1001 Nights in Iraq by Shant Kenderian

Author:Shant Kenderian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

22. A Friend

We woke up in the morning to a new and friendly group of guards. They started to ask me questions; I gave them the usual two-minute version of my story, then we started to talk.

“You guys all look alike,” said Mike, one of the friendly guards.

“That’s because we’re all blindfolded.”

“No, I mean you guys have the same features and skin color and you’re all hairy but you look different. Are you Italian?”

“No, I’m Armenian.”

“Chicago, I want to see what you look like when we remove your blindfold for breakfast. I’ll show you a picture of my girlfriend and my family.”

When they removed my blindfold, Mike was standing in front of me. His smile and blue eyes were the first things I laid eyes on.

“Here is a photo of my girlfriend and this is my family.”

“Your girlfriend is beautiful. Are you thinking of marrying her?”

“The first thing I’ll do when I go home is propose to her.”

“Your father looks Italian.”

“He is, but my mother is Polish.”

When the next shift came, Mike had to go.

“I hope to see you in better circumstances, Chicago.”

“Any circumstance is better than this.”

After we had breakfast in the bus, the guards took us out to the pit. While watching us, the guards were talking among themselves, surprised at how cold the weather was in the desert. Washington, one of very few black soldiers in the unit, said, “I thought it’s supposed to be blazing hot in the desert. When will it be warm around here, Chicago?”

“In March it will be nice, in April warm, and in May it will be hot. By July and August, you will pray for a day like this.”

“How hot will it be in July and August?”

“From mid-July to mid-August, the temperature in the shade can peak to one hundred and ten or one hundred and twenty. On the same day, the temperature usually drops to the seventies in the evening and as low as the fifties in the early morning hours.”

“Oh my God, I hope we’ll be gone by then.”

“So do I.”

“What about sandstorms? When will those come?”

“In March you will see a lot of dust flying around, but in April you will see a red cloud approaching quickly from the horizon. Before you figure out what it is, you will find yourself blasted by sand and running for shelter.”

“How do people deal with these sandstorms in the city?” asked Washington.

“Trees are planted around the cities to reduce the severity of these storms. It’s called the Green Belt.”

“You know, Chicago, most people think I’m too nice to be a Marine. What do you think?”

What was I going to tell him? “You’re a very nice person and a good Marine.”

After the friendly conversation was over, we were back to business as usual. I was told to carry the barrel again, only this time one of the American soldiers was helping me. We carried the barrel to the barbed-wire gate, the way First Lieutenant Wafi and I did a few days earlier.

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