I had been at the railway station for nearly a month mapping the stars

Due to the complexity of my task I worked mainly at night when the sun was down and the desert was at its darkest

During the day I just hung around the railway station helping the staff with mundane tasks such as the transfer of luggage and goods on to the back of trucks

In return they left me alone although I was always welcome in their mess room where I often shared supper

On Sundays the station was not manned as no trains stopped there

I often sat in the shelter of the canopy watching odd trains pass through the station

Travellers sometimes looked at me as if I was an itinerant gypsy and not a highly educated professor mapping the stars

But that did not matter as nothing matters in the desert

I was living in my motorhome but found the vehicle far too hot during the day and would soon take refuge under the arches which housed the booking hall and the small waiting room

Each time I sat on the simple benches I would think of the forgotten architects who designed this and many other railway stations in the area

The design was so simple with the flow of air given priority due to the temperatures experienced during the summer months

There was no decoration and this gave the station an organic feel

A few days ago a Dutch couple alighted at the station primarily to take photographs of the area and although they ignored me at first they soon found out that I was an academic and introduced themselves

They expressed a little surprise at my occupation and asked why I was engaged in a task that had been completed many times before

I explained that although the stars had been mapped countless times before they were always changing and that my exile was not part of a larger study but a personal passion

The woman who was the more talkative of the two noted that she was a historian and was studying the history of the Arabs in the area

It was as she left that she handed me a small black book with a worn but decorated leather cover

She said that she hoped that the book would help me to pass the many daytime hours when time at the station seemed to stand still

The book was called The History of the Conquest of Spain by the Arabs and had been published in the 1860s

Roughly at the same time as the station was built

I enjoyed this fact as there was a certain symmetry to it and this was the reason that I was mapping the stars.