IX. The Cave of Swimmers

With a lot of morphine Caravaggio makes the English patient talk about his past once again. He tells about when he first met Geoffrey and Katharine. They were on their honeymoon and have only been married for 2 weeks. Katharine was the only woman in the camp and at first she didn't feel that comfortable about bein in the desert, but she was very interested in this kind of landscape and read a lot and was really really smart.

In the desert were 4 men, the english patient who was 15 years older than katharine, her husband, Madox, and another man. And one woman, Katharine. She asked the EP for books, but he only had his one book with him that he would write his personal notes into. After he returned from a journey he gave it to her though.

Geoffrey threw a party for the EP's return.

They spent a lot of time together and the English patient did projects just to be with her and to spend time with her.

They became lovers when Katharine says to the EP:"I want you to ravish me" which means the same as "I want you to rape me". But after a while Katharine left him because she didn't believe in him loving her and returned to her husband who she knew, loved her more than anything else. The EP suffers because of her leaving him because he's serious about her.

After that Madox is described who had been the EP's best friend for 10 years. He shot himself in a ceremony in curch in 1939.

More morphine is given to the EP by Caravaggio.
He starts talking about him in the third person. He's talking about a dance with Katharine. Almásy (the EP) was drunk at this moment.

Then Caravaggio starts telling, like that he also knew Geoffrey and that he was a thief in the war. He tells Almásy that the Allies thought that Geoffrey had been killed by the EP because of Katharine. - The EP starts telling about what happened to him without taking any more morphine.



Own opinion: I think there are a lot of time jumps and I think it's really mean of Caravaggio making the EP talk with using drugs. The EP is wounded and he can't fight for what he wants so the others can just do whatever they want to.