by Raina Ash
Allison let herself enjoy the comfort of his warm hands rubbing her back. It soothed her, and it had been a long time since anyone made her feel so safe. They lingered in an embrace for several moments before she came back to her senses and awkwardly broke the hug. She stepped back and turned her face away to hide how sloppy she looked. Her eyes felt puffy and mascara came off on her hand when she wiped her cheeks. “Why did you take the camel out for a walk?”
Paul crossed his arms. “I didn’t. I was packing the camel so we could leave as soon as you got up. I untied it for a second so I could move him closer to the heavier bags and he trotted away. Or walked, or whatever you call a camel’s gait. It walked over there a bit and looked at me, so I approached carefully. The stupid thing kept casually walking away every time I got close. I was scared it might run and I’d never catch it. So we played that game for quite a long time. It must have been more than an hour. He finally laid down, so I rushed to grab the rope and make my way back here. I left myself a trail by dragging one of the tent poles behind me and, thankfully, today isn’t windy.” He put his hands in his pockets. “In hindsight, it was not a smart thing to do. I could’ve gotten lost. I should have woken you. I got too distracted thinking about the camel and wasn’t thinking rationally.”
“Please communicate with me more, okay? We’ve been at odds, but if we’re going to get out of this mess, we need to be working together.”
Paul nodded. “I agree. I’m sorry.”
“Promise you won’t leave.”
“I promise I won’t leave. I’m not that kind of person.”
Allison sniffed and wiped at her face more, imagining she looked like some racoon-eyed ghost you see in horror movies like The Ring. She would have to give Paul the benefit of the doubt that he was telling the truth, as scary as that felt.
Paul searched around for his backpack and then pulled out a clean handkerchief. “Here,” he said. “Who were you getting glam for? Me or the camel?”
Allison smiled. “How old are you? Why do you have a handkerchief? That hasn’t been in style since, like, 1957.”
“Funny. And I’m only 38. Thirty-nine.” He paused. “Yeah, thirty-nine. I had a birthday last month.”
Allison wiped at her face to get the makeup off. “I lose track of my age, too. I always work on my birthday and no one at the office says anything. I told them not to and they’re very obedient. Or they don’t care.”
“I at least had cake for mine and let others sing to me.”
She sniffed. “I don’t like people singing to me. It’s too sappy.”
“You seem like the hopeless romantic type. You didn’t watch The Notebook ten times and cry?”
“No. Definitely not. I never saw that movie. I’d rather watch zombies eating teenagers who are making out.”
Paul laughed. He motioned to the white handkerchief now covered in black smudges. “So, who’d you glam up for? The camel?”
“If that will keep him from running away, I’ll go full makeup from now on.” She looked down. “I just, sometimes putting on makeup or dressing nice makes you feel better. I put on makeup to feel more normal and like everything will be okay.”
Paul nodded and fell silent. The camel grunted behind them.
“We should get going, right?” Allison said.
“Yeah.”
They ate a quick meal, drank the morning’s ration of water, packed up, and then headed out into the desert. Allison’s back wasn’t adjusting to the camel at all and she had a constant, dull ache in her hips and lower back. Her shoulders and neck also felt strained from sitting upright for hours at a time.
She rubbed her neck and tried to loosen the tense muscles. “I don’t suppose you’re giving out any free massages later?” she said to Paul. The second the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to suck them back in. It sounded flirtier than she intended.
Paul took several moments to think of an appropriate response while Allison scolded herself mentally. “I could,” is all he came up with.
The awkward silence between them and the sound of the camel’s feet slapping against the sand became unbearable.
Allison perked up. “Hey, do you like trivia? Because I do.”
“Can’t say I’ve ever played,” Paul said.
“I play every week with a team. It’s fun and we get free food and beer if we win. It also gets me out of the house.”
“Sounds productive.”
She patted his shoulders. “We could play a game. I’ll be your host and ask you questions. If you get more than half of the questions right, I’ll make dinner tonight.”
“My prize is watching you boil water and then pour that water into a pouch of dried food?”
“And I’ll start the fire.”
He laughed. “Sure.”
They rode the camel until well after midday while Allison asked him all the trivia questions she could remember. They had several discussions about history and science and other topics the questions brought up. When they stopped to stretch and eat lunch, Paul had correctly answered 38 out of 45 questions. He helped Allison off the camel.
“You’re so good at trivia,” Allison said. “If you were part of my team, we’d win first place every week. Where do you live?”
He opened one bag and pulled out some food for Alfred. “I live in Oregon, but sometimes rent apartments in New York.”
“I live in California. Next time you need to rent an apartment, come to L.A. and you can be a guest member of my team.”
Paul shrugged. “There are some startup companies in Cali I’ve been wanting to get in contact with.”
“Cool. See? That’s perfect.” Allison dug through some bags to find the remaining protein bars for them to eat. She started fantasizing about beating their rival team, Guys Who Know Shit, at next year’s trivia tournament. They had won three years in a row while Allison’s team only ever got third (once).
She smiled at herself and shook her head. Paul will never visit Cali and be on your dumb trivia team. But it’s fun to dream.
