The Frozen Desert by Moein Mansoori Fard (free e books to read online TXT) 📕

There is no flaunting flames in fireplace. The light which radiates from below the door, indicates the shift exchange between night and day. The waiters search through the people for those who need help. They also have some blankets in their hands to give those who have not any.

Fatigue can be observed in people’s languid faces who even don’t care about someone who has lay down near them. They are the people who had not hand in these difficulties but have adapted to them. Why it should be like this and why we should be tortured this much?

These altogether, cooperates to dissuade me from my decision, but I should finish the job which is relegated to me. I sit down on the ground and wait for an occasion. Time passes but I don’t see Karisan. I stand up, and before I take my first step, I feel that my trousers is moving.

A little girl staring at my belt and the pone near it. She isn’t over five. She looks at there still. Then she stares at me. I have to sit on my legs to be rather equal in height. I take her arm, try to make my voice childish as far as I can, and say:

Hello ladykin, what’s your name?

The little girl points with her finger to that place on my belt, as though she wants something which is on my belt. I tuck my shirt upward and my eyes cast on a small toy key bunch. I unfasten it and give it to her without knowing where I have found it. Then ask her:

Would you accept it as a gift from me?

She shakes her head in token of approval. I give her the toy. She takes it eagerly. She has a spick and span appearance and is like a little angel. She is dressed in a long red shirt, and the border of her white skirt is purfled.

She has a beautiful long curly black hair which reaches her arms. My eyes cast on a paper which is attached on her shirt but just half of it is visible. I can only read Kari… on it. I push her hair aside and the rest of the name appears: Karisan.

I ask her:

Let me see, are you Karisan’s daughter?

The little girl is quite busy with the toy. I ask her:

Look ladykin, do you know where Karisan is? Can you take me to him?

Again, she confirms with shaking her head. Then she turns quickly and goes up the staircase which ends with the first floor.

Chapter 6

The meeting

She finds her way through the crowd and goes up the stairway without noticing me. At first, I think she hasn’t noticed my request, but I see her up there on the stairway. She looks at me. My doubt disappears and I follow her.

First floor, at first glance, looks bigger than ground floor but if we add rooms, counter, store and toilet to this floor, both are the same. The first thing that attracts eyes are the beds which have filled entire space of this floor: the three-decker beds which their distance to the ceiling is just half a meter or a little more. Almost all of the beds are occupied with the people and those which are not occupied are filled with knapsacks or something else to show that the bed belongs to someone. There is a little room between the beds to come and go. Some people have to move edgeways to pass through this space, but this space is good enough in both sides of the corridor. The form of corridor and spaces between the beds are almost like a river and its branches which are narrower than the river itself.

I follow the little girl to the end of the saloon. Karisan is sitting on a chair near the bed and is medicating someone. It seems that the first three beds are assigned to patients.

There is a transverse counter in first floor too. Like the ground floor, the ceiling and the walls are of metal. Some waiters are behind the counter and give foodstuffs to the people who are going to leave here. I wonder that despite the presence of the nomads, some people are leaving here. Maybe staying here means death to them and they don’t want to lose the chance of escape.

Like the first floor, there is a cupboard behind the counter which is full of medical equipment. There is no difference between here and ground floor except for here that the walls and ceilings are less yellowish and seem newer. There is no sign of painting on the walls too. I force my way through the people and stop near the bed which Karisan is sitting beside it. He is busy with his job like before and doesn’t realize my presence. A black man lay down on the bed calmly and his face is pallid. The sound of his breathing can be heard hardly but his chest goes up and down extremely. Karisan has worn medical gloves and is rubbing an ointment on the black man’s skin.

I want to wait for finishing his job but I see the little girl pulling her father’s thin raincoat and shows me to him with his looks. Karisan looks at his daughter interrogatory and then his look stops at me. The expression on his face is like those who are thinking to remember someone.

After a while, the expression on his face changes and turns from uncertainty and ambiguity to a soft smile along with emotion. His eyebrows go up according to his smile. Then he gets up and put the ointment near the bed. He drops himself in my bosom without saying something. He hugs me without touching me with his hands. I hug him tightly too. Before I say something, he forestalls me and says:

Hey buddy! What are you doing here? How come you left there? I didn’t think I may see you here.

