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“The balloon floated just above a ridge that ran along one side of the valley. They could see no one, no ani- mals or sign of any life, but there were trails in the hard sand bed that suggested people occasionally passed this way. Such trails could be misleading, for in the desert they could exist for an eternity, and one could never tell how old they might be.”

LostNatureLonelinessDesertSandTrails
Book:Empires of Sand by David Ball
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“He remembered the awe of his first desert night, the dazzling web so clear and bright. He had never seen such a sky when he lived in Paris. The lights of the city were too bright. The lights, such lights .. it was six long years since he'd last seen them. Or was it seven now, or even eight? The years ran together and time lost its urgency and sometimes he didn't notice its passage at all. But surely it was a lifetime since Paris. He was happy in the desert yet sometimes longed to be back in the city, to see what it was like now. His memories of it were fond, the bad parts seeming not so bad, the good parts seeming better than they were. But the more time passed, the harder it became to remember at all. No matter how he tried to hold on, the treasures of his past no longer burned so brightly in his memory. The details dimmed and the people grew fuzzy, and he couldn't remember what some of them looked like. He closed his eyes and tried to bring them up, Paul and Gascon and Aunt Elisabeth, but sometimes he couldn't do it. It worried him terribly when it happened. It seemed as if he didn't care. He DID care, he told himself. He didn't want to be unfaithful. He didn't want to lose his other life completely. He asked the marabout for paper and drew pictures of his father with scraps of charcoal. The pictures were crude, but they helped him remember. He promised himself a thousand times that no matter what pron happened to the other faces and places in his mind, he would never let himself forget his father's face. He folded the papers carefully and put them in a leather pouch that hung from his neck, and at night by the fire took them out to look. After he had folded and unfolded them many times the pictures would smear, and he would draw new ones.”

MemoriesLonelinessNostalgiaPast Life
Book:Empires of Sand by David Ball
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“The days when he had taken insults passively had passed, as had the days when he would melt in tears. He had never understood what made the others do it, only that he was somehow apart from them, somehow differ- ent, and that he would never fit in. From the time Serena had first held him after it happened, when he was only five, his mother had counseled patience. "Ignore them," she said. "Deny them the satisfaction of seeing you rise in anger." She too had suffered this way. "Pay no attention to them. They are only jealous of your noble birth." She had tried to soften their in- sults. "When they call you half-breed you must remem- ber what it really means, that you are the best of two worlds, the best of the French and the best of the Tuareg." Her advice felt warm and wise while he was on her lap, but evaporated quickly in the schoolyard. His patience only drove his tormentors to greater creativity in their taunts, and then they accused him of cowardice, of being a sissy. If he cried it drove them to new heights of viciousness. And then one day when Moussa was eight Henri had seen his bruised cheek and asked about it, and Moussa had poured out his sorrow and his dilemma. "Your mother is right in her way," Henri agreed after listening, "but just now I think they need a good thrashing. You need to teach them a lesson. I wish it weren't so, but they respect only strength." After that Moussa tried hard not to forget his mother's advice, but he found that fists often worked better. At first he lost most of the fights, but a bloody nose from fighting back felt better to him than a bloody nose from doing nothing. And with practice, along with the instruction he received from his father and Gascon, he got better. Before long the students learned to taunt him at their own peril, for even if they might finally beat him, they would pay a heavy price.”

Self RespectBullyingManhood
Book:Empires of Sand by David Ball
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“The desert madness." He'd never been to Africa, but he'd seen plenty of remote places and what they did to men. "Lots of them get it. They've nothing to do but brood. Time treats them badly. It stretches worse here because the liquor stinks and there aren't any women. The place just uses them up. Even their assholes get raw from the sand." "I'll never let the desert affect me as it does them," Paul said. "I'll go home first." Remy couldn't help mocking Paul gently for his naïve enthusiasm. "I think you take it a bit far the other way. Let me see if I understand your point of view. In the market there are clouds of flies competing with swarms of beggars for the pleasure of eating camel shit mixed with rotting vegetables. What they can't stomach the cook picks up. He spices it up nicely with some old spit and smears it on top of a mixture of couscous, peb- bles, and sand. Then he dishes it back to you, at six times the price he'd charge anyone else. You know what you're eating-you watch him prepare it-but all the same you enjoy it, because it's exotic." "That's about it." Paul smiled. "L'haute cuisine d'Afrique." Remy roared.”

