little experience living and dealing with people of color. Except for seeing them on TV, the movies, and having a few in his Basic Training unit, he knew nothing of colored people. He never really had the desire to get "close" to any of them. Well, that’s not exactly the truth; he did have this vision of Halle Berry and himself in bed, but that was just the sexual fantasy of many young sexually active guys after seeing the movie Monster Ball. So, when Ibrahim and he were paired as roommates, he was a bit on edge. He expressed these feeling to Ibrahim, and told him that in spite of this he hoped that they would get to be cool with living together.

"Well we have no choice. We are just going to have to adjust to this situation. Perhaps if we just forget about this race shit, we might even get to like one and other. We can try to be easy with each other; we can even joke about it. Hey, remember that we are both human beings and bound to make mistakes. By the way," he said, his handsome face breaking into a big smile and with an overstated southern accent, "y'all safe with me, white boy, I'ze a partial vegetarian, don't eat no pork, nor do I'za eat the other kind of 'white meat'. I won't eat you, and to start with, you can even have my share of the pork in the mess."

"If you're sure you are not just trying to fatten me because I'm so tough, and if that includes the bacon, then you got a deal...I think we are going to get along just fine. Hey, as long as you are supposed to know some Arabic, how about you teach me a few words. You know, like the ones I would need to pick up a belly dancer or two," Joseph asked.

"You infidels! Belly dancing is an old respected art form, like your ballet. But just to get us off on the right foot here are a few words like, 'I love you' and 'darling' that might help," his roommate said, and then taught him the translations.

It was difficult getting Joseph's tongue to twist and turn in order to get the words out properly. There were sounds that did not appear in English. Frustrated at times, Ibrahim kept using one expression over and over. When Joseph asked him what it meant, he just lowered his eyes and said, "Never mind, this is Arabic 101 and that lesson is a bit too advanced for you."

"Come on now. What does it mean and how do you say it?"

"It's just a very rude curse expression, that, may Allah forgive me, I unfortunately use too often," he said. "I have to be careful not to use it around my mom. My mother is still a Christian, and would kill me if she knew what it meant. It's Koos Emach. Roughly, it means, 'your mother's vagina.'"

"Well let's see now—I love you—darling—cunt—and mother. I think that's enough for one day. As long as we getting some time off, how about you coming into the city with me and help me celebrate my birthday?" Joseph had asked him.

"Thank you for the invitation, I would like to, but I