The flap over the picture proved to be relatively short-lived. Still, it changed the way Alex and Nara acted around each other. They now kept it uber-professional. No touching. Little time alone together. Certainly no platonic hugs. You never knew when someone might be watching.
Alex normally enjoyed the fall, a time of year when the tourists left and the locals reclaimed the beach, but this year was different. It seemed he spent every waking moment at the office. Khalid’s case clung to him like a shadow, sparking pangs of guilt whenever Alex tried to relax and take some time off.
Though the media attention dissipated somewhat, Shannon still argued that she should now be the one to go with Nara to Lebanon to take Hamza Walid’s deposition. But even Khalid didn’t agree with her about that. They were already getting signals from Walid’s lawyer that he was skittish. He was a traditional Muslim. He would want a man asking the questions. And Alex wasn’t about to stay home on this one.
Alex did concede that he and Nara should fly separately. She left first so she could spend a few days with her friends. Three days later, on the second Sunday in November, Alex checked in for his flight to Beirut with layovers in New York and Paris. The deposition started Tuesday.***
When he landed at the Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport around 10 a.m. on Monday, Alex felt as if he had been flying in planes for two straight years. It was great to stand up straight and stretch his legs, back, and neck.
He saw signs in French, English, and Arabic, but most of the words spoken around him were indecipherable. He had coffee breath and a stiff neck, and his face felt puffy. Like a lost sheep, he followed the herds of strangers through customs, picked up his luggage, and looked around for Nara.
He felt disoriented by both the jet lag and the unfamiliar culture buzzing around him. As he listened to the Lebanese men and women speak to each other in their hard-edged Arabic, he suddenly felt a little vulnerable. He was now officially in the land of Hezbollah. He didn’t know the language. He had no weapons. His American street savvy would be of little use. He was a surfer from Virginia Beach stepping onto the gigantic stage of a distant and dangerous world.
He spotted Nara, straightened his shoulders, and summoned a little of that famous Madison bravado.
“How was your flight?”
“Piece of cake.”
She almost gave him a hug but pulled back. “Welcome to Beirut,” Nara said with a proper and firm handshake. Her enthusiasm quickly chased away any lingering apprehensions Alex felt. “The Paris of the Middle East.”
Nara helped him with his luggage and hailed a small car at the curb that looked like a taxi. “It’s called a ser-veese,” Nara explained. “S-e-r-v-i-z. It’s basically a small car with a wild man for a driver who will ignore all traffic signals.”
After they threw Alex’s luggage into the trunk, Alex and Nara climbed in the backseat. “Taxi,” Nara said. Then she spoke to the man in Arabic.
“These cars operate as either a taxi or a serviz,” Nara explained to Alex. “A taxi costs a little more, but it means the driver doesn’t pick up other passengers along the way. A serviz means he stops and picks up others during the trip.”
On the way to the hotel, Alex found out that Nara’s original description of a serviz had been uncannily accurate. Traffic lights apparently served no purpose other than to illuminate intersections. Lines on the road were merely decorative. In twenty-five minutes, Alex saw remnants of five different accidents.
One ploy by the driver was particularly unnerving. On one of the streets in downtown Beirut, the driver stopped right in the middle of the road, got out of the car, walked to the sidewalk, and started talking in animated Arabic to one of the shopkeepers. Other drivers blew their horns and gave Alex and Nara dirty looks. Nara let this go on for about thirty seconds before she got out of the car and started yelling at the taxi driver. He talked back for a few seconds, then returned to the car, hopped in, and pulled away.
“What was that all about?” Alex asked.
“He was lost,” Nara said.
They eventually found the Ramada where Alex was staying, and Nara promised to return that afternoon to show him the sights. He checked into his room, threw his gym bag on the floor, and lay down on the bed to relax. The bed was lower than most American beds and hard as a rock. The only other furniture in the room consisted of two plastic chairs. The walls were painted a muted orange. The bathroom looked decent, though Alex had been told that you didn’t flush the toilet paper in Beirut; you placed it in the trash can.
He missed America already.
He turned on a small television set and surfed through the channels. Most of the programs were in Arabic. CNN had an English-speaking program, but the stories seemed to center around Europe. He kicked off his shoes and stretched out on the bed. Within minutes, he was sound asleep.