BaalbekT
he ruins he was supposed to be studying were sprinkled around the outskirts of Baalbek. Shake saw several of them silhouetted against a pale blue sky as Wafic maneuvered the cab toward the Hotel Palmyra where he had reservations for a week-long stay. The deal they’d hammered out over lunch on the road from Beirut called for Wafic to find his own lodgings and pay for them with an extra slug of cash Shake forked over in advance. There was still some uncertainty about the terms morning and evening so Shake told Wafic to pick him up every sun and take him around to the ruins. Shake would pick up the tab for their meal in the moon and they’d repeat the process daily until he was ready to return to Beirut.
Cruising along the streets of Baalbek en route to the hotel located near the ce
