When I was in fifth grade, we had a mullah who taught us about Islam. His name was Mullah Fatiullah Khan, a short, stubby man with a face full of acne scars and a gruff voice. He lectured us about the virtues¹ of "zakat" and the duty of "hadj"; he taught us the intricacies of performing the five daily "namaz" prayers, and made us memorize verses from the Koran—and though he never translated the words for us, he did stress, sometimes with the help of a stripped willow² branch, that we had to pronounce the Arabic words correctly so God would hear us better. He told us one day that Islam considered drinking a terrible sin; those who drank would answer for their sin on the day of “Qiyamat”, Judgment³ Day. In those days, drinking was fairly common in Kabul. No one gave you a public lashing⁴ for it, but those Afghans who did drink did so in private, out of respect. People bought their scotch⁵ as "Medicine"in brown paper bags from selected "pharmacies⁶."They would leave with the bag tucked out of sight, sometimes drawing furtive⁷, disapproving⁸ glances from those who knew about the store's reputation for such transactions.

We were upstairs in Baba's study, the smoking room, when I told him what Mullah Fatiullah Khan had taught us in class. Baba was pouring himself a whiskey from the bar he had built in the corner of the room. He listened, nodded, took a sip⁹ from his drink. Then he lowered himself into the leather sofa, put down his drink, and propped¹⁰ me up on his lap. I felt as if I were sitting on a pair of tree trunks. He took a deep breath and exhaled¹¹ through his nose, the air hissing¹² through his mustache for what seemed an eternity¹³ I couldn't decide whether I wanted to hug him or leap from his lap in mortal fear.

我上五年级的时候，上伊斯兰课的毛拉Mullah，伊斯兰教对老师、先生、学者的敬称。叫法修拉，个子矮小粗壮，脸上满是青春痘的疤痕，声音嘶哑。他教导我们，让我们知道施天课的伊斯兰教有五大天命：念、礼、斋、课、朝。（天课zakat，即伊斯兰教法定的施舍，或称"奉主命而定"的宗教赋税，又称“济贫税”。）益处，还有朝觐的责任。他还教给我们每天五次礼拜伊斯兰教每天要进行五次礼拜，在黎明、中午、下午、日落和晚上各进行一次。的复杂仪式，要我们背诵《可兰经》。他从不替我们翻译经文，总是强调--有时还会用上一根柳树条--我们必须准确地念出那些阿拉伯字眼，以便真主能听得更清楚。一天，他说在伊斯兰教义里面，喝酒是极大的罪过，那些嗜酒的家伙将会在接受超度那一天（审判日）得到惩罚。当年喀布尔饮酒的人比比皆是，没有人会公然加以谴责。不过那些爱小酌几杯的阿富汗人也只敢阳奉阴违，从不在公开场合喝酒。人们把烈酒称为“药”，到特定的"药店"购买，用棕色纸袋包着。他们将袋子扎好，以免被看到；然而有时在路上仍不免被人偷眼斜睨，因为知道这些商店在兜售什么玩意的人可不少。

我们在楼上，爸爸的书房--那个吸烟室——里面，我告诉他法修拉毛拉在课堂上讲的话。爸爸走到那个他造在屋角的吧台，自斟了一杯威士忌。他边听边点头，不时从他的酒杯小啜一口。接着他坐在皮沙发上，把酒杯放下，把我抱在他的膝盖上。我觉得自己好像坐在一对树干上。他用鼻子深深吸一口气，又呼出来，气息嘶嘶作响，穿过他的胡子，似乎永无止境。我不知道自己是该拥抱他呢，还是该害怕得从他膝盖上跳下来。