In the Kingdom of Men

by Kim Barnes

  Abdullah took the basket lunch Yash proffered, set it on the grass, and pulled it apart. When he held up a checked tablecloth and cast it aside, Yash crossed his arms.

  “You will have sand in every bite,” he pronounced. Abdullah paid him no mind but stored our lunch in a rough satchel that he slipped over his head and shoulder, adding only a single canteen.

  “We’ll need more water than that,” Mason said.

  “We will find water.” Abdullah mounted his own muscular bay and moved her forward, Badra following, Mason bringing up the rear. We clipped down the asphalt, children coming from their yards to watch, cars pulling to the side, until we reached the gate, where Habib exchanged a few jolly words with Abdullah, reached up to shake each of our hands, and waved us through.

  I rode easy on the gray, rocking my hips to her smooth gait, the twist of tension at the base of my spine unwinding. When Abdullah led us off the road and pointed us south, into the heart of the desert, Mason, too, seemed to relax and began humming “Home on the Range” as the mares found their footing, their shoes solid-plated for protection against the rubbled rock. The heat that in a car felt like an affliction came tempered by a constant breeze. I lifted my camera and saw what Carlo must, the boundaries of the world falling away. A small jerboa hopped in front of us, and I caught it in midleap, a mouse except for the cartoonishly long ears, legs, and tail. Each time I shuttered, Badra’s ears clicked back then forward, but she never hesitated, steady in her march.

  We rode until the sun scorched our shoulders. By the time Abdullah directed us to a narrow island of tamarisk, my rump was aching. We wove our way through the trees on a barren path that led to an open flat mounded like the mouth of a volcano—an ancient well ringed by centuries of stone and camel dung.

  “Sure this well is yours?” Mason asked. “I don’t want anyone taking shots at us.”

  Abdullah responded to Mason’s ribbing with a sideways grin. “It has belonged to my tribe for as long as man has thirsted.”

  “Adam’s ale,” Mason said. “I could use some of that.”

  Abdullah dismounted, and I looked around for a place to tie Badra.

  “Bring her here,” Abdullah said. “We will have our water.” He uncovered a large skin bucket and rope, looped the end around Badra’s neck, and dropped it down the black shaft. He urged the horse forward until the bucket reappeared, then motioned us to drink.

  Mason spat and wiped his mouth. “Too briny for me,” he said, then moved away. I could tell by his bowlegged stance that he was galled and would be raw by the time we got home.

  I cupped my hands, dipped them into the water. “It tastes like the sea,” I said, and Abdullah smiled his approval.

  I stowed my camera and laid out our lunch while the men reclined in the thin shade, the ground-tied horses dozing close by. I tore the chapati and offered the dal, which Abdullah accepted graciously. I finished a sweet slice of melon, wiped my hands down my jeans, and surveyed the hazy horizon. “I could live like this,” I said.

  “Bet you’d miss running water,” Mason said, “miss our nice soft bed.”

  Abdullah looked up quickly, as though the mention of the bed were a naughty detail.

  “I survived without them before,” I said.

  Mason stripped a straw of dry grass and worried it through his teeth, raised an eyebrow Abdullah’s way. “Women never appreciate what you do for them.”

  “That’s not what I mean,” I said, then caught myself. I didn’t want to have some silly spat in front of Abdullah, who had taken the makings for coffee from his pouch, gathered brush and dung, and fanned a fire to life. When I raised my camera and asked permission, he lifted his face, and I took a few photos, then simply studied him through the lens because I could, as though I weren’t really looking even as he gazed back at me, his eyes unwavering, and I felt my heart pick up speed. When Mason cleared his throat, I didn’t look around but stowed the camera, then moved to kneel beside Abdullah.

  “Teach me how to do that, will you?” I asked.

  I stayed close as he showed me how to roast and grind the fistful of beans, their fragrance like the taste of green cherries, then filled a small brass urn with water and set the coffee to boil, pinched a bit of cardamom. His bag was like a magician’s hat, from which he pulled three cups.

