Read Xala for Free Online Page B

office. In an hour? Fine.’
    He replaced the receiver and called out:
    â€˜Come in!’
    It was Madame Diouf.
    â€˜Your second wife is on the phone. The other line.’
    â€˜Thank you. I’ll take it.’
    When his secretary had left the room, he picked up the receiver again.
    â€˜It’s me. What is it Oumi? I had a lot to do this morning. I have my work to do. What? Come round to your place’. Now? I can’t. What? Money? You’ve had enough already!’
    El Hadji held the receiver away from his ear. At the other end Oumi N’Doye stormed:
    â€˜I’m not Adja Awa. After all you spent on this wedding, you can at least think of your children. I’m sending Alassane round.’
    â€˜A waste of time,’ shouted El Hadji. ‘I’ll call this afternoon. Yes, I promise. Yes, yes!’
    El Hadji nervously replaced the receiver and took out his handkerchief to wipe his damp face. Oumi N’Doye exasperated him. The woman was a spendthrift. Only the day before yesterday he had given her plenty of money. What had she done with it? His suspicions returned to her. Was she responsible for his xala ? Why had she phoned him at the shop?
    There was another knock at the door.
    â€˜Come in!’
    It was the President, wearing a big smile.
    â€˜I thought you must be exhausted! So the “stuff” worked then?’ he asked, settling himself comfortably into a worn-out easy-chair bought at a sale.
    â€˜It’s not that,’ said El Hadji, coming from behind the table. ‘I have a problem. And you’re the only person I can trust. I have the xala.’
    The President started and looked up at El Hadji, who was standing over him.

    â€˜I’ll be frank. I can’t manage an erection with the girl. Yet when I left the shower I was stiff. Then when I got to her, nothing. Nothing at all.’
    The President sat with his mouth open, unable to utter a sound.
    The beggar’s chant, almost as if it were inside the room, rose an octave.
    â€˜This morning the Badyen advised me to see a marabout.’
    â€˜You took no precautions?’
    â€˜What precautions? I’ve never believed in all that nonsense,’ said El Hadji. The tone of his voice had changed, became agitated, as if broken. ‘The Badyen wanted me to sit on a mortar.’
    â€˜When last did you make love?’
    â€˜The day before yesterday with my second wife.’
    â€˜Do you suspect anyone? Either of your wives?’
    â€˜Which one?’ El Hadji wondered, walking over to the window and shutting it.
    â€˜These beggars should all be locked up for good!’
    â€˜Adja Awa Astou, for example?’
    El Hadji turned round to face him. His face was expressionless, only his eyes moved.
    â€˜Adja Awa Astou?’ he mused aloud. He could not make up his mind. He could not say for sure that she was responsible for his condition,
    â€˜No,’he confessed. ‘Our sexual relations are very infrequent but she never complains.’
    â€˜The second then?’ .
    Frowning, El Hadji pondered the possibility.
    â€˜Why would Oumi N’Doye do this to me? I spoil her more than the awa .’
    â€˜All the more reason for her to make you impotent. As long as she. was the favourite she accepted polygamy and the rivalry. But now she has lost the privileges of being the youngest. She is not the first woman to behave like this and give her man the xala .’
    El Hadji was impressed by the President’s logic.
    â€˜You mean it is Oumi N’Doye?’
    â€˜No! No! I’m not accusing your second wife at all. But I do know that they are all capable of it.’
    â€˜I am a Muslim. I have the right to four wives. I have never deceived either of them on this point.’

    The President realized his colleague was talking to himself.
    â€˜The thing to do is to go and see a marabout.’
    â€˜That is why I asked you to come round,’ said El Hadji