A Line in the Sand. Guillermo Verdecchia

it going?

      SADIQ:

      Special today—(holds up perfume bottle) Obsession. Very nice for send to girlfriend.

      MERCER:

      No, thanks …

      SADIQ:

      Yes, you very smart. Not real Obsession, is only from Cairo.

      Pause.

      You want more picture? Very expensive. More than before.

      MERCER:

      Right.

      SADIQ:

      For you, I get real good. Best price.

      MERCER:

      Yeah? Let’s see.

      SADIQ pulls out photographs. MERCER studies them intently as SADIQ shows him each one.

      No. No. No. Yes. No. No. Yes. (Beat)

      This woman—she looks dead.

      SADIQ:

      Pretend. Acting.

      MERCER:

      How do you know?

      SADIQ:

      Salim, my boss, he say no one gets hurt.

      MERCER:

      Better than the real thing, eh?

      SADIQ:

      I do not understand.

      MERCER:

      Just a joke, kid. How much for the three?

      SADIQ:

      One hundred US dollars.

      MERCER:

      Forget it, man.

      SADIQ:

      What you say, boss. (he begins to put photographs away)

      MERCER:

      I’ll give you fifty. Canadian.

      SADIQ:

      Purple fish? For beg and steal from Salim? Then I never go to Kansas.

      MERCER:

      Seventy-five.

      SADIQ:

      Ho, for you, OK. Seven five.

      MERCER:

      Special offer, huh?

      SADIQ:

      What?

      MERCER:

      You’re giving me a deal, eh?

      SADIQ:

      What is your name?

      MERCER:

      Mercer.

      SADIQ:

      Mercer. I am Sadiq.

      MERCER:

      Sadiq?

      SADIQ:

      Sadiq. Yes, we make deal. Seven five purple fish.

      MERCER:

      Here, Sadiq.

      Hands SADIQ money.

      SADIQ:

      Look, I have nice envelope for picture. Customer is always right.

      MERCER:

      Yeah.

      Pause.

      MERCER:

      What are you doing?

      SADIQ:

      Look at water. Beautiful.

      My brother is over there (he points). In West Bank. I not see since I am twelve. You have brother?

      MERCER:

      How old are you?

      SADIQ:

      Sixteen.

      MERCER:

      Sixteen, huh?

      SADIQ:

      And you?

      MERCER:

      I’m twenty.

      SADIQ:

      I am seventeen very soon. One—two month. You ­skinny to be soldier.

      MERCER:

      What?

      SADIQ:

      You very skinny. Americans soldier much more, you know, with beef. Canadian soldier is much less beef, yes?

      MERCER:

      Well, I don’t know if skinny is the word I’d use but—we’re not all the same, you know.

      SADIQ:

      You—different. How you different?

      MERCER:

      I don’t know.

      I went to university.

      SADIQ:

      I do not understand.

      MERCER:

      Most of these guys, they join up ’cause they got ­nothing else. Or they want a free education. Not me.

      SADIQ:

      Why you join?

      MERCER:

      I wanted to get my shit together. I was at Queen’s University. What a fucking waste of time.

      SADIQ:

      School. Puh. School is no good.

      MERCER:

      You’re telling me.

      SADIQ:

      My brother real good in school. Always top. Now he is in prison.

      MERCER:

      Oh yeah?

      SADIQ:

      Here I learn real life. But my father, he know I not go to school, he would break my throat.

      MERCER:

      Fuck. When I quit school and joined up, my father freaked.

      SADIQ:

      Freak?

      MERCER:

      He got really angry.

      SADIQ:

      For why?

      MERCER:

      He’s a government big-shot. Makes him look bad, his son’s a stupid soldier.

      SADIQ:

      Yes. You like me.

      MERCER:

      What?

      SADIQ:

      You … like … me.

      MERCER:

      No I don’t.

      SADIQ:

      No, I say, “You like me.”

      MERCER:

      I don’t even know you.

      SADIQ:

      No, no. Like me. For angry father you join army—come to Qatar. Me also. Work for Salim and go to Kansas.

      MERCER:

      No. I didn’t join because of him.

      SADIQ:

      Then why you join?

      MERCER:

      I told you. I wanted discipline.

      A few months