Karim stared at her, opening and closing his mouth as he clutched at the steering wheel.
“What? Should I have knocked before opening this door too?” she asked cheekily as she waited for him to speak.
“Exactly, what do you think you are doing?” he finally asked her.
Reaching for the seatbelt, she fastened it around her, “The driver is out with Amare and I need a ride to the orphanage,” she answered him.
“I am not going that way.”
“The orphanage is on the way to every major road. You are going that way,” she answered emphatically.
“No. I turn before the orphanage.”
“Oh please, it’s less than ten miles. If it’s that much of an inconvenience, I would be happy to reimburse you for your gas,” she offered.
“You will not,” he told her through clenched teeth. Throwing the car into gear, he exited the driveway and headed toward the orphanage.
“Could we have some music?” she asked him, as she reached over to turn on the radio. Sitting back, she listened quietly to the traditional strains of Arabic music that must be coming from a CD. While Kim could appreciate different styles of music, she found the lack of any type of particular rhythm coupled with the harsh sounds from the violins too much for her frazzled nerves and she popped the CD out and tuned into a modern radio station. “Sorry, it’s a bit too grating for me today,” she told him as she settled back and began to tap her foot to the pop song.
“And this isn’t?” he demanded.
Shrugging her shoulders, “Maybe but not in the same way. While I like some of the more modern artists, I find that the traditional music lacks any sort of comprehensive beat.”
Squeezing the steering wheel as he drove, “It has been around considerably longer than this pop music,” he replied as he sped up. The sooner he dropped her off and got away from her, the better.
“Don’t get me wrong, I like many of the traditional beliefs that still exist in Saudi Arabia, but I’ve had a rough week and I’m not interested in listening to cats yowling as they scratch their nails across a chalkboard.”
Slowing down, Karim took the next turn a bit too fast as Kim grabbed onto the door to hold on. Looking toward her, he realised that she was wearing a sundress and he could see her pale mounds poking out the top of her dress as they heaved up and down as she breathed.
Momentarily distracted, he looked back up as Kim cried out, “Look out!” Swerving, he narrowly avoided the oversized truck as the car left the asphalt and briefly rolled onto the hard packed sand.
He swore when he heard a loud noise that sounded much like a gunshot and quickly stopped the car. Looking at Kim, “Are you all right?” Unable to answer, Kim nodded her head before he got out of the car to check the damage. Walking around the car, he found the blown tire and kicked at it angrily. Moving to the back of the car, he opened the trunk and moved the contents out of the way to get to the spare tire.
Dropping the tire on the ground, he unhooked the jack and brought it around. Bending down, he placed the jack under the car and began to lift the car. He didn’t realise that Kim had exited the car until he saw her bare legs come stand beside him.
Looking up, she had pulled her hat tightly down on her head as she watched him work. Before he could finish, there was another loud noise as the jack released and the car came crashing back down.
Slapping her hand over her mouth, Kim coughed as she masked her laugh.
“This is not funny,” he told her as he replaced the jack and began again.
“Of course not,” she told him as she snorted in amusement.
Suddenly the wind picked up and Kim’s dress lifted showing off her legs as she squealed and pulled her dress tightly against her. Looking up, Karim wasn’t sure which was more enticing, the view he got of her thighs or how tightly she currently had the dress moulded against her body. Turning back to the task at hand, he finished jacking up the car and reached for the wrench. As he was about to loosen them, Kim interrupted him.
“Um, aren’t you supposed to loosen the lug nuts before you jack the car?” she asked him.
“Must you question everything I do?” he demanded as he slipped the wrench on a lug nut and went to loosen it. As he tried to loosen the nut, the tire turned causing him almost to lose his balance. Swearing loudly, he realised that he had forgotten to do just that at the same time she knew that she was right. Her laughter was better than any music as she began to laugh.
“Okay, while before, that was a little funny. This…this is a lot funny,” she told him as she continued to laugh.
Closing his eyes, he got to a count of five before he realised that the wind had shifted. Standing up, he looked at the sky.