Part Twenty, Chapter Eight - Desert Nomads Know a Thing or Two About Sound Quality

I'm not sure what situation would annoy me more - that Utanc scamming Gris is just a way for Hubbard to humiliate the character representing a lot of his enemies, or that it's actually "plot-relevant."

Well, Gris wakes up the next afternoon in a good mood undiminished by Utanc's absence.

I showered, something new for me.  I put on clean clothes.  Something new for me.

Utanc better have earned hazard pay for her sacrifices last night.

I smiled at Melahat Hanim.  Something new for me.  

We know Gris is a tremendous asshole, Hubbard.  We were there for his homecoming.  We've seen how he treats other people.  Our brains do indeed function, thank you very much... this is where you could make a snide remark about Hubbard not being used to readers who can form coherent thoughts on their own.

Gris learns that Utanc has left for the afternoon - once the car he ordered the other day was delivered, she went off with Karagoz to get her license.  He's not concerned, and contentedly wiles the daylight away by giving the household boys some shiny coins and letting them eat all the grapes they want.  In due time a shiny new BMW drives up and Utanc and Karagoz disembark, but the dancing girl slinks to her room without engaging Gris.

Karagoz explains that Utanc got her license without too many problems, and was a remarkably quick student.

"I only had to show her a few things the salesman showed me.  Then I showed her how to steer and so on.  In about ten minutes she had it.  The test man said she was the best driver he'd seen for some time.  Mysterious."

"Well, of course anyone expert at driving camels would have no trouble learning to drive a road-rally, stick-shift car," I said.

"That's true," said Karagoz.

I'm finding it hard to care if the Earth gets destroyed or not. 

Karagaoz explains Utanc's bad mood as a result of her attempt to shop for music - she wanted a cassette of the "1812 Overture" with real cannons, but the store didn't have it.  Also, she complained that the high-frequency band for the player was broken and demanded that they get some decent hi-def equipment to sell her.  Gris not only misses the obvious clues that Utanc isn't a simple peasant girl, but completely ignores what he's been told and concludes that Utanc is upset with him.  He's devastated.

Remember when Heller was killing people with thrown baseballs?  Or how 'bout the time he got lessons from that crazy taxi driver?  Man, those were the days.


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