Read Online Easy Day for the Dead by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin - Free Book Online

should have some time with your friends. They can’t play Shelem without you.” Shelem was an Iranian card game similar to Spades with a point system like Rook. It was a four-player game with two partners playing against each other.
    The children grumbled, wanting to play with their father, but their mother furrowed her eyebrows at them.
    â€œAre you sure?” Major Khan asked.
    His wife nodded.
    Her kindness made him feel disconnected from the world. The monster in him despised her, but tonight he despised the monster.
    â€œAre you okay?” she asked.
    â€œI’m fine.”
    â€œIt’s okay,” Daria whispered. “I know.”
    Major Khan felt his stomach drop. He stared at her in disbelief.
    â€œIt’s okay.”
    â€œYou know?” he asked.
    â€œI know you play Shelem for money.” Gambling was illegal because it led men to believe in chance more than Allah. “Be careful.”
    He kissed her and the kids before he left.
    Major Khan drove half an hour to Captain Rapviz’s house. Inside, Rapviz greeted Major Khan before escorting him to the “guys’ room,” where Lieutenant First Class Saeed Saeedi was already seated. Saeedi was the most junior of the men and the most hotheaded.
    Next to Lieutenant Saeedi sat a thin man, Captain Nasser Fat’hi. He was a strange one. He ate only one meal a day, but snacked incessantly on pistachios. Although many women adored Pistachio, he could take them or leave them. He wasn’t married and never talked about his parents or siblings, if there were any—the Quds Force was his family, and he’d do almost anything for it. He wasn’t a particularly violent man, but in the right environment, he could be—and hanging around Lieutenant Saeedi was often the right environment.
    It looked like Pistachio and Lieutenant Saeedi would be partners in this game, so Major Khan sat across from Rapviz.
    In the middle of the table sat a galyan, an Iranian hookah. Four mouthpieces decorated with sapphires connected to four hoses adorned with silk that led to a colorful pottery jar filled with water. A crystal pipe, held in place by a lid on the jar, rose from the water up to a bowl of sweetened tobacco. Above the tobacco sat a container of charcoal. Rapviz lit the charcoal. Because Major Khan was senior, Rapviz motioned for him to take the first drag.
    As Major Khan inhaled through a sapphire-covered mouthpiece,he dragged air from the charcoal through the tobacco, vaporizing it. The smoke descended the crystal pipe into the water, which bubbled, cooling the smoke before releasing it into the space between the water and the water jar lid. The smoke continued through the hose to Major Khan’s mouthpiece, then into his lungs. Even though he hadn’t inhaled a second time, smoke pulled from the tobacco, via the water, to his lips again. Normally a smoke relieved him, but the burden of his monster weighed too heavily. He invited the others to join him. They smoked through their individual mouthpieces.
    Rapviz dealt the cards and they played Shelem while smoking. The four joked around while betting their money. Pistachio cracked pistachios in his mouth and spit the shells in a plastic cup. At first Pistachio and Lieutenant Saeedi were winning. Lieutenant Saeedi bubbled like a giddy schoolboy. His emotions were easy to read, which made him easy to be around when things were going well. However, as the evening progressed, Pistachio and Lieutenant Saeedi began to lose. Lieutenant Saeedi didn’t care much about money, but he did care about how he looked to others, and he hated looking like a loser.
    Lieutenant Saeedi threw his cards down on the table. “This game sucks.”
    Pistachio complained. “Hey, what’re you doing? We were having a good game of cards.”
    â€œIt isn’t a good game.”
    â€œThen what is a good game?” Major Khan asked.
    Lieutenant Saeedi looked frustrated. Now he