably in her mother-in-law, who promised to visit his son often anyway.

  Two days after arriving in Buenos Aires Zoubaida received an instruction to attend a meeting of migrants from various African countries in Sao Paulo, Brazil. By the busy nature of the agenda she could not take the small Hubert with her so he was left with his father and aunt in Buenos Aires. Charfadine looked after him with patience and it was evident that the child was joyful in her company.

  Cristian had gotten a job as a graphic designer and was away from home from seven in the morning until seven in the evening, when he returned exhausted. Charfadine already had bathed, changed and fed her nephew, who was often asleep upon the return of his father.

  One night he returned and Hubert was still awake. Charfadine tried to give him in his arms, but the creature clung to his aunt, reluctant to go with his father. Cristian took note of mutual dependence that both had reached, which left him in meditation.

  That night, Cristian slid into the bed of Charfadine, who was asleep. He kissed her gently on the cheeks and lips, until the girl woke up smiling. He then began a downward trajectory that took him to the long neck and perfect shoulders while she responded complacent but passive. When he stroked and kissed her breasts she issued sweet sounds while she caressed his head and messed up his hair. As he descended to the belly it began to oscillate up and down out of pleasure, which increased when he licked her Mount of Venus. Then he slid his hands by the inner side of her thighs and kissed them. She caught his head between her thighs and pressed it forcefully, took it with her hands and pushed it inside of her. Cristian understood the message and began to practice the oral sex. The girl began shaking frantically on the bed until she eventually reached the climax in a rattle. Cristian was really surprised by the intensity of the response to his efforts which filled him with excitement. He introduced himself inside her and until they arrived, this time together, at the Summit of pleasure.

  Exhausted, they slept embraced until dawn, aroused by the cries of Hubert. When Charfadine returned after taking care of the child Cristian was sitting on the bed.

  “Well?” She asked.

  “Well what?”

  “What did you think?”

  “Exquisite, we have never had a night like that. And what do you think?”

  “Better than on our wedding night.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, I was then a virgin, I was tense, had confused feelings and fear to not to be up to the occasion. However last night it has been total release.”

  “It should be, since I am your husband.”

  “And yet I am always afraid.”

  “Afraid of what?”

  “Of the comparison.”

  “Comparison with Zoubaida?”

  “Yes.”

  “Forget the comparisons. You are you, and you are a woman with everything you need to make happy a man, not only physically but in your instincts. You're not inferior to anyone.”

  He took her tenderly in his arms and they stood together silently for a long time. Charfadine was processing and slowly tasting everything that had happened and had been spoken, as a process of growth of her internal confidence was taking place.

  In her introspection, the woman soon realized that the factor that had enabled her to behave sexually uninhibited as that night was Zoubaida´s transient remoteness, perhaps due to her role of older sister, but more probably by being the first wife of Cristian, like someone who enjoys titles of rightful owner. Anyway, now that she had fully enjoyed a night with her husband, the young woman was not willing to go back. She wou
ld continue on the course started that night and expected things would accommodate around her. She wondered if all women married with polygamous husbands in state experienced the same internal process.

  Cristian at the same time, although not with all the details, had noticed the change in Charfadine. He suspected that the reason was the same Charfadine had arrived at, and also came to the conclusion that once the shell was broken there would be no turning back. Given Zoubaida´s strong character he prayed the new situation would not bring internal conflict in his family. Indeed, since their arrival in Argentina Cristian was living in the best of all possible worlds.

  Taking advantage of the bright morning of that Sunday they had gone for a walk at the Rivadavia Park, close to their apartment. They carried Hubert in a stroller, but the soil covered with lawn allowed him to walk with his uncertain steps and his constant falls; immediately two other children of similar age joined in their games. Cristian took Charfadine's hand walked a short distance, always keeping the child at sight.

  For her, the experience was both new and stimulating; the perfect weather, a nice place full of couples both young and mature, children of all ages running, walking, biking or skating, they could feel free in an open space not too crowded. Charfadine deeply inhaled the warm air.

  “Buenos Aires does honor to its name.” She finally said.

  “At this moment.” Responded Cristian with his usual objectivity devoid of romanticism. “But there are often storms causing flooding, intense heat in summer and quite cold weather in winter. The stations are well marked here.”

  “But it's a city in which I would like to live. It has all kinds of activities.”

  “I will take it into account.” He said smiling.

  “But it may not always be suitable for Zoubaida´s activities.” Charfadine unexpected sentence of had a hint of resignation, as if a cloud suddenly covered the blue sky.

  “It may be so.” Replied sadly the man.

  Walking back Cristian's cell phone rang.

  “It is a message of Zoubaida.”Said.” She returns tomorrow at 6 pm Buenos Aires time.”

  Charfadine involuntarily tightened him arm what didn´t go unnoticed. A few minutes later they entered the building and their apartment. Hubert had slept in his stroller during the return journey, so they put him in his bed.

  Suddenly Charfadine took her husband's arm and led him to her bedroom he pushed him on the bed with some violence and began to undress hastily. Then she threw herself upon him with an unexpected passion.

  “Well.” said smilingly Cristian. “Every day a surprise.”

  “Shut your mouth and make me love!”

  Cristian was waiting at the airport the arrival of Zoubaida´s flight. He had bought a small second hand car. The ten days period that she had scheduled to be in Sao Paulo had extended to almost a month due to meetings with influential personalities who had traveled to Brazil, so the woman was eager to be with her family again.

