The Intern Affair (25 page)

Ghali
lifted his eyes from the floor and quietly said, “Thank you, Captain.
If my father had been alive, I believe he would have spo
ken
to me in the same way as you did just now.
The question is, however, what are we doing?
What can you and I do to locate Talya and bring her back?”

“
Ghali
, have my words been for nothing?”
The question
resonated in
Ghali
’s ears. “Don’t you see what you’re asking is once more based on your selfish desire of having her beside you?
You’ve got to think before you speak.”

“Are you suggesting that we should let her wander? She may still want to commit suicide.”

“Not today,” Samir cut in with harshness. “Yesterday, I may have agreed with you, but today—no. She wanted to be left alone, and that’s what we’ll do.
We’ll leave her be.
But we can do something to locate her so to reassure ourselves that she’s safe.”

“And how do you propose to do that?”

“To answer that question, I will need to ask
a few others.
First, and since you have spent some time with her in this city, I would like to know where she likes to go.”

“That’s easy enough. Talya always needs to be close to the ocean.
Somehow, and every time I propose to travel inland, she accepts graciously, but as soon as she feels the need, she wants to come back to the seashore.”

“That’s a start, but can you be a bit more precise than that?”

“Sure. There is
Sunset
Beach
for one thing. She loves the cliffs and the secluded coves, but that’s about an hour’s drive from here. Taxis don’t go to the beach anyway. They stop at the marina a couple of miles south—”

“I don’t think she would go to a place where she can’t have access to a telephone.
As I said, she will want to call us during the day.
So, let’s look at another possibility, if you know of any other.”
Samir wished for a better knowledge of the city at that moment.

“Well, closer to the city, there is Prospect Point in
Stanley
Park
, again there are cliffs overhanging the
Fraser
River
. Come to think of it, she goes there often of a morning. She says that she likes to go down to one of the platforms and just sit on the ground to meditate.
I found her there a couple of times last fall.
But she had told me where to meet her and we went to have breakfast afterward.”

“Can we go there now?”
 

“Sure, we can drive to the Point and walk down to the platform.”

“Let’s go!” Samir was up and already at the door, leaving no time for
Ghali
to react.

As they went down the elevator,
Ghali
remarked on Samir’s uniform. “May I ask why you’re wearing your uniform, Captain?
Did you intent to do some flying today?”

“No, my intentions were quite different to that of flying today, believe me. But when you called me, I knew Talya was gone.”

“How did you know that? You didn’t even ask what my call was about.”
Ghali
was amazed at Samir’s perspicacity once again.

“Simple. If you had found her, presumably in bed, you wouldn’t have called me.
You would have had no restraint and you would have made love to her.”

“I wouldn’t—”
Ghali
tried to cut in rebelliously. Inwardly however, he knew that the observation had been correct. He would have made love to Talya.

“Let’s get one thing clear shall we? And that before we go any further.” They had reached
Ghali
’s car in the parking lot. “You’ve compared me to your father a few minutes ago, and I am very honoured by your consideration, but don’t expect me to be obliging because of it.
Right now, I don’t care about your feelings one iota. And I will not suppress one word from reaching your ears if I think it should help us find Talya.”

“And how is flaunting my desire for Talya helping us find her?”
Ghali
was a little more than upset now; in fact, he was on the verge of punching Samir’s face.

“…because, by showing your true colours and exposing your weaknesses, I am hoping to get some reaction from you. You are too complacent, and nothing about Talya, even remotely, equates complacency. I know you want to punch me right now for my honesty. In fact I was hoping you would, so that you would demonstrate to me that you’ve got something else than milk and honey flowing through your veins.” Samir sounded calm but he was seething. He wanted this boy to stop his whining and focus on finding Talya.

“Let’s get going,”
Ghali
suggested as he opened the car doors. Once he had switched on the ignition, he turned to his companion to say, “You know, Captain; I’ve missed the berating and the scolding for so long now, that I have become complacent, as you’ve said. I am very comfortable in my own skin, so to speak. Perhaps I should back off from a relationship with Talya, because I would never understand her, neither could I guess or feel her reaction the way you do. You seem to know so much about her, and yet all of your knowledge is based just on a couple or three weeks with her.”

“Hold on a minute,
Ghali
.
If I am so hard on you right now and so angry with you it is only because you haven’t learned to open your eyes and ears. And that’s because you’ve never had the benefit of your father’s guidance. You have only benefited from your mother’s teaching and the hardship of working to pay for your schooling.”

Ghali
had to stop at a red light at that moment, which gave him the opportunity to look at Samir. “How did you know all that?
We’ve only met yesterday.”

“The fact that I know some of your experience is not important. What is important, however, is that you remain the same person you are today.”

“But you’ve just said that you wish to see something other than milk and honey flowing through my veins, and now you say you want me to remain the way I am?”

