Xámza

Chapter 3 Señor Dondequiera

Kalil threw back his head and laughed as his words drifted over Amaris Dahia's innocence like wind-swept clouds over an open field. But she so liked the sound of her father's comforting voice—as he too so liked the sound of his own voice—that she listened with delight as he continued on, oblivious to the limits of her young mind.

“The more I traveled the more I found that I could turn my seemingly precarious fate of being from nowhere into the glorious opportunity of being from everywhere. I learned to entertain people with my ability to recognize a myriad of languages and dialects.”

Kalil suddenly rose to his feet and began addressing an imaginary audience, slicing the air with grand sweeping gestures.

“My travels throughout the known world have given me the ability to distinguish an Indian Raja from a Kashmiri nobleman, a Romanian tinker from a Bulgarian farmer. This remarkable feat is achieved by my uncanny facility to discern the subtlest intonation of the human voice, the most delicate turn of phrase, the slightest gesture of a hand. It is for this reason that no man, woman, or child from anywhere on the far corners of the earth can hope to conceal their identity from 'The Amazing Seņor Dondequiera'!”

*Seņor Dondequiera: Mr. Anywhere