  As they arrived at the apartment Charfadine opened the door still carrying Hubert in her arms after changing him. The sisters kissed and Zoubaida extended her arms to take her son in them, but the child moved away violently clinging to her aunt.

  “But, Hubert, it´s Maman.” exclaimed embarrassed Charfadine. “Go with her!”

  “Okay “said Zoubaida with resignation. “ Do not force him. He has lost the habit of seeing me and now must familiarize with me again.”

  “Indeed in all this time also I have almost lost the habit of seeing you.” Scolded with feigned anger Cristian who entered in the apartment again loaded with luggage. “I see you bring back a lot more stuff than you took to Sao Paulo.”

  “Of course! I had to buy more clothes in Sao Paulo to extend the stay.”

  Finally the child agreed to pass into the arms of his mother, who kissed him affectionately on the forehead. Charfadine helped Cristian to locate the suitcases, and Zoubaida noticed an almost imperceptible friction between their bodies, which was innovative. The manners of her sister with the man were more natural, less repressed than what Zoubaida remembered.

  “Well, not only the child has established a close relationship with his aunt.” Thought the traveler.

  After talking for quite a while all three, basically about Zoubaida´s experiences in Brazil and the progress of Hubert as far as walking and acquiring a rudimentary language, that lay on the bed to rest a bit before taking a shower.

  Reflections came to Zoubaida´s mind in droves. She was sure that her sister and her husband had established relations of a different nature than they had before her departure. These were probably not only of a sexual nature but also a greater level of intimacy. This was actually predictable and they could not be blamed for that since they were also husband and wife.

  Zoubaida had chosen a course for her own life that had led her to be a kind of Stateswoman, although she preferred to use terms related to loyalty to her family and ethnicity and devotion by her father. In that course there were prices to be paid. Instead of staying to live comfortably in New York with the man she loved, her star had pushed her to return to her country, marry and give birth in it for not only familiar but also dynastic reasons. Thereafter she had not only accepted but proposed sharing her man with another woman, even if she was her sister, also for State reasons, and events had dragged everyone to this new country where Charfadine no doubt had taken roots. Zoubaida could not complain because at the bottom of everything was always her performance. But now she would fight to regain her role, her entire role.

  CHAPTER 17

  When Cristian returned home it was almost eight o'clock. He was physically and mentally tired. In the new post he had obtained in the publishing house it was clear that his employers would not simply give him the salary as a present, but he had to struggle to earn it and he was going to defend his position with tooth and nail. He had never had before a position of responsibility as the current. It involved a certain social life that Cristian didn´t care much about, but he had to recognize that attending meetings of editors and writers with Zoubaida gave him an enhanced visibility since his wife became naturally and spontaneously in one focus of attention. While his Spanish was still incipient, she expressed herself in a grammatically correctly way, and her marked French accent was normally well accepted by the most diverse interlocutors.

  It had passed already a year and half since their arrival in the city, and this period had been prodigal in events. Hubert went to a maternal garden where he was very well adapted, Charfadine had validated the degrees obtained in France and begun studies of human nutrition in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires, and Cristian had escalated in the editorial thanks to his ample range of criteria to approaching a problem, fruit of a varied life experience and undoubtedly the endowments of natural intelligence.

  Zoubaida had added to her diplomatic functions the management of funds of the Sara ethnic group abroad, and had to travel regularly. Souady had arrived a fortnight before in Buenos Aires to share the life of her daughters and her grandson, even at the expense of leaving her husband in the midst of difficulties and challenges of all kinds. The conflict between the role of mother and wife had been temporarily settled in favor of the first.

  The political situation in Chad was stabilizing, and now the center of the conflict had moved to neighboring Central African Republic, with similar contours of racial and political hatreds, and similar military involvement of France and other European countries in the lid.

  Cristian had bought an old but comfortable house in the neighborhood of Villa Urquiza, and although all had longer journeys to their activities, housing offering comforts for its breadth, which had allowed them to accommodate Souady. It was also more appropriate conditions for the breeding of the small Hubert, who already moved by his own means.

  Upon entering the house Souady received him precisely with Hubert in her arms. In a music center sounded an old recording of Vous lui direz song by Mireille Mathieu.

  �
��Souady.” Said Cristian with an impatient gesture. “I already told you that the child already walks perfectly. You must not get him used to be in the arms of adults again. When you return to Africa we have no way to keep him happy.”

  “That´s what we grandmothers are for, to spoil our grandkids.” She challenging replied. However she left the boy on the ground, which ran out chasing a ball.

  “Don't forget that Hubert is the only grandchild I have so far, when you should have given me at least three with my two daughters.”

  “Not everyone has to move with your tribal codes.”

  “And what codes have you instead? Those of this city, where half of the population live alone? Full of divorced, separated, coupled, and separated again people.”

  In his relations with the women of the clan Djalali, Cristian had learned that he ran with handicap, and that always there was a traditional way to see things that ultimately became irrefutable. So he changed the axis of the discussion.

  “In fact, if you want more grandchildren you should convince Zoubaida not to travel so much.”

  “And what about Charfadine?”

  “She must not discontinue her studies. She has a long time ahead.”

  “Does it mean that they are avoiding it?”

  “For the moment, Yes.”

  Souady shook her head. She was not convinced that giving her grandchildren was responsibility of just one of her daughters. In addition, she yearned to have a grandchild of her favorite daughter.

  “Certainly I'd like to talk to Zoubaida to stay more with her family but then I would have to fight with my husband.” Added Souady. “The fact is that my daughter has become indispensable to get our people the necessary outside support. What you are experiencing are the problems of success, not of failure.”