SEVEN
As soon as the truck arrived at the Shushan Agency, you ran as quickly as you could to Haj al-Mahdy’s shop. He welcomed you with an embrace, cursing the Italians who had spread terror throughout the country, debased its people, and robbed them of their youth. He told you he had been obliged to replace you, but that he had also been taken away. Despite his lame foot, this second assistant had been among the last to be conscripted in one of the raids. The Haj asked you how the army training was going, so you told him that you hadn’t fled on the very first day, hiding in your family’s house in Awlad Al Sheikh until the danger passed, and that now you wanted to come back to work.
You watched the Haj poke his head out of the shop, craning his neck, looking worriedly left and right at th
