Modern Day Cavegirls - Bobbi's Tale

Rationalizing, he knew that Trish had been an attempt at something normal. Now, he decided that if what Trish handed out was a normal relationship, he'd much rather slit his wrists if it was all the same with everyone.

She wasn't worth a thought to him anymore.

That wasn't why he felt the way that he did. He remembered the painting and the woman in it.

He knew a woman like that. He'd loved her since ...

He looked down and for the ten thousandth time, he knew that he couldn't ever have her.

He thought of a girl with bright eyes, a wonderful smile that he knew every inch of and he remembered the way that she smelled from an inch away or less. The best friend that he'd ever had.

He gave up then, since he couldn't drive like this. He hung his head and cried.

-------------

In the three and a half years since, a lot of water had gone by under the bridge. Damian no longer worked at the museum. Faisal was even older and he now had full-time attendants for his care. Damian had indeed gone to Algeria and found Malikah, and it had been a hell of a thing, but he had managed to convince her that she had a benefactor who at the time was completely unknown to her.

---------------

Three years earlier.

She was upset.

There was a man in her stall - a man that she knew only because he'd seen her six months ago, located her stall and pestered her at least twice a week about marrying him.

There wasn't a thing about him that Malikah liked, his looks, the way that he spoke to her, most especially the way that he looked at her.

He grew more insistent every time. Today, he wasn't even trying to show a level of civility. He was ordering her. The flap parted and another man walked in. He was different, she noticed and he looked intent, though she saw that when he looked at her, it softened and he nodded.

He walked up and the other man drew back slightly, watching him with as much distaste as curiosity.

The second man stepped a little closer and quietly said, "Francais?"

Malikah blinked for a moment. She hadn't used French since leaving the university, but she nodded cautiously.

She listened to him as he spoke briefly and she shook her head, "I do not know this man."

The stranger nodded, "I am sorry that I do not speak Tamasheq. I speak some Arabic, but it is not the kind spoken here," he shrugged, "and my French is terrible."

She nodded and he guessed that it was about his French.

"You may not know the man I am speaking of, but he knows of you. Your deceased father worked for him once, just as I do now."

He looked over his shoulder, "Is there a way to get rid of this fool? I have a letter for you to read which will explain better than I can say it."

Malikah wanted to smile. She didn't know this man, but she liked the way that he was polite and direct.

"He comes often," she said, "but he buys nothing. He is here to tell me that I am to be his bride. I do not like him and I have refused every way that I can think of, every time that he comes. Today he orders me. I was frightened before you came. Please do not leave now."

The man asked, "You do not wish for him to be here? I think that we already agree on something."

She shook her head. "I wish never to see him again. I get only headaches when he comes and after he is gone, my stomach is upset."

The stranger asked, "I have seen no constables here. Are there any in this village?"

She shook her head and the stranger smiled. The flap opened outward and the other man flew out, landing on his face in the dust.

He came back with friends a little while later, but the result was the same - other than the one who bothered Malikah.

When he landed, he didn't get up for a time. He'd been unconscious even before he was thrown out. With that done, the stranger looked at the others, most of whom were nursing bruised faces. He gestured for them to leave. They left.

"I have heard of your jewellery where I come from," the stranger said as he handed Malikah the letter, "Please read this, if you would."

He smiled, "And no matter what you decide, please give me a price for every piece that you have in your stall."

She thought that he might be nuts, but she smiled at him, "It would take time to make a list with a price for each."

He shrugged, "That is not what I meant. Give me a price for all of it. I wish to buy every piece."

He gestured, "But please, read the letter first."

Her eyes widened as she read it. She looked up, "This is truth?"

He nodded, "As far as I know and believe. I did not know of you until a month ago when I was told to see you here. I have worked for that man for a time now, a few years.

I am only his associate, but I can say that from what I know of him, he is fair in his dealings with others - especially with one to whom he believes that he owes a debt."

He smiled, "Such as you, Malikah."

"Why would he do this - what is said in this?" she asked.

The stranger shrugged, "If it was anyone else, I would tell you that I do not know. But I know this man well. He is old now and he thinks that he has little time left to set unfinished things right.

I did not know your father, but I know that he was held in esteem by this man. And I know that this man does what he can to help those who help him.

He cannot help your father anymore, but he learned of you. He sent someone here to learn what could be known of you and he does not believe that you are living the sort of life which you might have had if your father had not died.

He summoned me. I live more than five hundred kilometers from this man's offices. He told me of you and showed me a photograph. He told me to go and to do what I could to bring you to him. If you will allow me to do that, he will provide you with the means to make a better life.

I do not know what that might mean to you, but he told me that the first thing would be to let you finish university in the United States. He knows that you did not have money to finish here."

Malikah stared for a moment and then she smiled, "You are very persuasive."

He laughed softly as he pointed to the tent flap, "I am sure that your admirers share your view. I ask only for a little of your trust."

"My trust, you have," she said, "But we have not settled on a price for my jewellery."

"Say the price and put it all in whatever bag that you brought it in," he said, "I will pay it and you will never come back here again."

