The Three Day Pass
Chapter 13 

By Joystick

“Hello. Fazzi Muhammad here. I was wondering if I might talk to Mr. Worthington, please?” Fazzi said into the telephone mouthpiece.

“Oh yes! Mr. Muhammad, I’ll put you right through. He is expecting your call,” answered an elderly female voice. After a few seconds, “Hello, Richard Worthington here. Mr. Muhammad?”

“Yes, it is. A Private Joseph Benson told me to call you any time about the possibility of your company handling some investments for me. I hope he wasn’t, as you Americans say, ‘pulling my foot’,” the Arab said. “One can never tell with these young men these days. They sometimes, shall we say, overplay their connections and I would not want to interrupt an important business meeting or conference.”

“Sir, let me assure you that Joseph, as I’m sure you are aware of, is not one to do that,” Richard senior said smiling into the phone. “He is a bright young man and a very trustworthy one at that. Those are unusual qualities to find in most of today’s youth. Someday, when he is free from the army, I hope to have him enter my firm. I’m even thinking of making him a associate, after he has served an apprenticeship.”

“I’m very happy to see that you and I agree about him,” Fazzi said. “Then you will not have any objection to my using him as my translator. As much as I pride myself on my knowledge of the English language, there are times when I find myself at a loss for a word or two. Joseph has the ability of knowing what I want to say even before I can get it out of my mouth. Besides, he is nice to have around.”

“That would be fine with me. I do not know if Joseph told you that I would be pleased to meet with you in person to discuss what possibilities there might be of our doing business together,” the Wall Street mogul said.

“Yes, Joseph mentioned that and I would consider it an honor if we could meet for, shall we say, dinner some evening?” the Arab suggested, and continued, “you know that it is an old Arabic custom to socialize and conduct business at the same time. We like to do business with people we know and can get to like.”

“It is not only an Arabic custom, but also an American one as well. We have had what has been called, ‘The Three Martini Lunch’ for decades.”

“Ahhhhh yes! I have heard of that. However, I was thinking of something more in-line with my tradition,” the Middle Easterner said. “There is a special sort of night club that I know called the 'Cafe Casablanca', where I have been thinking of taking Joseph. It has good food, music and entertainment. It is