Welcome to Dubai (The Traveler) (35 page)

“I love you, cousin. But you may need to allow me to become a real woman soon. Otherwise, some people may start to think of incest.”

“Arrgghh,” Basim responded and cringed. “What are you
talking
about? That is so
blasphemous.
Don’t you ever say that to me. I love you as a cousin only.”

Ramia continued to smile, knowing that she had shifted his mind away from the American on purpose. Basin was so defensive and embarrass-prone that she knew her slight could stick with him for a full day.

*****

Gary allowed his friend Johnny to visit him for breakfast. They sat at a round and artistic table with tall designer chairs. And as usual, Johnny was bouncing off the walls with energy.

“Gary, this
unbelievable!
I couldn’t even sleep in my room last night. I just kept rolling over and looking at everything and sitting on the sofas and looking out at the view at the window and touching everything and using the bathroom and the whirlpool. I swear to you, my fingerprints are on
everything
in the room. They could lock me in prison for reckless touching.”

Gary smiled and shook his head. Johnny was indeed inspired by the wonders of the world. “I’m glad you had this opportunity.”

“Man, I’m so glad I ever
met
you. I swear to you, this has been the
craziest
three days of my
life.
And my body is still
aching
me from walking up and down so many stairs yesterday, but I can’t even feel it, I’m so excited.”

“Yeah, Ramia gave you a real workout yesterday, right?” Gary hinted.

That changed the whole conversation for Johnny. His eyes grew wide as he responded wildly, “Man, she’s like a
dream!
She’s so
beautiful!
Where did you ever find her?”

“Out on the desert sand tour.”

“
Yes
, and she even
looks
like the sand. Those eyes and the skin and the hair—it’s like someone just
molded
her out of the desert, I
swear
to you. She’s like an
oasis,
a
mirage.
And she’s so
serious!
I can’t
believe
I followed her into a building of terrorists!”

“And now you end up being much richer for it.”

“Man, it’s like,
unbelievable!
And you are so
lucky
to have her.”

Gary shook it off and said, “No, it actually looks like she has chemistry with you now.”

“No
way!
Are you
serious?
She thinks I’m a joke. I had no idea what to even say to her.”

“Nah, you make her laugh. That’s good. Women love to laugh.”

“Yeah, but the ones I laugh with too much, they don’t take you seriously.”

“Dude, you just helped her to save a couple of hundred lives and will be honored with a Bravery Medal from the President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. Are you kidding me? Who’s gonna have more juice than
that?”

Johnny beamed at the compliment. “Yeah, you’re right. But I’m no fool. She only has eyes for you.”

“That was only temporary,” Gary told him. “It was the heat of the moment. But I’m headed back home now to my own life. Whereas for you, you have a chance to take her to London and France and India now. She’ll like that, and she’ll trust you.”

Johnny cringed and said, “Yeah, but her cousin, man, he’s like
waaay
Muslim. I can’t wait around five years for her. You know what I mean? I’m around far too many spontaneous women for that.”

Gary chuckled. “Trust me, she’s not gonna let her cousin in the way of what she wants to do. Remember, she just forced you to walk into a building full of terrorists, right?”

Johnny thought about that and said, “Yeah, she did.”

Gary nodded. “So go for it. I think you two would be good for each other. And I know she won’t stand for your nonsense.”

Johnny laughed. “I’ll think about it. But I don’t know if I want a woman who can put me on timeout with the kids.”

They laughed and waited for their big breakfast to arrive inside of the immaculate hotel.

*****

By early afternoon, Gary received word at his hotel room that a traveling guest from the United States was there to see him in the lobby. Gary knew exactly who it was.

He got dressed and rode the elevator to the lobby to find Jonah waiting for him there in all black, including a pair of expensive designer shades.

“I see you got yourself into a ball of trouble again.”

Gary opened his sore arms as a gesture to their surroundings. “And look where it got me,” he quipped.

“Yeah, and it almost got you
killed
too. So when are you ready to go home?” she asked.

Gary looked down at his bandaged arms and hands. “I think I need to heal first. The pressure on the plane for a dozen hours would kill me.”

Jonah shook her head. “Not on your way back. In the private jet you get to stretch out a bit. And the travel time is faster.”

Gary thought about it with no comment. He couldn’t believe his own life. Maybe he was a secret agent and didn’t know it yet.

“I’ll book my own room and be ready when you’re ready,” Jonah said.

“You’re getting a room here?”

Jonah looked around and shook her head. “I don’t want to get too spoiled over here. It makes you lose your edge. But we’ll talk about that on the plane ride back.” She dug into her small black carry bag. “By the way, here’s a new phone.”