She handed him a bar, and he mumbled thanks. She spread a blanket on the ground and stretched out on her back. Her muscles ached and she let out a groan. Laying flat felt good, especially since the sand was a cushion. Paul sat near the camel, letting its body provide shade. After a while, he moved to sit next to her on the blanket.
“If you roll over,” he said, “I can massage your neck a little. I know mine is hurting.”
Her cheeks flushed. Why am I suddenly shy? she thought. There’s nothing wrong with a platonic massage.
“Okay, that’d be great,” she said. She flipped onto her stomach and Paul’s hands worked on her back and neck muscles. He made long, firm strokes up her spine and then pushed his thumbs into the knots that had formed along her shoulder blades. She let out a few grateful moans. “Oh my god, thank you. My back has been dying this whole time.”
He didn’t respond and continued to focus on the massage. At one point, his hand wandered a little too close to her ass, but she ignored it, too relaxed to care. He stopped and she sat up, stretching her neck from side to side.
“Thank you,” she said again. “My neck is so much looser. It seemed like you knew what you were doing.” She let out a nervous laugh. “I don’t mean that in a sexual way. It felt like a massage from a licensed practitioner.”
“I studied it for a semester on a whim.”
“There are so many surprising things I’m learning about you.” She bit her lower lip. “Can I return the favor?”
They were sitting close to each other, closer than two platonic people might sit. He shook his head and stood. “Nope. No, I’m good.”
She grabbed his pant leg. “Come on. You said your neck hurts and I can help with that.”
“Allison?” Paul said.
“Yeah?”
“The massage isn’t important right now. You said you wanted me to communicate more. I have something to tell you but remain calm so we can discuss our options, okay
?”
She stood, face already revealing the knot growing in her gut. “Okay. Tell me.”
He walked to the camel and sat down. “I don’t know where we are.”
“We’ve been following a straight path to where you said the village should be. The sun is on our opposite side.”
“Right. I felt so certain about the sun’s position, but right before we stopped I noticed those mountains in the distance,” he pointed. “I don’t remember seeing those before.”
Allison turned her head. He was right. She didn’t see those mountains before, either. And they appeared to be barren with no people or buildings or anything nearby. She closed her eyes and took a breath. She’d freaked out at every other moment during the trip, so it was time for something different. Stay calm and think over the situation. They still had food. They still had water. A day and a half of supplies left. They could ration even more if needed. The camel can go without water longer than they could, so they could use its water to prolong their supply.
She opened her eyes. “Okay, I’m staying calm,” she said. “Okay.” She moved the blanket so she could sit near Paul in the shade. “What are your thoughts?”
“I guess we could keep going towards the mountains and hope we find some Berber people or a village. We could turn around and backtrack. I think all we can do is pick a direction and hope it’s right.” Paul put his protein bar on his thigh, looking concerned.
Allison touched his shoulder. “I’ll be the rational one this time if you need to freak out for a few minutes.”
He smiled. “Thanks. I’m okay.”
“I never asked, and I feel dumb for not asking, but do you have someone waiting at home for you? Do you have kids? I should’ve asked before.”
“Oh, no. I don’t have kids,” he said. “My coworker is waiting for me, Debra, but not for any reasons beyond friendship and the fact that she needs my knowledge to run the business. She’s got her own family.” He stared at the mountains in the distance. “That would be one of my regrets if I died out here. I never formed any real romantic bonds with women. None that worked out.”
Allison grabbed his protein bar and opened the wrapper. She held it near his face. “You should eat to keep your energy up, even if you’re too worried right now.” She handed it to him and waited until he took a bite. “At least neither of us will die alone, right?”
He looked at her, brown eyes soft yet conflicted. “Right. That’s true.” His gaze fell to her lips and then he averted his gaze to the sand.
She stood and stretched her legs. “Okay, so what do we do?” She paced back and forth, channeling the boss lady persona she maintained at work. You can do this, she thought. You handle shitty circumstances at work all the time. Control the situation. She smiled. She could hear Summer’s voice in her head chastising her and saying, “That’s what you always try to do, Ally Cat. Stop controlling things. Go with the flow and life will be so amazing for you.”
But how could she “go with the flow” in a situation like this? She shoved her wrapper in the bag they kept for trash and then stroked the camel’s long neck. She started to pace. She didn’t know much about camels, but Alfred had been friendly and cooperative. His grunts and odd sounds were becoming familiar, and she was even growing fond of him. She wondered how a camel might find its way if there were no people telling it what to do. They evolved to live in the desert and navigated long stretches of sand on their own. Alfred must’ve made the trip from the village to the oasis, and back again, dozens of times. She and Paul were lost, but was the camel?
She stopped pacing, kicking up dust, and looked at Paul. “How do you think camels navigate the Sahara?”
He looked up at her, puzzled. “I don’t know. Animals have their own guidance system, I suppose. Could be magnetic fields or environmental cues. I think science is still researching that.”
“What if this camel knows the way back? You’ve had to steer it this whole time because it keeps trying to go in a different direction. What if we let it take us where it wants to go?”
