He listened to the ringing. On the fourth one, he heard his wife say hello as if it were anyone, and when she heard nothing on the other end, she said hello a few more times and then hung up. He called her immediately after, heard her hello again, but this time the tone of her voice was hopeful, and just that made him weak. He almost said her name. He pushed the end-call button reluctantly. The third time, she didn’t pick up. He stopped calling, put the phone in his lap, and waited.

He looked out the car window. The flaxen sand was undisturbed, the air still unmoving, just as Tehran’s had been. He must be living through some kind of record for windless weather. He looked at the driver. He should worry more about him. He should think about who he might be. He shouldn’t lean on a hired man. Yet he wasn’t strong enough to care, though he was improving—thinking about what he should be thinking. Hoseyn sighed.

The driver didn’t glance back at him. The guy was lost in his own thoughts, no doubt ten thousand troubles. Past this desert there were ten million more.

The brrr of the sat phone’s ring crashed through to them. Hoseyn pushed the talk button.

“Joahn,” his wife said. My soul.

“Joahn,” he said.

“You’re good,” she said. She didn’t sound as if she were asking.

“I am.” He decided to answer.

He could hear the fast intake of her breath. He should be fucking around with her. It would worry her that he wasn’t.

“How’s the cookie?”

She laughed, but not for long.

She didn’t seem ready to say anything.

“So my uncle, what did he ask?”

He could hear her thinking. Her mind wasn’t graveside.

She finally got it.

“Of that mummy?” She was trying to laugh again.

“Yeah.”

“Did you fuck your mother. Did you betray your country. Those were two things.”

Hoseyn laughed, his first time since getting to Dubai. It quickly went to tears.

“The asshole,” he said, trying to keep it to laughter.

“The asshole,” she said. She wasn’t crying or laughing.

They were quiet. He remembered her voice. He could almost hear the way it sounded when she wasn’t on the phone.

“Some more time,” he said to her. That was because he’d be gone a long time.

“Some more time,” she said.

“Okay, then.” He didn’t want to hang up.

“Okay,” she said.