A Hologram for the King Page #7

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- You ready?

- I'm ready.

You go in.

I'll follow.

- Sorry.

- Oh!

Sorry.

- I didn't mean to scare you.

- It's all right.

I have to get under.

Neighbors.

I must warn you, though.

I'm dressed like you.

So if someone sees us snorkeling,

they'll think it's two men.

Just two backs uncovered wearing

men's trunks. You understand?

Wow.

Ah. Yeah.

What now?

Take a deep breath.

And then let it out slowly.

It's been a long time.

Yeah. Same here.

How long?

I don't know.

Me neither.

I can hardly remember.

I have a story.

I've been thinking about it

since we spoke about your son.

Ah, please, tell me.

My father and I...

went camping

a few times.

- Camping again?

- This is not about camping.

I was eleven or twelve.

Yeah, this one time,

he brought me up to New Hampshire.

It was cold,

'cause it had snowed

a week before.

And we drove

into this national park.

And we parked and we walked

deep into the woods

for four hours, at least.

And the sun was already falling,

so we stopped.

No sign of any civilization

in any direction.

I thought he had

a plan, you know,

but he acted like he had just

figured out the math of it all...

That we weren't gonna

get back before dark

and the night

would freeze us solid.

Not to mention the prospect

of wolves, bears.

- Wolves and bears?

- Yeah.

So he asked me,

"What should we do, son?"

And I realized

this was some kind of a test,

so I thought of all

the Boy Scout stuff I knew

and I said,

"Build a shelter?"

So we got started and we took

turns chopping and tying.

We set it up there,

a perfectly respectable A-frame.

We collected fronds from the pine trees

and lined the bottom with them.

And he says,

"Alan, what do we need now?"

And I knew.

We needed a needle and thread.

Or... duct tape.

For what?

To make a sleeping bag

out of our clothes.

We cut up our jackets

and we taped them together

and made a big, wide

sleeping bag.

And we slept there

in our long underwear.

- And you shared the sleeping bag?

- We did.

And I must say,

when we were all settled in there,

it was really warm.

And you didn't

have a fire?

No fire.

Just each other.

And in the morning?

We taped our jackets back

together and went home.

Good.

Hey, Kit.

I'm writing to tell you

that I'm postponing

my return

to the United States

and I don't know

for how long.

The deal I was working on

here in Jeddah didn't happen.

A competitor from China offered

the same technology a lot faster

and at half the price.

I shouldn't have been surprised,

but there I was, surprised.

So, Kit, the money part

of our lives is not solved just yet,

but I'm working on it.

I've taken a new job here

which pays pretty well.

It should be enough even to get you

back into school next semester.

Keep believing, Kit,

'cause I believe in you.

You're strong and young

and you have time.

I'm not so young,

but I have to tell you,

there's a force

in my life now

that makes me

feel strong again.

And I feel that there's time.

There must be time.

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