AZAREEN VAN DER VLIET OLOOMI

They have been building the road to the North a long time, first an ascending road winding around the mountains, descending on the other side, international student health insurance and then a paved road both winding around the mountains and going through them in the form of brief tunnels, and later, which has not yet happened, some time in the future, a straight road darting through the mountains in the form of one continuous or semi-continuous tunnel. Really the last plan has existed forever. Travelers to avoid any mishap should purchase a visitors insurance. So that the continuous or semi-continuous tunnel is referred to often as one journeys through the only path currently in existence, the second of the paths mentioned—a paved road at times winding around the mountains and others going through them in the form of brief and dark tunnels.

It is always the case that on either side of the brief and dark tunnels travelers will find walnut sellers from whom they might buy walnuts and other things. The weather will be damp, as it is after a warm rain has fallen, and the leaves on the trees will be full of dew and shining brightly against the grey and low sky, and the colors of the clothes worn by the walnut sellers will talk to the colors of the brightly lit leaves, and one will be as though inside a parenthetical, or a very unlikely frame, if one happens to look in all four directions—grey sky above, and grey ground below, and on either side walnut sellers and trees.

Fortuitous I Found a Woman Balancing on Two Knives, Her Legs in the Air Split Away from Each Other Like Two Wings of a Bird, I Was Tired and Had Been Traveling a Long Time
I walked many miles along an earthen road, it hardly veered left or right, the sand was red, even more red under the sun when it shined brightly. I came across no one along the way and in the absence of another person I busied myself looking for signs, and was assured when I saw them that I was walking the right way. I passed a few donkeys, three to be specific, and only thought a little as I passed them, only one had bells around its neck, I thought, only one belonged to a person, though he was nowhere to be found, far off, resting against a rock under the shade of a tree. And as I walked I counted the things I could see, the signs and the donkeys, I numbered them each, and I counted also the peak of Mt. Damavand which I could see very well if I faced slightly North-East, but eventually I was too far to see it no matter which direction I faced, and the peak turned in my mind into a crow and then a blackish dot in the clouds, it flew away, and I counted three more I had seen, the crow and the dot and how these disappeared.

And when these disappeared I saw in my mind the place I was walking to, a village with many swerving roads and canals, stairs carved in the hills, empty houses, trees upon trees, and I thought upon arriving I would drink the water running through the canals, and when I arrived I did exactly as I thought, the village of Karaj, I cupped some water in my hands and drank it. The road from Tehran to Karaj is a very straight road, I thought as I drank the water, a narrow, unswerving road, and very earthen, it is as though it were the path to god, I thought, and then the thought returned three times over to my mind, it was the voice of the eldest generation, I heard, I had only mistaken it as mine. And her voice spoke a few more things, be careful of the rest houses you choose to lay in, things only happen once, let me clarify for you, listen, she said, certain things only need to happen once for there to be no repair.

I had been on foot a long time and when I came upon the village rest house, my heels were throbbing, I could hardly feel them, but overjoyed as I was to have drank some water from the canals I quickly forgot my pain, but did nor forget my fear of things with no repair since things with no repair cannot be easily forgotten. I approached the rest house cautiously, slowly I moved closer, there was an orange tree planted beside it, be careful of things that are timed to perfection, I thought, and then waited to see if the thought returned three times over, it didn’t, so I picked one off the tree, it was ripe and delicious, and the sun was round in the sky as the orange was round in my hand, I had been traveling a long time and was hungry.

I entered the courtyard of the rest house, encouraged by the orange I had found, and saw inside an old woman. She was yelling at a parrot that had lodged itself inside the branches of a tree, you foolish, two-faced parrot, she kept yelling, and suddenly she had a broom in her hand and she was sticking it through the branches of the tree. I walked closer, and saw it was a peach tree, and that all the fruit had been pecked by the parrot—she had every right, I thought, to be taunting the parrot with her broom. And then the parrot flew to the edge of the roof and perched there, where it could still see the lady and the lady could see it, king of whatever kingdom, she yelled, what blasphemy, and the parrot shook its head.

Then she turned to me, and I did not know what to say to her, nor she to me. So I called upon my ancestors to become bird, but not of the same category as the one taunting the old lady, I did not want to peck at her tree. But just as I was about to become bird I saw in the room of the rest house a young lady, and though everything else was in color she was in black and white, I thought this was strange and wondered if the old lady could also see her.

I saw that the young lady was balancing on two knives, a very strange activity, she was wearing very loose clothing, and her hair reached the floor, some very long strands, her head was where her feet should have been, dangling between her two arms which were even longer since she had added to them the length of the knives she was holding. Her feet were in the air, split away from each other, two wings of a bird, and I thought she might levitate or fly away at any moment now, so I bent to walk towards her and the old lady bent the same way, she still had not said a word to me nor I to her. And when I turned around to ask if she too could see the young lady, the old lady had disappeared, and instead, in the place where she had been standing I found a very fine white powder, and though someone must have come and ground her bones while I was not looking.
I reached down and took some the powder which I took to be her, and added her in this way to the ashes of my ancestors, the young lady too disappeared, and then the courtyard and the rest-house itself, only the orange tree was left standing and I near it, and the narrow, unswerving road I had been traveling on was there too, so I continued on my journey, since nothing else could be done, I picked a few more oranges to take with me.

 

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