24 Restless Hours

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The camel said this and suddenly seemed to grow wings. We flew up into the air like birds. Below my feet were pretty, clean houses. There wasn't any smell of smoke or filth in the air. The houses and alleys wore so neat that I thought I was watching a movie. I asked the camel, "We're not leaving Tehran, are we?" "What made you think that?" "Well," I said, "out here, there's no smell whatsoever of smoke or filth. The houses are all large and pretty as a bouquet of flowers.” The camel smiled and said, "You're right, Latif, my boy, Tehran has two parts, each with its own characteristics. North and South. The North is clean, but the South is full of smoke, filth, dust and dirt, because all the worn out buses operate in that section. All the brick kilns are in that section, and the diesels and trucks come and go from there. Many of the streets in the South aren't paved; the dirty putrid water in the open sewage gutters of the north flows downhill to the South. In short, the South is where the poor, hungry people live, and the North is the area of the rich and powerful. Have you ever seen the ten story marble buildings in ‘Hasirabad’, ‘Naziabad’ and Haji Abdol Mahmud Avenue'? In these buildings are the elegant shops of the rich, who own luxurious automobiles and dogs worth several thousand tomans." I said, "In the South, you don't see such things. There, no. one owns cars, but a lot of people have hand carts and sleep in dugouts." I was so hungry that I thought the bottom of my stomach was turning into a hole. Below our feet was a huge garden with colored lights, cool and full of freshness, flowers, and trees. A large fountain like a bouquet of flowers was in the center and several meters away there was a goldfish pool surrounded by tables and chairs, flowers, and blossoms. Lots of different foods with intoxicating odors were arranged on the tables. The came said, "Let's go down. Dinner's ready.” 13
“But where's the owner of the garden?" Don't worry about him," the camel said. "He's been tied up and stuck into the basement." The camel landed on the colorful glazed tiles at the edge of the pool, and I jumped down. The rabbit was ready. He took my hand and led me to one of the tables. A little later the guests began arriving. Dolls by car, a group by plane and helicopter, the donkey with rapid strides, tortoises hanging from the tails of baby camels, leaping and somersaulting monkeys, and scampering rabbits arrived all at once. What strange noisy guests they were for a dinner whose smell alone made the mouth water: fried turkeys, chicken kabab, all kinds of rice dishes and stewed meats, and many, many other foods that I didn't even recognized. Big bowls of every kind of fruit you would want wore set within easy reach. The camel stood on the other side of the pool, motioned everyone to be quiet and said, "Welcome everyone, large and small. It's a pleasure to have you here, but I'd like to ask you if you know why and for whose sake we've planned this expensive dinner." “For Latif. We wanted him to eat one stomachful of good food to cheer him up," said the donkey. The bear from behind the machine gun said, "Well, Latif comes to watch us so often that we -all of us- like him." "That's right,” agreed the leopard. "Just as Latif wants to own us, we want to belong to him." The lion said, "Right. Children of millionaires get tired of us very quickly. Their fathers buy new toys for them every day so they play with their toys once or twice, and then get bored and abandon us so that we wear out and die." I began to speak. "If all of you will belong to me, I promise you I'll never get tired of you. I'll always play with you and won't leave you alone." 14
Page 1 and 2: A short story by Samad Behrangi 24
Page 3 and 4: Samad Behrangi was born in the Cher
Page 5 and 6: streets by myself, returning to my
Page 7 and 8: The four of us still wanted to beat
Page 9 and 10: As they passed in front of us, the
Page 11 and 12: I suddenly came to. A heavily made-
Page 13: As my camel reached the balcony, I
Page 17 and 18: The street sweeper's broom passed r
Page 19 and 20: "He was in a bad mood; he's probabl
Page 21 and 22: As always, Ahmad Hossien was scurry
Page 23 and 24: We went under the trees of City Par
Page 25: The father went and sat at the whee

24 Restless Hours

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?