Road to Casablanca (23 page)

“Very well.”

The car sped down the drive and through the crowded city streets to the outskirts of town. They pulled up next to a huge flat roofed structure with several cars and a couple of tour buses parked outside.

“Wow, this is incredible.”

“It sure is.
 
Which palace is this, sir?”

The driver began to speak as he parked the car and helped Cindy and Erick out, acting as their private tour guide.

“This is called El Badi Palace and was built in the year 1578 by the King as part of the Saadi Dynasty.”

“Saadi?
 
Aren’t those the descendants of Mr. Jibade’s family?”

“Yes, it is.
 
He is direct lineage of the royal family of the time.”

Cindy was impressed.
 
No wonder the man seemed to know everyone and have access to everything there.

“So Mr. Jibade is royalty?”

“In a sense he is, indirectly.
 
That’s why he is such an instrumental part of the project.”

“I can imagine he’s a good friend to have around here.”

“That’s for sure.”

As they walked hand-in-hand through the vast grounds, past the dried-up palace swimming pools and into the now-vacant grand rooms in the palace, Cindy couldn’t help but wonder how magnificent this place must have been at one time.

“In the sixteenth century this was the most pristine of all palaces in the land built by Sultan Ahmed el Mansour, until the ruler Moulay Ismail destroyed it in the seventeenth century to take the materials for building his own palace at Meknes.”

“Interesting…”

“Yes, it is, very.”

Within the hour they were back in the car and off to the next palace on their touring schedule.

“This, Mr. and Mrs. Redmund, is called
Bahia
Palace
.
 
It was built in the years between 1894 and 1900 for the son of the ruler Mohammed IV.”

Cindy held Erick’s arm as they followed their guide through vast open corridors of the space and into the many rooms of the palace.
 
White walls were inlaid with thousands of multi-colored tiles, rounded Moorish doorways and simple but elegant architecture made the place absolutely exquisite.

“It’s absolutely stunning.
 
It must have really been something in its day.”

“Indeed, Madame, it was, most certainly.”

Erick squeezed Cindy’s hand and smiled at her.

“You are the only stunning thing I see around here, lady.”

Cindy felt a warm flush run through her as she returned his smile.
 
Erick had certainly been acting sweet lately.
 
Better than she would have ever imagined he could.

Within another hour, they were off once more.

“Now to Jemaa el Fna, the town center of Marrakech.”

“Take us to a nice place for lunch, if you will.”

“Yes, Mr. Redmund, I know of just the place.”

Within ten minutes they were back in heavy traffic circling around the city center and the driver pulled them up to a two story white stucco building and led them upstairs.

“Come, Redmunds.
 
I have a lovely restaurant picked out for you just upstairs here.”

A dark red tiled staircase led them to a room with low ceilings and big hand embroidered pillows thrown all about and around low lying tables.

The place was empty except for the staff, who escorted them to the far back corner where they were given hot spearmint tea.

“Thank you for bringing me, Erick.
 
This is wonderful.”

“Hey, don’t thank me, thank the driver.
 
I had no idea this place was here, I just told him to take us someplace great.”

“The food here is the best we’ve had yet, don’t you think?”

“It is, but that’s only because I haven’t had you yet.”

“Too funny.”

“Who said I was being funny?
 
There’s nothing funny about it, Miss Cindy, believe me.”

“We’ll just have to see about that, now won’t we?”

After lunch they walked out into the street where the driver was waiting patiently for them.

“To get to the center square you go down this way.”

He pointed to a barely passable narrow alleyway that seemed to lead to nowhere.

“Down there?
 
Are you sure?”

The man laughed at Erick and nodded.

“Yes, sir. Believe me, I have lived here my entire life.”

“Okay so where will we meet you?”

“If you will follow this path you will pass many shops with many goods to sell. Keep wandering and you will come to the center of the Jemaa el Fna eventually.”

“You’re sure of that, are you? I don’t want the lady to think I don’t know how to find my way around here.”

“Trust me, Sir.
 
You will come to it.
 
Everyone does eventually.”

Holding hands, they passed through the first narrow passage and just behind the building where they had lunch, they found themselves walking on a narrow street lined with shops that were filled with pottery, iron lamps and silks.

“This place is incredible, Erick!
 