FoodDelicacyExoticness
Book:Empires of Sand by David Ball
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“He had never known Allison to act so out of character. He'd often ribbed her for being so predictably straight about everything. They'd never discussed it, but he knew she had never considered running away with Mary rather than turning her over as ordered. Other mothers had run. But not Allison. She had trusted Marshall, trusted the legal system to do the right thing. Even when the system failed her, as awful as it was, she obeyed, because she always obeyed. The judge's decision was the law. In Allison's life that was the order of things. The bizarre thing was that she'd had to travel all the way to China to go insane and test her new wings of defiance.”

FreedomIrony
Book:China Run
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“There are wide boulevards in Paris lined with trees," he told her, spreading his arms expansively. "The buildings are nearly as big as our dunes." Her eyes widened. "Why on earth would anyone wish to live in such a crowded place?" she asked. "Why would they wish to live in a house built of unmoving stone? Why would they wish a roof over their heads? How would they know the sky? How would they know freedom?" She shook her head. "It is odd that people choose to live in such a backward fashion. It is no better than the harratin who till the soil, forever chained to there are plots of land.”

FreedomNaturalism
Book:Empires of Sand by David Ball
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“Tyler was faster than she was and won nearly every game. Between hands he stirred the canh around on the blanket to mix them up. She taught him how to shuffle properly, and he practiced over and over. "How do you play strip poker?" he asked her once. In the cramped space he couldn't see her surprise. "How do you know about that?" "I dunno. I heard it somewhere, I guess. So what is it?" "You play for whatever the other person has," she said. "The winner gets the loser's things." "Like what?" "Oh, odds and ends. Wallets and combs. Things." "Oh." He dealt them each a fish hand. "I heard it was for clothes." She supposed he knew more than he was letting on. He was testing her. "Well, some people play for clothes, too. You play until the other per-son has nothing left." "Why would you want to do that? What would you do with their clothes?" Allison laughed. Sometimes Tyler seemed old for his years, world-wise and as cynical as a grown-up. But then at other times, like now, he just seemed NINE. "I don't know," she said. "It's just a game.”

ChildrenHumorFunny
Book:China Run
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“I'm not certain. Something to do with special-needs families getting healthy babies." Allison caught her breath at that. It was true, one of the regulations of the Chinese government. She had expected a child with some sort of hand- icap a heart murmur, a hernia, or simply an older child, a toddler- something besides a healthy infant. Under Chinese law adoptive parents had to be at least thirty-five and have no other children in order to qualify for healthy babies. Otherwise they qualified only for the special-needs children. But the rule was loose and so many babies needed adoption that somehow everyone in their group had gotten a healthy infant. Of course, no one questioned it and the issue hadn't arisen during their trip.”

ChinaAdoptionBabiesOne Child
Book:China Run
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“Are you troubled?" Moussa asked, his voice gentle with concern. "No," she said. "I was only thinking of my mar- riage." It was true, so she didn't understand why she hated herself instantly for saying it. She thought Moussa's head jerked a little at the words. After that he was uncharacteristically quiet and for the first time in nearly four days they rode in a sad unnatural silence that was as suffocating as the desert heat. Suddenly each stride of the camel seemed interminable, and Daia didn't know what to do. One part of her wanted journey to end quickly, wanted to arrive in Abalessa where all the confusion might end. The rest of her, most of her, wanted their journey to last forever.”

