INT. LIVING ROOM – DAY
ABDULLAH, clean shaven and dressed in a jogging suit, sits on
the couch drinking whiskey.
YUSUF, handsome with a mature demeanor, enters the room with
a keffiyeh around his shoulders.
YUSUF
How do I look?
ABDULLAH
Beautiful. Now sit.
Yusuf sits beside his brother. Yusuf takes the keffiyeh from
his shoulders and sets in his lap.
YUSUF
The minute I’m out the door you’ll
find a pretty blonde girl, make her
your new drinking buddy.
ABDULLAH
She won’t be better company than my
brother.
Yusuf picks up a glass and clinks glasses with his brother.
They each take a sip.
Abdullah picks up the keffiyeh in his brother’s lap.
ABDULLAH (CONT’D)
They won’t let you on the plane
wearing that. You should definitely
keep it on.
Abdullah shares a mischievous grin.
YUSUF
You could come, too.
Abdullah downs his drink and pours himself another.
ABDULLAH
What for? They don’t even have
decent plumbing in Baghdad. Not
even in the fucking capital? The
whole place is gone to shit.
YUSUF
Iraq can’t get better if the smart
ones stay in the US. They could use
an engineer.
ABDULLAH
And I need money.
Abdullah raises his glass.
ABDULLAH (CONT’D)
This stuff isn’t cheap.
Abdullah downs his drink and puts it on the table. He goes to
the hall closet and returns with a plastic shopping bag. He
puts the plastic bag inside of Yusuf’s bag.
YUSUF
What is it?
ABDULLAH
Things you won’t be able to get in
Baghdad.
YUSUF
You let me stay with you for a
year. I don’t need anymore gifts.
ABDULLAH
For our mother, then.
YUSUF
She’d rather have you back instead.
ABDULLAH
So would Al Qaeda, but we can’t
please everybody.
Abdullah pushes hard on the overstuffed suitcase and
struggles to zip it closed.
YUSUF
Listen to you. You even talk like
an American. Everybody is Al Qaeda.
ABDULLAH
You think I’m lying?
YUSUF
Be honest with me. You like it
here.
ABDULLAH
I don’t have to worry about getting
killed.
2.
YUSUF
Because you never leave the house.
I’m telling you, the war’s over.
Nobody’s looking for you anymore.
Abdullah pours himself another drink. He pours a bit more in
Yusuf’s barely touched glass. Yusuf raises his hand to keep
Abdullah from pouring anymore.
ABDULLAH
You were just as scared as I was.
YUSUF
I don’t want to fight with you.
Y’allah
. Let’s go.
Yusuf stands up and takes his suitcase by the handle.
ABDULLAH
It was at night. They had masks so
we couldn’t see their faces.
YUSUF
Those were kids. They were playing
at being gangsters.
Abdullah settles into his drunkenness and sorrow.
ABDULLAH
They saw me talking with the
Americans. I wanted to know why the
soldiers had so much water, bottles
of it stacked in heaps, going to
waste, while the rest of us were
dying of thirst. But it didn’t
matter what I said. I was talking
to an American soldier, and like
that…
Abdullah snaps his fingers.
ABDULLAH (CONT’D)
I’m called a traitor.
Yusuf’s phone rings.
YUSUF
(on the phone)
Yeah?…I’m coming out.
(to Abdullah)
The taxi’s here.
3.
ABDULLAH
I told you I’d take you to the
airport myself.
YUSUF
I knew you would drink like this.
Abdullah picks up his car keys, but Yusuf takes them away,
sets them on the table.
YUSUF (CONT’D)
Show them you’re not a coward. Come
with me. Come home.
4.