Read Online Sahara Crosswind by T. Davis Bunn - Free Book Online

no medicines in the village. Did you see him try to mount the camel?”
    â€œYes.” It had taken three tries and the aid of both Pierre and Jasmyn to get him into the saddle-tent.
    â€œPierre walks with him now, writing whenever he has strength to speak.” Jasmyn shook her head. “I hope your plan works, Jake.”
    â€œSo do I.”
    â€œEven Pierre feels it is our only hope to save him now.”
    As they approached, Omar said to Jake, “Several mornings now I have seen you separate yourself and read from a book you carry.”
    â€œIt is a Bible, the holy Book,” Jake said, answering the implied question.
    â€œIt is good for man to be bound by the custom of his religion,” Omar said.
    â€œIt is more than that,” Jake said, seeking a way to explain that would invite and not offend. “This is the story of Christ, the Son of God. His is a story of salvation for all who choose to believe. And His lessons are those of love.”
    Omar walked ahead in silence for a time, then said through Jasmyn, “Yesterday I sought to teach you of our ways. Today I would ask a question of you, a man of the world who speaks with wisdom of his own and who does honor to our desert ways.”
    â€œI would be honored to help,” Jake said, “if I can.”
    â€œI have heard of this Christian god,” Omar said. “There is aschool now in Colomb-Bechar, five days march from Raggah. It is run by families who claim to serve this god of yours.”
    â€œWe call them missionaries,” Jake offered.
    â€œI have two of the tribe’s children, a boy and a girl, who beg to go and learn. Day and night they are after me. Even when they do not speak, still I can hear their little hearts crying through their eyes.” He looked at Jake. “Sending a child to school means losing a herder. I must also pay for a family to keep them. While they are gone, their own mother’s heart remains empty. A young boy’s bed goes cold with his absence. A father misses the songs that his lovely daughter sang to the waking day.”
    â€œThey might return and enrich the tribe with what they have learned,” Jake ventured.
    â€œYes? You think this school will make them better people? That their lives will be better? Yes? Then tell me. What will they know, my children, that has enough value to wrench them from the heart of my tribe?”
    â€œThey will know languages. History. Math.”
    â€œAlready they know their father’s tongue. They learn the history of their father’s father and their fathers before them. They can count their sheep and their goats. What more will they know?”
    â€œThey will know the world.”
    â€œNo!” Omar pounced upon Jake’s words. “They will know your world, not mine. They will know your knowledge. And then whose child will they be, yours or mine?”
    â€œEverything you say is true,” Jake agreed, marveling anew at the man who strode along beside him. “There is a risk that they will choose not to return. But what right do you have to refuse them their heart’s desire?”
    Omar subsided. “You speak a truth that has echoed through my nights since learning of this school. This is a question for which I have yet to find the answer. Tell me, man of the world who honors our desert ways. What would you do if you were faced with such a dilemma?”
    â€œPray,” Jake said simply. “Pray and wait for guidance.”
    They walked for a time in companionable silence until Omar said, “I want my children to know the value of wisdom, but I also want them to know the wealth of the desert. I want them to have the city and the wider world to call upon when there is drought, but I want them to return to the desert in the rainy season. Is that so much to ask?”
    â€œNo,” Jake replied, liking him immensely.
    â€œOur world has changed,” Omar declared through Jasmyn.