in Syria."

"Not at all." Joseph said ringing for the cook. "Summaya, Mr. Balbak wants to know your secret recipe for the shish-ka-bob. He says he has never tasted it as good as this. Dare we give away a state secret?"

"Thank you sir," she said. "It is the spices and the marinate. They come from Yemen. I will write it all out and you can have your wife call me if she has any questions."

"I'm not married, but put your telephone number on the paper and I will contact you if I have problems."

"You will be able to contact me here. Mr. Benson has asked me to stay on as his cook and housekeeper and I think I will like that very much, now."

"Summaya after you do the dishes you may lock up and go home I will see our guest out."

After finishing dinner they took their wine and went back into the library and seated themselves on the couch in front of the coffee table. "Now you were going to tell me about my father and why Segour did not like me."

"Hassan thought you were a homosexual and that Fazzi had fallen under your spell. He knew, as most of us did, that Fazzi loved young men. He set out to try to prove you were seducing Fazzi and as it turned out all he proved was that women were not distasteful to you."

"Well you must tell me how he did that." Joseph asked.

"You may not want me working for you after I tell you the story, but I am going to tell you anyway." And Allie told him the story, the whole story; at least as far as he could, including the fact that a video tape and photos were taken of him and the belly dancer in her bed.

"Whatever happened to the tape and pictures?" Joseph laughed. "I would love a copy of it. If I remember right she was one hell of a good fuck."

"I told her to keep the tape as we did not need or want it. For all I know she still has it. Anyway it was a stupid idea."

"It was not stupid. You were concerned about your friend and you wanted to protect him...however, Hassan got it all wrong. It was not I coming on to him, but it was he that seduced me. To make a long story short--- while I loved his daughter and would have married her gladly, he thought it would be better if the two of us cooled the romance down for the time being. He feared, and rightly so, that I was going to take her virginity before we married. To prevent this, and the repercussions it would have here in the Arab community, he sent her and her mother away until the wedding. As you know Fazzi was and could be a very charming man. While his wife and daughter were in Deerborn Michigan living with her relatives he insisted I live here with him in this house. He said he wanted to keep an eye on me, in order to prevent me from running after other women. My future father-in-law was very understanding and showered me with gifts and love. I never knew my birth father and mother. For too many reasons to tell you now, the people that adopted me and myself never got along well. So I