(2004)
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+++++about
"Which school?"
"Yale University."
"New York University?"
"No, Yale University."
"Oh? Where's that? Ohio?"
"No, in Connecticut."
"I understand."
He then asked me what I do. I said that I'm a designer.
"I do magazines and websites."
"Oh, you make good money?"
I said no. But I forgot what I said exactly.
Talking about work is one of the least exciting topics for me recently. I couldn't find a full-time job for a year.
Then there were a few minutes of silence.
I decided to ask a question that I was curious about from the moment he told me that he was from Iraq:
"How did you come to America?"
"Oh, that's a long story."
I was very much intrigued.
He asked me if I knew the last war between America and Iraq.
"Of course. The Gulf War. The old Bush."
"Yeah, the old Bush." He seemed to be relieved to know that I knew what he was talking about.
"I was in that war. I was killing Americans."
I laughed: "really? Hahaha."
"Yeah, I was killing Americans... with the missiles. Missiles, you know..." He could tell that I was very skeptical and became very excited. I couldn't catch some of the words he said. But the vision of the 1991 sky full of missiles and bombings was all coming back to him. I was a little worried that we would hit another car on the highway at that point.
"...then,"
"Then you were captured!"
"How did you know?!"
"It was obvious. Ha."
I didn't think it was hard to guess. But he seemed surprised. Maybe it was because I bursted out with that sentence, full of confidence.