“Yes, that’s what I am suggesting. On the one hand, fire is a necessary evil.
It will rid a town of pestilence or engender re-growth in the fields, but fire is not wanted in one’s behaviour every day of one’s life.
It is only necessary to have anger and aggression flowing through your veins, if, and when it is needed.
On the other hand, your
comfortable
behaviour should be long lasting and offered to Talya along with your love when the time comes for you to do so.”

“I wish I could spend hours with you.
You fascinate me.”

“Just keep on driving, will you, and I’m sure we will have an opportunity later to talk.”

When they arrived at the Point,
Ghali
tumbled down the winding stairs to reach the platform. Samir followed at a more sedate pace. He was looking round at the scenery. It was grandiose.
The width of the inlet stretched across from the park to the flank of the mountains on the opposite side.
The cliffs at Samir’s feet were sharp and abruptly plunging into the river.
When he arrived at the platform, Samir stopped in awe.
He was humbled by the majestic splendour of the mountains towering over the calm waters flowing down to the ocean.
Yet, he wasn’t there to play tourist.
Somehow, he felt Talya had been there but she had left for some other place.
He couldn’t explain what or how he felt to
Ghali
. He wouldn’t have understood. He gripped the railing and took a deep breath to quiet the pain. He wanted to yell at the top of his lungs, call her name and let her know that he couldn’t bear the thought of anyone approaching her.

Ghali
noticed that Samir was visibly hurting and that he was affording immense self-control at that moment.
He didn’t speak; he knew that if he did, the Touareg was liable to do him injury.

They both knew Talya had been to that platform, but they knew she had gone.

Samir turned to face
Ghali
. “Tell me where would she go for the wee
kend
?”

The latter had rested his elbows on the railing, not wanting to look up to meet Samir’s gaze. “How would she go off for a wee
ken
d anywhere without her clothes or her toothbrush even?”

“Please, just answer my question.”

“There is
Victoria
. She likes to travel across to
Vancouver Island
on the ferry.
We went there last wee
ken
d.
It appeared to have a calming effect on her.
Except for a couple of times when she had some sort of flashbacks. She almost screamed on one occasion.”

“That’s it!”
Samir was angry.
He knew where Talya was and he knew what she intended to do, and if she succeeded in her plans, she could die.
“Don’t even open your mouth, I beg of you. Just drive me to the nearest seaplane port.”

Ghali
was astounded. He was beyond asking questions. He didn’t want to intervene anymore.
He just wanted to follow the man who became a wonder to him in such a short time. They retraced their steps back to the parking lot and drove to
Coal
Harbour
.

Samir knew he couldn’t hope to hire an aircraft and take the controls,
nor did he contemplate doing so
. Flying around mountains, fjords and islands across a strait was quite different to crossing the desert. He knew also that he had never learned to handle seaplanes.
Setting down such an aircraft on water must be quite difficult
.

They arrived at their destination within minutes.
Samir was alert and looking at the aircrafts lined up against the pier.

“I am going to ask you once again,
Ghali
, to stay absolutely quiet until we’re up in the air.
Then I will ask you questions pertaining to your last visit
to
Victoria
.”

“No problem. In the past two hours, you’ve told me more about me than I would ever want to admit to anyone. I don’t wonder why Talya admires you so much.”

While Samir was completing the formalities to charter an aircraft,
Ghali
decided to call
Charles
.

“
Charles
?
Ghali
here, I don’t have much time to talk.”

“Oh hello. Has Talya come back?”

“No she hasn’t. Samir seems to think she’s gone to
Victoria
.
We’re chartering an aircraft and we’ll be on our way in a few minutes.”

“Why does he think she’s gone to
Victoria
?”

“That’s a long story, but I tell you; I’ve never met somebody like him. He’s so intuitive, that I am even afraid to open my mouth now. He’s extraordinary.”

“I told you. He is an amazing man, and mark my word; he’s extremely clever and powerful.
Don’t even attempt to cross him or he’ll have your hide.”

“You should have heard him this morning. He reminded me a little of my dad.”

“Oh I see, and did he give you a hiding?”

“Did he ever, I felt like a ten-year-old.”

“And don’t be fooled, he hasn’t got a malicious bone in his body.
He would never hurt anyone unjustly. But if you’ve done something wrong, he won’t waste any time telling you.”

“I know. Believe me, this morning was an experience I’ll never forget. I’d better be going.
We’re taking off in a few minutes. Any news from the hospital?”

“Not yet
,
but phone me again when you get back.
I hope you’ll find our wandering lady. Call me will you?”

“No problem. The minute we locate her, I’ll
ring
you.”

They were in the air a little before ten o’clock.
Samir had asked the pilot to sit with him only on landing. He wanted to have the experience, the feel of the
buoyant skates
beneath the aircraft touching water, and to see how the pilot was manoeuvring the plane into position before it would hit the surface. For now, however, he sat beside
Ghali
and said, “Now,
Ghali
, I’ll ask you three questions about your wee
ken
d in
Victoria
.
And please give me extremely precise answers, especially when you come to describe Talya’s reactions.”

“All right, I’m ready.”

“The first question is where did you stay and how did you happen to choose the hotel where you stayed?”