Abdellah’s grief over Driss’s death

Abdellah’s grief over Driss’s death is bound up with two kinds of loss: the son he has buried and the knowledge of that son he feels he never possessed. After choosing not to punish David Henniger, Abdellah returns to the house and to memories that offer no final explanation of Driss, only a more intricate sense of his absence.

The Aftermath of Restraint

Abdellah walks away from the jeep toward the oued as dawn breaks, then returns to the house and prepares tea and a pipe. The chipping hammers on the cliffs recall Driss as a boy, fifteen years earlier, secured to a long rope while working high above the ground. The present-day sound of children extracting stone thus carries Abdellah back to a time when his son was alive and his safety still caused the family concern.

After smoking and eating a boiled egg, Abdellah enters Driss’s room and lingers among his belongings. The room becomes a setting for recollection rather than an answer: the traces of Driss’s former life remain, but the person himself is gone. Abdellah remembers that after returning from France, Driss kept his experiences in Paris from his family, spent much of his time alone, and went out at night. He later returned to Hmor looking for work at the quarries, though Abdellah does not know whether he succeeded.

A Son Difficult to Know

Abdellah recalls Driss’s change after his time away: his voice had acquired a bite, and he seemed more arrogant, unyielding, and withdrawn. He kept his small earnings to himself and would not answer questions about how much he had made in Europe. Abdellah had let him leave without a word, remembering the confidence with which he seemed to promise that he would return richer and more capable; instead, Driss came back guarded and unwilling to speak. For Abdellah, that transformation was painful not simply because it made his son difficult, but because it left the father unsure who his son had become.

The recollection widens into a portrait made of particulars that do not resolve into a stable character: Driss’s long hands, a small scar on his left hand, wandering eyes, and the habit of hiding banknotes in his socks. Abdellah remembers that Driss listened to raï alone in his room and that reports from Erfoud or Rissani linked him to drugs and illegal Trilobites. Yet he also places Driss among other young men who sold the same things, judging him more indiscreet than exceptional. The memories accumulate, but they do not overcome Abdellah’s sense that he never knew his son fully.

Grief, Anger, and Unanswered Questions

During the following night, Abdellah regrets that he did not kill David Henniger when he had the opportunity. His regret does not rest on certainty that David was guilty; Abdellah says to himself that he cannot forgive him for Driss’s death, regardless of what David did or did not do. He sees his restraint as weakness and fears that, because no punishment followed, Driss’s life and death have been wasted.

But the desire for revenge conceals the more intimate source of his anger. At the grave after midnight, Abdellah recognizes that what he truly wanted to avenge was his failure to know Driss. The road accident has made that failure permanent: the questions that gathered around his son can no longer be answered by the person who might have answered them. Abdellah imagines Driss remembering his past in the grave, inaccessible to everyone else, while the riddles surrounding him recede and grow more complicated. The passage ends by placing this private grief beside the Quran’s reminder that life is a pastime and a game, and that people can forget its end. For Abdellah, death does not clarify Driss; it seals off the life he was trying, too late, to understand.