“Yet not take me back to my camp?”
“Listen,” I hissed impatiently. “I am the only one who knows you are in the hill, so if I can’t
help you, no one else would, and you will die a slow and painful death.”
“Fine.”
It was my turn to be bewildered. “What?”
“Either way, I won’t be able to leave, and I’d rather be dead than trapped and useless.”
With that, I left the cave. “You were a waste of time, you know.”
He grinned, the smile of a sly, conniving fox.
I set foot once again on the pebbles and the sand dunes, where dark shadows lurked. The
wind was low, howling like an injured soul, and the empty yellowness in front of me seemed
stern and unwelcoming. The man refused to accept my help, I thought, so his condition was none
of my business.
Still, the sand rustled, taunting me, and the shadows were slashes on the sand. I braved
myself, marching forward. Right, left, right, left, before turning on my heel.
I ran back to the oasis.
Lau was on duty that evening, smoking. He beamed wirily when he saw me. “Oi you,” he
laughed, “Where’ve you been?”
“Listen, Lau, for the next couple of days, could you sneak some food and a bottle of water for
me? I’ve got this, um, urgent, business thing, so…” I gesticulated.
He shook his head. “Look, I’ve been worried about you for the past few days, and now you
show up suddenly, demanding my help?”
“Please, Lau. I’ll explain later on.”
He sighed. “These are precious resources, I can’t let anyone…”
“Just a little. Please, just half a cup of water, or anything…”
He looked over his shoulder. “I’m risking suspension for this.”
“Thank you.”
The General was amazed when I appeared once again. “I thought you had left.”
“Well, now I’m back.” He smiled appreciatively. Yet when he slept, I retrieved a dagger from
my inner pocket, and tucked it underneath a boulder. Just in case.
Sometimes, I wonder why I had bothered. Was it because as a doctor, I had the responsibility
to help him? No, more than that. I guess I could say he was different. In my mind, he wasn’t like
those who cried in fury outside city walls, chanting, stabbing innocent children. With his injury,
the General was vulnerable and human, almost like any one of us. It seemed impossible that he
would attack us.
As the General’s condition improved, he became more and more talkative. “On the day my
daughter got married,” he explained. “The groom turned up, pale and transparent, to snatch her
away. We later learnt that he had died a week before the wedding.”
“You have a daughter?”
He reminisced solemnly, the corners of his lips wondering whether they should smile or frown.
“And a son. He’ll be twenty next month. Why,” he turned to me. “Why do young people like you,
well, run away? There’s nothing out there in the desert that you can’t have at home.”
“General, have you ever looked at the desert, and wondered about all the possibilities that lie
out there?”
He gazed at me, in a manner I would describe as pitying. “I used to be like you.”
