18. Had I Just Listened/Part Five
The burning heat assaulted me when I opened the car door ; it felt like entering an oven set on a high temperature, ‘Iraqis, good or bad, should go straight to heaven; this bloody summer is our hell’, I said crankily. The ‘team’ laughed, and we marched towards a huge building of several levels. Caught between the intense heat from above and its reflection from the melting asphalt below, which gripped the heels of my shoes, I felt that the distance to be traversed was endless. But much to my relief, we were greeted by the stimulating ‘neutral’ breeze of cool air. We headed for the reception desk that was positioned at the front-end of the foyer, which was elegantly furnished with velvet, navy blue couches and armchairs, and walled in by tinted windows. We lined up with others queuing up quietly, seemingly there for a similar purpose. Led by Fury, we tentatively approached the desk. ‘We’re here in response to the ad placed in the newspaper about job vacancies’, Fury explained. ‘ Ah-lan W...