They walked out quickly, stepping around the man on the ground as people stared, since they looked nothing alike and the same might be said of the way that each one was dressed. He led her to a van.

"I did not think that you were serious about the jewellery," she said, "Why?"

He smiled, "Even if you did not agree to come, buying your jewellery was a way that I could do something for you to live better - if only for a time. If I have learned anything from this, it is to trust in the information that the man gives to me. You deserve better.

And also, I do like the work that you do. I cannot wear it, since I am not a woman, but I am a very popular man and I have many women admirers."

Malikah laughed, "You are a very strange man and at least one thing that you said is not true."

"At least" he smiled, "but I will have fine gifts to give for several years now."

--------------

"But ... I need it," she said from the back of the hovel where she lived.

"Maybe so, Malikah," he said, "I have said that you can take your tools, so that you can make more jewellery. But the anvil stays here. I can buy five better anvils for what it would cost to bring that heavy thing onto an airplane."

"What is your name?" she asked, "I need to know who it is that I curse when I cannot make jewellery because I had to leave the anvil which my poor father gave to me behind."

She got to take the anvil.

------------------

He got her to Algiers and from there, the problems began. Getting her an exit visa and a passport were real hairpullers to get done. The American embassy wasn't much help at first until Damian began to think outside the box.

"I think that I know of a way, Malikah," he said at last, "but it will require a step which will seem drastic to you here, and less so after we arrive."

He outlined what he's thought of and her eyebrows just about reached her hairline. They'd tried everything else, and finally she agreed.

It only took a month and a half after that, but they were finally on a plane - where she hung on to his hand and almost crushed it over her nervousness and fear of flying.

Well, it was an expensive suit that she was almost wringing off him before he took her hand.

---------------

He'd been so busy, getting things lined up for Malikah so that she could get the rest of her education, and somewhere in that - completely unthought-of by either of them, she'd found something that she loved to do. Faisal did anything to encourage her as well as find ways for her to turn what was suddenly becoming a dream for her into reality.

As shy as she could be, immersed as she was at college, she remembered the songs which her mother had taught her and also the ones that she'd listened to forever as she'd watched her father teach her or sometimes when he worked by himself. From that and the music courses that she'd taken, it had been a rapid step to learning to perform them in new ways while still retaining the flavoring but with more of a beat built in.

It got her noticed and once Faisal learned of it, he called people that he knew and the same month that she'd finished her courses, he'd put things together for her to perform, even finding her musicians to back her and the management firm that he'd put her in touch with had provided professionals who could work out almost any problem while teaching her how to perform her music.

It had happened so quickly.

Malikah had come to rely on Damian for a lot of the things in her life. The trouble was, that she came to like him very much. She knew that he was getting paid to help her, but she could see that he'd do anything for her.

She wanted to spend time with him and it was beyond plain that he felt the same way, but that was the end of the road as far as easy went. He had other commitments and Faisal kept Damian busy with them. She often didn't even know where on Earth he was.

But Malikah was intelligent and she could be doggedly stubborn. She'd apologized to him many times for it, but he'd always laughed and said that it was something about her which he admired very much. He told her that she'd had a rotten life before - but he was certain that most people in that situation would have died, whereas she'd at least kept on going - if not well.

One day, she remembered his words and she set about doing something that she knew had to be done.

She called him and asked for a little of his time because she wanted to know his itinerary for the next month and a half to two months. "There is something which I wish to do and though I have tried and tried, we never find the time.

Now you will tell me, and I will arrange an evening for us - if I must beg Faisal himself to release you for it.

Putting it that way seemed to help and she got what she'd asked for. She studied it and found an opening, so she told him the date and once they'd agreed, she had called Faisal and he made sure that Damian would have no tasks from him for one day before the date and two days after.

Damian didn't know what it was really about other than Malikah said she needed to see him in person, and that she'd done her best to clear his agenda for four days, so that it was at least possible.

He came to her apartment on the first evening. He still didn't get it, but if Malikah needed something, he'd do what he needed to get it done for her. He called her on his way over and she said that she'd be waiting.

She let him into a dimly lit apartment. He saw that she was dressed in the clothes of her people, something that he hadn't seen for a time. Since her arrival and enrollment at college, she'd more or less adopted western apparel for it's ease and the way that it helped her to fit in quickly.

She led him to her dining room and though she still lived sparsely, she had more now than she'd ever had. He complimented her and she'd shaken her head as she served him a dinner that she'd spent days gathering the ingredients for.

"These things, I owe to you and Faisal," she said. "I have had time to think on things and I can accept what Faisal said was due to me because of my loss.

But that does not have much to do with you, Damian.

Just as I have thought of everything else, I have thought of you and what you did for me. Do not try to laugh or smile in your handsome way and tell me that it was nothing.

My heart is sad on almost the start of what has been planned for me. I am excited for that, but sad at the same time."

She pointed to her desk, "You see the many papers there. Almost all of them relate to what I have had to do in order to have only this time with you. To me, it is wrong. What I will do and where I must go must happen, and it must happen in a certain time, I have been told.

But it is wrong for you and I that it takes so much to get such little time."