He opens her arms to leave me and looks at me again to ensure that he didn’t make a mistake.

It wasn’t the right place for me and its job didn’t fit me. Maybe I could do that job before, but I can’t do it now. It fits someone else.

Karisan makes a frowned gesture by his face and says:

Eventually, you didn’t listen to me and did your own thing? They need you so much there. You could help them.

Then he finishes hugging me and says:

Let me see, have you travelled all the way on foot? Sure you are tired?

It is like he realizes my situation from my face and without waiting for my reply, says:

When you came here? Have you eaten yet?

I smile involuntary and say:

So you couldn’t place me? It is exactly one hour that I’ve got here, furthermore, you did open the door to me!

I’m sorry, I’ve been so busy so that I couldn’t place you. Yet I’m sure that I didn’t see you…I think you are wrong.

Of course, you’re right you can’t place me. When I saw my face in the mirror I couldn’t recognize myself as well, let alone you. But it was you that opened the door.

What happened to your face?

It’s a long story. I’ll tell you that if the occasion arises.

He closes the cap of ointment and after a brief look at the black man, pushes his chair aside with his foot. Then tells the little girl:

My dear Nina, take your uncle to my room till I come. My job is nearly finished. Entertain him well.

Then looks strangely at the toy which is in Nina’s hand, as though this is the first time in his life that he sees a toy. So he says:

Where did you get this toy?

Nina again replies by looking at me. karisan pulls off his right hand glove and caresses her hair, and says:

It seems uncle Zairas soothed you well.

Nina gives a sweet and childish smile, and embraces the toy tightly. Karisan continues his job and tells me:

You go with Nina to my room till I finish my job. Get some rest. You see that I’m a little bit busy. I must visit just one of my patients, then I’ll come. Nina knows all the things, don’t you my dear?

Nina, who is still floating in her childish world, shakes her head. She takes my hand and makes me to follow her. She passes me through the crowd and move forward so masterfully, like an experienced master in solving mathematic equations. Via behind the counter, we enter a corridor, which I haven’t seen it before. There is a room in right side, and two rooms in the left. The room which is in the right side, after the stairways to the first floor, leads to the toilet and the store. The clinic which I went there for my wounds, is exactly opposite the store.

Nina leaves my hand and draws away from me on the run. She opens the door of the right hand room and enters after me. She shows me a chair with her hand and then disappears in the next room in the blink of an eye. The next room has no door to the corridor and the only entrance to it is this room. I sit on a big chair which is in front of a rather large table.

This table seems to be a conference table. Some wooden chairs which are not in good condition are arranged in front of the table. The leather of some of these chairs are treaded and only one or two of them are intact. Behind the table are the four file cabinets. Just one of these file cabinets is clean and without dust and newer of all. In the left side of me, opposite the conference table, is a bookcase with a few books which most of them are medical books.

The sound of water splashing, and then clash of the glass and metal tray can be heard, and after a while Nina appears. She walks carefully, but some of beverages is poured in the tray. She holds a red glass and some biscuit in front me. The weight of tray and also Nina’s weakness, cause her to tremble more. I take the glass and two biscuits off the tray immediately. She puts the tray on the table and sits on a chair in front me. Then she takes the little doll out of her shirt pocket and begins playing with her toys.

While drinking, my look switches between Nina and considering the walls continuously. The only place which differs from the other parts of the shelter is this room with the clean and white walls with some frames of portraits on them. I become tired of looking these portraits. I wonder why Nina hasn’t speak even a word as yet. So I ask her:

Nina, how old are you?

She looks at me strangely, as if I asked her the worst question in the world. Because of this attitude, I make sure that either I asked my question in a bad manner or she is deaf. Suddenly a familiar voice answers my question:

By the next three months, she’ll become six, by the way don’t wonder if she doesn’t speak. She’s a little shy and it takes one day she communicates with someone.

Karisan enters. He sighs with a weak smile and lays spread-eagled on a chair in front of me. Then sits straight and says:

Nina, my dear, would you go to that room and draw some painting? I want to talk with uncle Zairas in private.

Nina shakes her head and goes out without looking her father. When Karisan makes sure that she has gone, says:

Indeed, it is because