CHAPTER 38

Hassan: I said, ‘Manny, listen to me, you’re my boss. He said ‘Yes.’ I said to him, ‘If you give me the order, any order, and I say no to you, what are you going to do to me?’ He said, ‘You can’t say no to me because I’m the boss.’ I said, ‘I’m asking you what you’re going to do to me. I know you’re my boss.’ He said, ‘Maybe I will fire you.’ I said to Manny, ‘Imagine if you don’t believe in God from the beginning? What’s God going to give to you? I’ll tell you what he’s going to give to you. First, he’s going to put you in the hell. But where in the hell? Did you see this grill?’ You know the grill when we cook the sheesh kebab?

Author: No. Just say it again. God’s going to put you in hell, but where in hell? Is it a place close to the sun or something?

Hassan: Yeah. He’s going to put you in the hell. Which place? You know the grill when we cook the sheesh kebab?

Author: Yeah.

Hassan: When you cook the picnic, you have something to cook the sheesh kebab, the barbecue, like you have the fire on top and you have the bits of wood come from the material, and then come the stone on top of this.

Author: Where it’s white and hottest?

Hassan: Yes. You will be under all this. You’re not going to come past. No way.

Author: So why do you get put there? Just for not believing God? For being an apostate?

Hassan: Yes.

Author: Was it a particularly bad place because he was Jewish?

Hassan: No, not because he’s Jewish. Because he doesn’t believe Allah.

Author: Okay. And how did Manny react to that?

Hassan: He’s laughing.