LoveEmotionsEmbarrassmentStory Of My Life
Book:Empires of Sand by David Ball
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“You seem preoccupied," she said. He shrugged. "It is nothing. "Oh," she said, working at her leather. "I thought it might be Daia." "Well, it is not," he said too quickly. Moussa tried to escape his mother's gaze, but he had never been able to do that successfully. Now he saw no need to pretend. "She is Mahdi's woman. They are to be married. She has said it, and Mahdi has said it." Serena put down her knife. "And what have you said?" "That I will not interfere." "I am not asking of your head, Moussa. I am asking of your heart.". "It is the same thing." She smiled at that. "I don't know how you can be so quick to show a camel your feeling for it, Moussa, and so slow to show a woman.”

Motherly Advice
Book:Empires of Sand by David Ball
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“Now the château was empty except for herself and the butler, who had been instructed by him to see her out of the château and to then escort her wherever she wished to go in the city. [She] had delayed her departure with one excuse or another, as she waited for everyone to leave. There was an unfinished piece of business. She hoped she would encounter no trouble from the butler, who had reported the count's instructions with what she thought was thinly disguised enthusiasm. Whatever his orders, she knew she could bribe him if need be. When she saw the carriage pull away and disappear at the end of the drive, she hurried down the back stairs, carrying a large leather bag. She hesitated, listening for the butler. She heard him in the kitchen. No doubt stealing the wine. She entered the drawing room next to the study and crossed to the wall safe. She fumbled twice, but managed to get it open, and began stuffing its contents into the bag. There were securities and cash and jewelry, and even a few deeds. As she hurried to pack it all in, she felt a glimmer of bitter satisfaction. He might throw her out, but he had not succeeded in stealing everything that belonged to her. There was more than enough in the safe to enable her to leave Paris and avoid poverty. It wasn't what she deserved, but it was something.”

BurglarySneakiness
Book:Empires of Sand by David Ball
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“The incline and height of the rocks increased sharply, making his climb more difficult. He needed his other hand totally free, as he knew his pursuers would as well. He holstered his pistol. He'd gotten more than three- quarters of the way to the top when even two free hands were barely enough to continue upward. The steps be- gan sloping on top, so that there was less and less to stand on. His legs pushed, toes searching for holds, arms pulling, fingers clutching, each new ascent more difficult than the last as the steps began to disappear altogether, until he found himself clinging to a nearly vertical slab of granite. Still he pushed upward, his chest and stomach in constant contact with the rock beneath, his hold growing more tenuous each moment. He looked up. Rock walls soared above him on both sides. He prayed there was somewhere to keep going, because he couldn't see it now. Up and up he climbed, every so often finding a small outcropping to grasp, but having to stretch more for each one, his legs almost dangling free as his boots sought purchase in the rock niches. Several times small rocks he tested for support broke free and clattered down the mountain. They fell, hit, split apart, and hit again, until they made a distant thud at the bottom. He shut his eyes, thinking he might sound like that, only softer. If it got any steeper, he knew, he couldn't hold on any longer.”

AdrenalineCanyonsRock ClimbingFree SoloPhysical Feat
Book:Empires of Sand by David Ball
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“Without a family, Ma Lin devoted himself to his work. He continued to shun ideology but occasionally caught himself wondering about the WHY of things he did in his work. Often he felt, and justifiably so, that something he had done had benefited the state or preserved someone's life or safety. Other times, like now, in this room with an old woman who knew nothing important and had curled up to die, he felt old and tired and worn out.”

CountryDutyPrideNationalismProtectionism
Book:China Run
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“The bile came again, sudden and furious. He curled up on the floor around the chamber pot, gagging and heaving until his insides hurt. Were When it had passed he felt better. He lay there for nearly an hour without moving, his eyes open but un- focused. He got up and cleaned himself again. He wan- dered around his room for a few moments, unsure of what he wanted to do. Aimless, always aimless. It was still early, just after midnight. Sleep would not come again, not without the bottle. He looked at it on the dresser and reached for it but then stopped. The thought of more made him nauseous. Extraordinary. Even I have had enough. He stopped in front of the mantel, where”

DrunkRealizationControlInebriated
Book:Empires of Sand by David Ball
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