Marrakesh

Marrakesh is the first stop in Washington Black and Tanna Goff’s search for Titch in Morocco. A missing guide leaves them waiting in the city; failed attempts to find another lead deepen their uncertainty, until the original guide returns and leads them out toward the desert.

Arrival and the Failed Arrangement

Peter has arranged for a guide to meet Washington and Tanna at the busy port, but the man is nowhere to be found. With no way to continue their journey as planned, they take rooms in Marrakesh while Washington writes to Peter asking him to secure another guide. The delay makes the city a place of waiting before it becomes a base for their search.

Searching the City

During the slow, hot days, Washington and Tanna try several routes to find Goff’s marine zoologist. Their efforts end in a confrontation with a man demanding substantial payment, and they abandon that particular hunt. They then explore the city rather than remain confined to their unsuccessful search.

Washington’s account places crowded markets and their varied stalls alongside the travelers’ growing disorientation. He and Tanna see baskets, peppers, brightly dyed wool, rope makers, and jewelers. The city’s unfamiliarity is not simply a backdrop: each day, they feel farther from the world they know and less certain that the journey will bring them to Titch.

A Lead and Departure

At a jeweler who speaks broken English, Washington asks both about the Englishman in the desert and about Goff’s colleague. The jeweler cannot help. As the days pass without a lead, Washington increasingly suspects that Titch is no longer there; he also hides his fear as best he can from Tanna.

The search changes unexpectedly when the missing guide, recovered from an illness, arrives in the city hoping to find them. Washington and Tanna recognize him as the very man who was meant to meet them at the port. He leads them in a small caravan away from Marrakesh and into the desert. Their stay thus ends not with certainty about Titch, but with a route toward him—and a further step into the unknown.