I can’t believe it!”

“It is pretty amazing, I must say.
 
Look around, dear wife, and if you see anything you want, just let me know.”

Cindy didn’t know where to begin.
 
There was so much and it all looked so exotic.
 
She wandered into a small shop where a man was sitting at a wooden bench crafting handmade pottery bowls with a young boy who must have been his son.

The boy pulled the bowls from the kiln in the back of the shop while the man wrapped hand-cut silver around the edges of it.

“This is so beautiful.”

Cindy smiled at the man, who looked up and smiled back at her.
 

“Thank you.”

She was surprised to hear English, but figured if one was to make any money selling to tourists you would have to learn many languages to survive in a place like this.

“How much?”

Erick already had his wallet out and pointed to the piece Cindy wanted.
 
She’d never had any man spoil her and allow her to have whatever she wanted.
 
It was a fairytale come true.

“Twenty dollars.”

Erick didn’t try to barter, as was custom in these type places.
 
He pulled the money out and laid it on the table in front of where the man was working.
 
He stopped his work and immediately wrapped the pot, put it in a bag and handed it to Cindy.

“Thank you very much.”

“Thank you, and you, Erick.
 
I love it.”

“You’re worth it.”

They wandered further into the depths of the maze of shops and soon discovered the pot was similar to many for sale here.
 
In fact most shops sold different versions of the same dozen or so items and soon it all started to blend together.

“It’s really something here, don’t you think?”

 
He held her hand and kept her close to him as they wandered around.

“Yes, it is.
 
Are you having fun?”

“It’s a bit overwhelming, but yes, I am, thanks.
 
Of course, I’m sure you’ve seen lots of other places like this in all your travels.”
 

Cindy didn’t mean to fish into his past, but she was curious about where all he had been and with whom.

“I haven’t been anywhere like this, I can tell you that.”

“Oh come on, Erick, you’ve surely been all over the world by now.”

“No, I haven’t been to as many places as you’d think.
 
I prefer to stay closer to home – you know
Mexico
and
Bahamas
, places like that.”

Cindy was surprised to hear it, and Erick could obviously see it in her face, but she could see he was telling the truth.
 

He must be even shallower than I originally thought.

Of course she would never say that to his face, but she couldn’t help but wonder why someone with so many resources wouldn’t choose to see more of the world.
 
 

“Well I guess it’s just lucky we’re out here then to get you out of your shell.”

“Yes, you’re right, it is.
 
And you?
 
I suppose you’ve jet-setted all over the place, haven’t you?”

“Oh yeah, right.
 
Uh let’s see, how about the Iowa City Corncob Parade starting when I was about six.
 
That was a big production to go to, and let’s see, since moving to
Texas
, I did manage a trip to the Southfork Ranch where
Dallas
was filmed.”

“Well you have me beat then.
 
I never saw where or who shot J. R.”

“Well, we’ll have to see to it you get to go there someday.’

As soon as she said it, Cindy wished she hadn’t.
 
What if he had no intentions of ever seeing her again?
 
Surely that was possible.
 
He didn’t owe her anything.
 
He needed her for this trip, and potentially for little else.
 
After all, the man was a millionaire.

“We will have to do that sometime, for sure.”

Erick looked at her but Cindy could not tell for sure what was going on behind his gorgeous eyes.
 
She would give anything to be able to read his mind, but for now, she decided it best to say nothing and get back to shopping.

“Look at that!”

It was a silk scarf and matching gown in deep purple.
 
Cindy walked up to it and ran her hands over it, holding it up to her skin in a small mirror hanging from a wire on the side wall of the store.

Erick didn’t say a word but got his wallet out on cue as the old woman running the place answered his question before he could ask.

“Twenty dollars.”

“Is that all?
 
Cindy, you’re turning out to be a pretty cheap date.”

“Not too cheap, I hope.”

“You know what I mean.
 
Here.”

Erick handed her the bag and they walked hand in hand for a while longer before finally arriving at the city center where a large crowd was gathered around a stone fountain inlaid in what looked like ancient colored tiles.
 
There was a large tower that looked like a place of worship and musicians played strangely exotic melodies on instruments Cindy had never seen before.

At the far side of the square, they both spotted their driver leaning against the hood of his car. He waving when he recognized them.