  “It is tradition,” he said, “for the host to take the first swallow so that the guest”—he nodded at Mason—“won’t fear poison.” He sipped, waited a moment, then rolled his eyes and keeled over sideways.

  I rocked back on my heels and laughed, then looked to Mason, who was watching us, his mouth a thin line.

  Abdullah recovered and filled the other two cups. I sipped at mine, swabbing the bitter taste away with a bite of chapati. Mason knocked his back like it was a shot of whiskey, then rose. “Gotta see a man about a horse,” he said. Abdullah peered at him quizzically until Mason stepped behind a clump of bushes.

  “How is your mother?” Now that Mason wasn’t there, I could ask. “Nadia and your niece?”

  Abdullah moved his eyes to the coffee, poured us each another cup. “It is difficult to speak of our troubles,” he said.

  I canted my head. “I’ve had some of my own.”

  He nodded, grew pensive. “My sister is the youngest of four wives,” he said. “Her husband is a member of the Alireza family.”

  “The merchant,” I said.

  Abdullah worked his jaw, studied his cup. “He is my mother’s uncle’s cousin. Had my father known that such bitter fruit could grow from the same tree that had sweetened my mother, he would never have allowed the marriage. My sister has divorced him, but he refuses and is demanding her return. She won’t go.”

  “She shouldn’t have to if he is mean to her,” I said, remembering the story of my grandmother, her sock of pennies.

  “If she does not return,” Abdullah said, “Alireza will come for the child.”

  My heart hit the cage of my chest, just the way it had when my grandfather had first come for me.

  “He can’t do that,” I said.

  Abdullah looked at me. “According to our law and custom, the child belongs to the father.”

  I heard Mason come up behind us, saw Abdullah draw back and grow silent. I leaned in. “Bring Nadia and the baby to the compound,” I whispered. “They can stay with us.” I wanted to say more, but I stood, dusted my hands, and looked beyond the trees. “Is it okay if I ride Badra?” I asked. “Just around the edge?”

  Abdullah glanced at Mason before nodding his head. “Be watchful of snakes,” he cautioned.

  I raised my shoulders. “Can’t be any worse than copperheads,” I said.

  “Just stay close,” Mason said, his voice low, “real close.”

  I clucked as I approached Badra and held out the melon rind. She moved fluid as mercury, lipping the fruit from my fingers, the other mares gathering close, snuffling. When I swung up and onto her withers and directed her out of the trees, she pranced and shimmied, kicking up sand.

  “I know, girl,” I said. I held her to a walk, thinking about Nadia. I had no idea what Arab law had to say about women divorcing their husbands, what rights Nadia might have, if any. I wanted to believe that Abdullah would take care of his sister, and I imagined him on his horse, sword drawn, ready to defend Nadia against the awful Alireza.

  Badra threw her head, and I patted her shoulder to calm her, then checked to see that we were out of sight before gathering two handfuls of her mane. I lay low on her neck like I had seen the jockeys do and squeezed my knees tight around her barrel, felt the engine of her haunches bunch and release, the first rough leap forward, and then her body planing out like we were skimming the sea.

  I squinted against the onrush of air, the wind pulling loose my scarf before I could catch it. Badra lengthened her stride as I whooped my joy into her ear. I’d set my sights on a distant acacia, alone in its stand against the sky—just far enough, the men would never know—but we reached the tree faster than I
could have imagined. I sat back, tucked my bottom, gave the rope a gentle pull. “Whoa,” I said, then again, “Badra, whoa!”

  But Badra didn’t whoa. We ramped right past the acacia, and now I was tugging hard. No real saddle, no bit to clamp down, and as I hauled back on the rope, I felt my balance tip, my center give way, and I rolled off in a backward somersault. I landed on my back, knocked the wind right out of myself, and sprawled flat. I lay still, sucking air, inventorying injury, then pushed myself to a sit and watched Badra disappear behind a low dune.

