The Sheltering Sky

She is kept there for an unknown amount of time. “An ancient Negro slave woman” (296) brings her food and water several times a day, and Belqassim comes to engage in sexual intercourse with her each afternoon. Everyone else in the home believes that she is a lost Arab boy that Belqassim is nursing back to health before returning him to his family. Kit slowly realizes that Belqassim has several wives, three of which live in this home with their various children and servants. The women are intrigued by this Arab boy that Belqassim might be bedding—they are not bothered that he might be having homosexual relations with him, but they want to know how attractive he is—so they send in one of the children to get a better look at “him.”

During the interaction, in which the child dances and scampers about, he brushes against her breasts, and Kit realizes he has discovered her secret. Shortly after he leaves, the wives come rushing in and claw all of her clothes off her. They begin to violently attack her until Belqassim comes to intervene. Time loses focus, and she does not know what has happened, but she finds herself coming to in Belqassim’s lap while the sullen wives stare at her. Belqassim takes their jewelry as punishment for their assault and gives it instead to Kit, but she is not comforted: “She knew that all the women hated her, and that he never could protect her from their hatred” (302). She also belatedly realizes that this was some kind of matrimonial ceremony, and now Belqassim “owned her completely” (304). Their sexual encounters become more violent—and also more infrequent.

Between his visits, Kit is given mugs of tea laced with something to make her ill and sluggish; she believes the wives are trying to poison her. While Kit is initially distraught at Belqassim’s inconsistent visits—she needs him like a drug—she is jolted out of this dependence by the thought of the poison. She decides to escape. She is caught by the wives as she is leaving, but she assures them she has left all of their jewelry, and some of her own, behind for them to retrieve. While they fear Belqassim’s wrath, they ultimately help her out of the compound.

She wakes up amid the rocks and desert outside of the town, disoriented. When she grows hungry, she walks back into the town, surprised that she passes through the market crown unnoticed. She drinks some buttermilk from a vendor who refuses to accept her money and demands proper payment. A Black man wearing “European trousers” (316) explains to her—he speaks French—that her Algerian money is considered contraband here.

In the confusion, she begins to remember that people might be waiting for her, trying to find her, as she slowly comes back to herself. This makes her panic, as she does not want to be found, and she begs the man to take her to his house. She has sex with the man, Amar, and asks him to save her. While Amar is gentle with her, he is fully aware of how much money she has. She knows she will again be found, and “a merciless beam would be turned upon her; the pain would be unendurable and endless” (323-24). Amar’s friend, Atallah, counts Kit’s 1,000-franc notes as she sleeps.

Kit awakens in a church, refusing to speak. One of the nuns says to another, “They took everything but the passport, and we were lucky to find that” (325). Kit overhears the nuns discussing the travel arrangements made for her; she will be taken back to Oran, in Algeria, where someone will presumably be waiting for her. A guardian will accompany her to keep her safe—and close. She tries to escape en route to the airplane to begin her journey back to the city, but she is unsuccessful. After a couple of nights in a hotel, during which “[s]he had soiled her clothes” (329), they head out for the Mediterranean.

Miss Ferry, from the American Consulate, greets Kit as she arrives. She is unenthusiastic about escorting this disturbed young woman, but she tries to be upbeat and kind. When Miss Ferry first catches sight of Kit, she thinks, “[s]he’s really hit bottom” (331). When Kit says that all has been lost, Miss Ferry assumes she means her luggage and optimistically suggests that everything eventually turns up in the desert. While they are transporting Kit to the Majestic hotel, Miss Ferry informs her that a Mr. Tunner “has been bombarding us with wires and letters for months” (334). Kit turns ghostly, and Miss Ferry is at a loss to know what the matter is. The book concludes as the car reaches the hotel: “It was the end of the line” (335).