35053668-Empire-of-the-Soul-Paul-William-Roberts

‘I LIKE TOO MUCH THE PHFIT-PHFIT’
Pathans have curious attitudes toward women: chauvinism mixed
with worship and almost fear. To see women engaged in acts they
would not expect even prostitutes to perform, and engaged in such
acts while being photographed, disturbed them. Hadji called for a
projector. Then he asked Ray, ‘Next time you bring Hadji real
America girl, yes?’
‘Got just the one for you,’ Ray replied. ‘Getting her all prepared
right now, as a matter of fact.’
Sophie? I wondered.
‘She have the yellow hair, yes?’
‘She does now.’
Another armed man dragged in a huge wicker hamper. Inside it
were slabs of hashish the size of bridge tables. He broke off pieces
from different slabs, handing them to Ray, who cracked them apart,
sniffing the fresh, greenish resin inside.
‘But now we smoke this one,’ Hadji announced, pulling a different
chunk from his pocket.
Ray informed me that this was the finest hashish on earth. ‘They
only make a few kilos a year,’ he explained. ‘And it ain’t for sale.’
What Ray bought was the second-best grade; and even that, he
claimed, was a thousand times better than anything anyone else
was selling in America or Canada. He selected the slabs he approved
of while Hadji rolled a Western-style joint, emptying a Dunhill
and restuffing its tube with hashish and tobacco. The sweet odour
soon wafted around the courtyard.
The stuff was so strong I soon had hallucinations about being in
some scene from the Arabian Nights; then things began to veer
toward the paranoid, as I wondered how safe it was to be lounging
around with all these armed tribal dope dealers. The whisky began
to taste like burning honey, and, as porn films flickered into life on
the peeling plaster walls, I asked Ray how long we’d be staying
here.
Not long. After a mumbled conversation with Hadji, he rose,
beckoning to me. The original driver took us back to where he’d
picked us up. Feeling very vulnerable and conspicuous, I plodded
beside Ray back to Dean’s Hotel. Next day we’d be heading north.
To Swat.
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