Paul stood and dusted sand off his jeans. He crossed his arms, biceps round and tense. “I suppose the camel could try to go back to the village. It may still know the way, or it may intuitively know somewhere else to go.”
“Let’s do that. We’ll let the camel take us somewhere. It couldn’t be any worse than blindly wandering around for another day hoping to find other people.”
“It’s a big risk,” Paul said.
“I know. Anything we choose right now is a risk.”
He nodded and grabbed the blanket off the ground. “Let’s try it.”
They climbed on the camel and Paul kicked its sides gently to get it moving. The camel walked forward a few feet and then stopped, still chewing its food.
“Well, what now?” Paul said.
“We wait. It should start going eventually.”
They waited several long minutes while the heat pressed down on them. Alfred finished eating and continued to stand there staring at nothing in the dirt. Finally, he walked forward. He turned to the right, away from the mountains.
“See?” Allison said.
“I hope this is the right thing to do,” Paul responded, keeping his gaze focused on the camel’s head.
Me, too.
Chapter Ten
ALFRED LED THE WAY until well after sunset. Allison started nodding off and rested her head on Paul’s back. He suddenly reached back to touch her knee.
“Allison, Allison,” he said. “Wake up.”
She raised her head and yawned. “What?”
“Look.”
She leaned to the side to see where Paul was pointing. There was a small light shining amidst a lot of tall shadowy figures. The tops of the figures fanned out.
“Are those palm trees?” Allison said, wide awake and nearly falling off the camel in excitement.
“I think so. This isn’t the village, but if there’s a light, someone might live here. Hopefully a friendly someone.”
The camel continued to saunter towards the light until they were close enough to realize the light was from a post. It lit a path into the shadowy palm trees. The camel stopped next to the post and laid down. Paul and Allison hopped off, securing the camel extra tight.
“It’s solar powered,” Paul said, touching the lamp post. “So it must light up every night like clockwork. I wonder what this place is.”
He grabbed a knife from his backpack for “just in case” while Allison flipped on an LED lantern. They wandered down the path through the trees. After several minutes, Allison heard rushing water, like a waterfall, and she grabbed Paul’s shirt sleeve.
“Oh my god I think it’s the oasis,” she said.
They walked around a dark pool of water, the waterfall somewhere beyond the light, and stumbled on a small yurt setup in a clearing. Allison rushed forward and knocked on the door.
“Hey,” Paul whispered. “What if someone lives here who doesn’t like visitors?”
“I knocked as a courtesy. No one’s here.” She tried the door, and it was unlocked. She walked through and flipped on a switch. The round interior illuminated to reveal the modern luxuries she would never ever take for granted again. There was a small kitchen next to a table and chairs, and a couch rested in front of a small window facing the waterfall. There was also a bed with several bedrolls stacked next to it. A real bed.
Allison set the lantern down and ran to it. She started to fall forward onto the mattress, but stopped herself and looked down at her clothes. “I don’t want to get this thing dirty,” she said. “Please, let there be a shower. Please, please, please.” The yurt wasn’t that big, and she spun around looking for anything resembling a bathroom.
Paul leaned out the door. “It’s probably outside.”
After more exploring, they both found the outside toilet and a small outside shower.
“Okay,” Allison said. “Get out of here, Paul. I’m taking a shower.”
“So yo
u can change into dirty clothes? I don’t know about you, but I ran out of clean clothes yesterday.”
She pushed past him and returned to the yurt to dig through any drawers she could find. There was a standing closet next to the bed with a clean pair of sheets and a single bathrobe. “Got it covered,” she exclaimed and rushed back outside with the robe held firmly in her hand. She found a half-used bottle of shampoo and spent a good hour enjoying the water. It was ice cold, but it didn’t matter. She had shampoo and she had water. She’d never been so happy to take a cold shower in her life. After showering, she returned to the yurt shivering with a giant grin on her face.
Paul handed her a towel. He seemed to avoid looking at her in the bathrobe. “Here. I found this. I’m washing my dirty clothes in a small bucket I found under the sink. The water is from the pond out there, but we should still conserve it. I also found dry foods like rice and a few cans of soup.”
“Thanks,” she said and dried her hair with the towel. “Your turn to take a shower. The water's a comfortable 40 degrees.”
“I'll finish washing my clothes and tough it out until the morning, so I have something to change into.” He returned to the bucket in the sink and dunked his hands in the water to rub dirt out of a shirt.
“Okay. I’ll enjoy this bed for a few minutes. Then I’ll make dinner for the big trivia winner. You thought I forgot, huh?” She plopped down on the bed, careful not to let the robe open and expose her lady bits (which were in serious need of trimming). She laid back, arms out, and let out a long, deep sigh. “Have beds always been this heavenly?” She rolled onto her side and looked at the pile of bed rolls. “Don’t do anything chivalrous and offer to sleep on the floor, okay?”
“I wasn’t planning to. That bed is big enough for two people. And my back hurts.”
“When you're done with your clothes, let me know so I can wash mine.”
He nodded.
“And we should have a nice meal,” she added. “As fancy as we can make it. That rice and soup would be amazing. I can't stand another protein bar or freeze dried pack.”