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THE WRITER<br />
“You sure?” Esi asked.<br />
Ali nodded. “She’s just…”<br />
“Just what?”<br />
“Nothing....” Ali took another sip.<br />
“Doesn’t she look like Anis?” Esi asked, looking back at the girl.<br />
“Yeah…” Ali nodded. “And she looks exhausted…”<br />
“Anis looked tired, too,” Esi said, watching the girl carefully.<br />
Ali was silent. Esi finished off the rest of his juice.<br />
“Hey, don’t choke.” Ali laughed. He tried to chug his drink too, but a<br />
piece of ice got caught in his throat. He started coughing. Esi laughed.<br />
“What did you say?” Ali asked, his face red from the coughing.<br />
“What did you say about Anis?”<br />
Esi put his glass on the counter. “I said she looked tired.” He shrugged.<br />
Ali gave the vendor a blue banknote and muttered, “She enjoys working<br />
her ass off.”<br />
They walked down Valiasr street. Traffic was at a standstill as usual.<br />
Noise and fumes filled the air.<br />
“Hey, have you still got Yalda Night?” Asked Alia, as they walked by<br />
the cinema, looking at the poster of Cease Fire. Two good-looking actors,<br />
a man and a woman, were leaning back against a tree trunk, frowning.<br />
“Yalda Night?” Esi asked. “Sounds familiar.”<br />
“Where the woman goes abroad...then divorces.”<br />
“Oh, yeah. Didn’t we watch it?”<br />
“Yeah. Wanna watch it again?”<br />
“I’ll look for it,” Esi said, observing Ali through the corners of his eyes.<br />
They entered a park and walked down the stairs leading to a pond and<br />
fountain. They strolled around it. People had already filled the benches<br />
around the pond.<br />
82 <strong>TRAVERSE</strong>