24 Restless Hours

Ahmad Hossien threw a suspicious look at Mahmud's feet and didn't move. "Why do you stand and stare?" Mahmud asked.
"Don't you want the shoes? Well, come and get them.”
This time Ahmad Husayn stood up, went over to Mahmud, and bent down to take off the shoes. We three looked on without saying
anything. Ahmad Hossien took a firm grip on Mahmud's foot and tugged, but his hands slipped, and he fell back on the sidewalk.
Mahmud and the blind guy broke out into such laughter that I was sure their stomachs would start aching. Ahmad Husayn's
hands were black. The blind guy kept poking Mahnnul and saying, "Didn't I say so, Mahmud! …Ha, ha…Ha! …Didn't I
say so? …Heh, heh…!"
You could see where Ahmad Hossien's fingns had slipped on Mahmud's foot. The three of us finally realized we'd been tricked.
The laughter of those two jokers was contagious; we burst out laughing too. Ahmad Hossien resentfully got up off the sidewalk,
looked at us a minute, and then he started to laugh too. We laughed as if we'd never stop! Passersby stared at us then moved on. I
leaned over and examined Mahmud's foot closely- there wasn't any shoe! Mahmud had merely painted his feet to look like he was
wearing new black shoes. It was quite a trick! "Why don't we play dice," Mahmud suggested.
I had four rials. Qasem didn't say how much money he had. Our two new friends had five rials. Zivar's kid had ten rials. Ahmad
Hossien had no money whatsoever. We went a ways down the street and began to throw dice in front of a closed shop, drawing
straws to start the game. Zivar's son got the longest one. He threw the dice and got a five. Then Qasem threw and got a six. So he
took a rial from Zivar's son and threw again. He got a two. He threw the dice to Mahmud who got a four. "This must be my lucky
night!" shouted Mahmud, clapping his hands in glee and picking up two rials from Qasem. We threw the dice in pairs, like this,
playing in succession.
When two well-dressed young men came along from the right, Ahmad Hossien ran forward and pleaded. "A rial…Sir, give me a
rial…Come on! ..." One of the men slapped Ahmad Hossien and shoved him aside. Ahmad Hossien ran in front of them and
begged again, "Sir, give me a rial ... A rial is nothing at all ... Please…."
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