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The matter of food
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Of course it was in the old man’s interest to say that he was not getting enough food, whether or not he was. That way his “extras” might be increased. The Young Man could afford to be perfectly sincere in his questions, because he had nothing at stake. But can those with nothing at stake ever feel the truth? In the years since I talked with this old man I have talked with many panhandlers and beggars. They always say the same. — Does it mean that you should only listen to what you are not asking them to say?
What the Young Man should have done was to move into Kachagari Camp. Then he would have KNOWN. — But no, he could never have become enough of a part of life there to know. And he would have been a burden. And Abdullah would have caught him. — The truth was that the heat, his illness, and worse yet his purpose, which required so straight and perfect a track to travel in that everything derailed it, had exhausted the assertion in him. He could do nothing new anymore. Through a sad irony he was becoming more and more like his own picture of these people whom he thought to save. It was he who was lost, questioning, thirsty, and ever so far from his own land…
STATEMENT OF THE OLD MAN (continued)
“What do you do every day? ” asked the Young Man. “How do you spend your time? ”
It took a moment for the old man to understand this question.
— What did he do? What did this American think he did? — “We don’t have any, no job to do! Just sitting and reading and losing the time.”
“What would you like to do with your time? ”
“I am Mechaniker, you know. All the time weld. If this job here possible, I will do it. I can do everything. I am ready to do it.”
“Do you have a family? ”
“Fourteen, sir.”
“Many children? ”
“Ten.”
“And are the children getting any education? ”
“There is classes, only for the children, in religion.”
The Young Man hesitated. “Are you, uh, happy in the camps? ”
Both B. and the old man laughed gently. “We have to be here.”
“How would you like the Americans to help you? What things do you need? ”
The old man answered at once. “What we need, they don’t give it to us! We don’t need to eat; we don’t need money; we need only guns and like this to fight with the Russians, you know! ”
THE MATTER OF GUNS [1]
It seemed so simple. It was so simple.
THE MATTER OF GUNS [2]
“From Pakistan they don’t give everything to us, ” B. had said in the hotel room while they waited for the taxi. “I know about guns. We have machine gun, and when the machine gun came here, they took the machine gun away and give us only old guns, you know, from 1861, 1875, like this. This is too bad, too sad for us.”
The door creaked. B. stopped abruptly. “But we have good relationship with the Pakistan! ” he cried. “They are helping us; they are keeping us here; we are very happy happy with the Pakistan! ” (The door handle turned slowly.) “This is very hard for the Pakistan, to keep us here, ” said B. “And the people who are selling the supplies, that is not important — every country has good people and bad people! ”
Another Mujahid came in. Sweat was running down B.’s face.
Dr. Najibula had warned the Young Man that B. was considered an unreliable commander.