  I brought up my knees, rested my elbows, dropped my head. It had been years since I’d been thrown from a horse, and that had been Sonny, who once startled sideways as I walked him up the county road, then broke into a bucking run that left me hanging by one boot until my foot pulled free. I’d hit hard, but I was just a girl, and I jumped up before I knew I might be hurt. It took me a minute to discover what had spooked Sonny: in the barrow pit, a broken-backed mutt, spun aside by a passing car, lay panting, its teeth drawn back in a rictus grin. I had caught Sonny and gone for my grandfather, thinking he might save the dog. A mercy, he had said as he raised the shovel. It was the sound of the bit through bone that never left me.

  I emptied the sand from my boots, then rocked back, peered skyward, took a deep breath. I stood with a groan, began slogging back to where a pale twist of smoke wreathed the treetops. Some part of me wanted to follow Badra, take my chances in the Empty Quarter with the hyenas and snakes rather than face Mason’s anger, present Abdullah with the news that I had lost his beloved mare. By the time I reached the well, my neck and chest were damp with sweat, my shirt wicking my skin. Whatever wind had caught my scarf had carried it far away, and my hair had whipped and knotted. The two remaining horses whinnied at my scent, and the men looked up from their coffee. Mason stood, his eyes wide, and took me by the elbows.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “Just bruised, is all.” I turned to Abdullah. “She bolted,” I said.

  The concern on Abdullah’s face eased into amusement. “Badra does not bolt,” he said, and leaned back on one elbow, “but you owe me no apology. It is the emir’s prize mare you have lost.”

  Mason let out a hard breath. “Great, Gin. That’s just great.”

  “I’ll take one of the other horses,” I said, “go look for her.”

  “The hell you will.” Mason planted his hands on his hips and looked at Abdullah. “What should we do?”

  Abdullah lifted his cup. “We should drink our coffee,” he said. “Badra will come back to water. It is only a matter of time.” He nodded in the direction from which we had come. “I will lead you to Abqaiq and return for her. It is nothing.”

  Mason sniffed and spat. “We’d better get going then.”

  “Haste comes from the devil,” Abdullah said. “We will finish our coffee.” He shifted his gaze away from Mason’s quick look and began to chat pleasantly, naming the various landforms, telling us which tribe lived where, the invisible routes his people had traveled for centuries. I sat down a ways from Mason and watched Abdullah trace the flight of a kestrel with his hand, the small raptor flushing a tight flock of turtledoves that spilled away from us, wings clapping. He recalled for us the names of famous falcons he had witnessed at the hunt, how the sheikhs who owned them prized the birds above all else. I wanted to raise my camera, capture him resting so easy, his fingers inscribing the air, but I didn’t dare, not because of him but because of Mason, who sat with his back stiff, dark-browed and sullen.

  “It’s so beautiful,” I said. “You must love it here.”

  Abdullah offered a patient smile. “No Arab loves the desert,” he said. “We love water and green trees. There is nothing in the desert, and what man needs nothing?” He looked at Mason, then focused on the dying fire. “Now we see how wrong we were.”

  “No wrong that can’t be made right,” Mason said. He straightened, and I sensed some shift, his face animate again. “You know as well as I do that the company has you over a barrel, and they’ll keep you there until you stand up, say you won’t take it anymore.” He took up a stick, poked at the embers. “You’re the owners of this plantation. One of these days, you’re going to wake up and realize that.”

  Abdullah’s gaze sharpened at the tone in Mason’s voice. “We are not sleeping,” he said, then glanced my way before dipping his head, measuring his words. “When I returned to Arabia with my education,” he said, “I went into the field and offered my opinions. Mr. Fullerton acted as though what I said mattered, and he took note, but when I began to ask questions about certain operational inconsistencies and reporting, he refused to answer. Within a week, I was no longer an engineer but a driver for the Americans. He claimed that my translation skills were too valuable to waste.” He picked up a small rock, weighed its heft. “Whether they are Saudi or American doesn’t matter. The princes fatten at the banquet while we beg scraps at their feet.”

  “Amen,” Mason said. He flipped his cigarette to the fire and peered at Abdullah. “The way I see it, nationalization is the only way you’re ever going to get a fair shake. Once you get your own people trained and educated, Americans will be as useless as the Italians, expedient labor you can ship back out.” He squinted one eye. “Just don’t say you heard it from me.” When Abdullah didn’t respond, Mason sat back. “You’re right,” he said. “We can talk more about this later. We just need to enjoy our coffee.” He held out his cup. “You know why Arabian horses hold their tails up so high?” When Abdullah hesitated, Mason quirked his mouth. “So the wind can blow in their ears and out their asses.”