She tossed it to him while Gary smiled.

“I guess I’ll need to get used to this thing.”

Jonah nodded and said, “Yeah. You do.”

Chapter 35

Three days later, Gary stretched out next to Jonah on a private Gulfstream jet heading back to the Washington and Virginia area.

Jonah exhaled and took a sip of her orange juice before she asked him any questions.

“So, did you learn anything outside of how easy it is to die in the wrong place at the wrong time?” She didn’t seem too concerned. Maybe she understood that he was well prepared to handle himself.

“I learned that the Middle East is very complicated.”

Jonah chuckled. “I could have told you that without the trip. But you strike me as the kind of man who’s determined to learn on his own.”

Gary agreed without stating so. What was the use in living vicariously? “So, when is the big meeting with my father?”

“Next week. He’s out of the country now himself.”

Gary shook his head and grinned. “How convenient.”

Jonah reached over and touched his arm before reclining her chair. “Don’t worry. It’ll happen sooner or later. In the meantime, I have some other people who would like to meet with you. And your father said it was okay.”

Gary leaned his own chair back and asked, “What about?”

“We’ll talk about it later. I need to sleep now.”

“You didn’t get enough sleep at your hotel room?”

Jonah leaned in his direction to look into his eyes. “After what you just went through, no.”

Gary smirked. “I thought you weren’t afraid of anything.”

“I’m really not,” Jonah told him. “But that doesn’t mean I can sleep through it.”

“I guess Dubai will have to deal with that stigma now for a while.”

Jonah disagreed. “Nope. They’ll drop the prices and the tourists will be back next month for their national holiday celebrations.”

*****

Two days after he was back in the States, Gary had lunch with his girlfriend at Po’boys restaurant in Washington’s refurbished U Street area. But he was totally out of the conversation. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion now at home. He felt like a swimmer treading water in an Olympic-sized pool and going nowhere.

“What did you just say?” he asked Karla, breaking himself from his daydream.

His girlfriend’s style of hair and dress seemed extra conservative to him that day.

“I said, what are your plans for this weekend?”

On a whim, Gary thought of returning home for a while and showing it all to Karla, the place where he grew up. So he shrugged and said, “I don’t know. You wanna go to Louisville with me this weekend? I still own a record shop there that throws parties every once in a while.”

Karla looked stunned. “You own a record store? You never told me that. And I can’t just fly out of town over the weekend. I wouldn’t be able to leave until late Friday night, and I would have all kinds of packing and things to do.”

Gary shrugged. “Well, do it then.”

Karla looked at him and took a bite of her sandwich out of nervousness. She didn’t like his tone. “Are you okay?” she grumbled through her food.

Karla knew far too many military men who were verbally and physically abusive, but Gary didn’t realize his tone. He was simply bored with being back in Washington.

Feeling the obvious tension at their table, Gary brightened when his phone rang and he saw the caller ID number. It was Johnny. Gary excused himself. Karla was miffed, but Gary was already out the door before she could say anything.

As soon as he answered the call, Johnny’s excitement rushed over the line.

“Hey, Gary, guess what, man? Ramia said yes. She wants to go with me back to London. But her cousin wants to come too. I don’t
believe
this! How do I dump him? I don’t want him around. All of my Muslim friends in London are
ten times
cooler than him.”

Gary laughed out loud. “Maybe that’ll be good for him. You can introduce him to a less-conservative Muslim in London to bring him out of his shell.”

“Let me tell you, the Muslims I will introduce him to in London will do much more than just bring him out of his shell—they will give that poor boy a heart attack. I’m actually scared for his health over there.”

Gary laughed good and strong again, and it raised his sullen spirit … some. He felt as if he was having an international withdrawal. He couldn’t take not thinking about going overseas again.

Then Johnny asked him, “So, where are you off to next, traveler?”

On a whim, Gary answered, “Shanghai. How about that one?”

“Whoa,
you’ll get in a whole lot of
new
kind of trouble over there. So you’ll need to take me to drive you,” Johnny offered. “I won’t know where the hell I’ll be going when we get there, but I can find out. You just tell me when you want to go.”

Gary listened to Johnny’s reckless energy while looking through the window of Po’boys. He was right there on the corner of 14
^th
Street.

Oh my God,
he told himself as he watched Karla.
I can’t do this to her—just leave again, alone. I’ll just have to tell her to move on.
He looked back at Karla and felt sorry for her. Like Ramia Farah Aziz from Jordan, he could no longer accept the restrictions.

He decided to be who he was … a traveler.