She sighed, and Damian saw that her eyes were wet. They ate the meal and it was wonderful to him and he said so. She thanked him and was still for a while longer.

When the meal was finished he helped her with the plates and cutlery and then she pulled him to another room.

"I was a poor girl," she said, "And in my life, I never saw a man like you.

You searched for ways to speak to me which I now know are not the ways of your particular people. I have learned a little of your kind and I know that - by themselves - they do not speak French at all. This was something that you studied.

Faisal told me that I was correct and he also told me that though you are not perfect in most, you speak pieces of seven languages besides your own.

He told me that it was one of the reasons that he needed you - because you would do whatever was necessary to accomplish your task - even if it meant speaking your poor French to an Imhouar girl next to the desert so that you could take her away to a better place where she might make her life.

And yet, though I have come to know much, it brings only sadness to me. I see the same thing in you and I know from it that you were not unaffected by our journey together.

We struggle and we try, but I am about to fall into a wind which will take me everywhere and anywhere and all of it will only take me farther from you.

You made jokes about how your white skin must seem ugly to me. Well I have never seen finer skin on a man - as long as it is on you. I was too frightened to look out of the window as we flew here. I looked at your hand and it said many things to me. It spoke to me of your strength and your will. Yet I saw and felt such warmth. I looked at how we are so very different.

And I have never wanted to know hands like yours more than I do. This has not changed in me. I now believe that it never will.

Soon, I doubt that we will see each other much at all, no matter how I might try to reach you so that I can talk to you. I appreciate how that one door will remain for me, no matter where you are on this world.

But it is not what I need as much as I need something else.

You need it too. I know this."

She stepped away from him a little and she slowly pulled her clothing off to stand before him naked.

"Please remove your clothing, Damian. We need this - what I have arranged for us. I have never found a better way to thank you, but that is not the most important thing here.

Neither of us is Faisal. Yet ...

She sighed and to Damian, it carried a slightly weary sound that made him come to her and hold her. He kissed her and it went on for a long time. When they drew apart, they both saw the tears on the other one's cheeks.

And Malikah finished her thought.

"We owe each other something. This is what we must do, my love. It is our right."

They spent the entire four days together and other than brief periods afterward where they talked about things that he could help her with, it had never happened again.

Malikah set out on her career and Damian went on in his.

She had a hole in her heart and Damian now had two.

Her first album had been recorded at the same time as she began to get airplay and internet notice. The timing couldn't have been better and everything had lined up hand in glove. Four months after that, Malikah was on her first tour opening for someone else while working on the material for the next offering, and the next year went past like a blur.

------------------

For Malikah, some things began to happen at a time when perhaps she was going too fast. Somehow, her music had gone from what might have been considered a niche market to the point where it had not exactly gone mainstream in the pop world, but it seemed to be knocking on the door in a large way - far too fast for her. There were now larger shows required of her in larger and larger venues.

She found that there was a cost and it was to her quiet and rather simple way of living her life. She didn't have the background which many performers did. Malikah hadn't paid her dues slogging for months and years as she performed in small venues such as clubs. She didn't even know how much she was worth, but when she'd asked Damian one day, he said that he'd try to find out for her.

It hadn't been that simple, so about two weeks later, in between tours; they'd gone together so that he could ask the things that she wanted to know. Damian wasn't with Malikah all of the time. She knew that she was one of his more important assignments for Faisal and his family, so when she called, he listened and she trusted him.

What they learned of her wealth caused them both to sit and look at each other wide-eyed.

He did put her in touch with a firm to manage her money for the long term. He'd explained it when she'd asked, saying that this fame that she had was a fickle thing and that few 'sensations' went more than a few years at it before they faded back into obscurity. She asked and he'd shrugged, telling her that he didn't know if it was out of their music or talent no longer being popular, or whether it was something sought for by then.

Damian thought that he saw something in her expression then so he'd asked and she'd told him that for all of what had and was happening for her, she'd never had that burning need to become famous - or at least, as famous as she'd become.

"I wish to stop for a time, Damian," she'd said, "My life is no longer my own. Can it be done?"

He'd had to think about it and was quick to caution her. "The trouble is that the world goes on, Malikah. Most artists try to maximize the length of time that they're on the top, because at some point, they've figured out that it won't last forever regardless. If you step back for a little while, you might find that while you were resting, the next sensation has moved in and taken all the attention. I'm not suggesting that you keep at it because I don't see you every day and I've noticed that you do seem to be under a lot of strain these last few weeks."

When he saw her unhappy nod of admission, he said, "Look, what Faisal wanted for you has happened and in a far bigger way than I'm sure that even he ever imagined. Now that you know how much you've got, you might want to decide to take the time away for your own good. I can help with that like anything else, but ...

You know that you can always call me. Anytime, Malikah, I'll do whatever you need, ok?"

----------

On the road, somewhere near the west coast

She'd just managed to hang on through the end of her second tour, but by then, she felt like an empty shell. She knew the importance of the little things, such as signing autographs, as an example. Malikah knew that it didn't matter how much her feet might hurt or how tired she was, that young girl in front of her waiting hopefully had likely gone to great lengths herself to be there. Interviews were a huge strain for her.