  Abdullah stared at him for a moment, then broke into an appreciative laugh. I felt the mood lift and was grateful, but then Abdullah shifted and looked at Mason, new seriousness in his eyes.

  “The explosion at the stabilization plant,” he said. “Two of the men who died were my cousins.”

  Mason rested his arms on his knees and nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  Abdullah glanced at me as though he wasn’t sure he should continue in my presence. When I dropped my gaze, straightened the hem of my shirt, he continued. “The pipes ruptured because they were not sound,” he said.

  Mason nodded. “The company should never have allowed that to happen.”

  “Why,” Abdullah asked, “was it allowed to happen?”

  “The pipes, you mean.” Mason pushed out a breath through his nose, raised one shoulder. “Laziness, procrastination. Failure to oversee operations.”

  Abdullah studied him for a long moment, and I could see that he was gauging Mason’s sincerity. “No man can serve two masters,” he said, and Mason brought up his eyes.

  “Who do you mean?” he asked.

  “You are senior staff,” Abdullah said, “a company man, yet you claim allegiance to the Arab workers’ cause.”

  Mason flipped his cigarette to the fire. “We both know that if you shut down the pipes, you shut down the money. I’m not saying it’s an excuse.”

  “No,” Abdullah said, “there is no excuse for causing an innocent man’s death.”

  Mason looked up, squinting against the light. “Causing?”

  “What do you call it when repairs are ordered and paid for but never made?” Abdullah asked. “What do you call it when deception puts money in the pockets of the rich and results in the death of the poor?”

  Mason held his gaze. “I call it business as usual,” he said.

  “Not here,” Abdullah said. “Not until the oil came.” He looked away, then back at Mason. “My cousins died because of greed. I want to know whose purse their blood has filled.”

  “You think someone was skimming?” Mason asked.

  “I don’t think,” Abdullah said. “I know. It is why I am a driver instead of an engineer.”

  Mason hesitated, then lit another cigarette, let out a slow breath. “It would have to be someone in Maintenance,” he said. “Supply.”

  “Buck Bode
en,” I said, and both men looked at me as though they had forgotten I was there. “He was the department head in Abqaiq. Maybe he got caught,” I said. “Maybe that’s why he and Betsy had to leave.”

  Mason stared at me for a moment, then gave a slow nod and dropped his eyes to the fire. “Just not soon enough,” he said. He turned to Abdullah. “Who would have taken those orders?”

  Abdullah looked at me, his face drawn. “My cousin and brother by marriage,” he said.

  Mason tipped his cup. “Alireza,” he said, and Abdullah nodded.

  “He is a dangerous and brutal man,” Abdullah said. “He is no favorite of the emir.”

  We all sat in silence a long moment. When both men again turned their eyes my way, I knew what they were thinking—that they had made a mistake by speaking of such things in front of a woman.

  “I won’t tell,” I said, “not even Ruthie,” but my grudge against Alireza was growing by the minute.

  Abdullah dipped his head once, then moved to snuff the fire and scour the cups with sand before packing them carefully with the last of the food. Mason climbed on the little black mare, grimacing as he settled his sore seat, then reached down and pulled me up behind him. When Abdullah mounted the bay and led us out of the trees, I took a final look back, hoping I might catch some glimpse of Badra hightailing it toward us, unwilling to be left behind, but all I saw was the tamarisk stand and the acacia tree that had been my goal. By the time we filed back into Abqaiq, the sun had drifted toward the horizon, and I knew that Yash was already gone and that Abdullah would be searching for Badra by moonlight.

  I peered up at the sky, knew just where the guiding stars would be. I could go with you, I wanted to say. I could help you find her, but I knew I would never be allowed. Mason’s mood had grown more sullen, and I knew he was angry—at Buck Bodeen and Alireza, at the company, at me.