The Shipwrecked by Fereshteh Nouraie-Simone

Author:Fereshteh Nouraie-Simone [Nouraie-Simone, Fereshteh; Farrokh, Faridoun; Khalili, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781558618695
Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY

I was getting used to monotonous sounds of sanding and hammering. I stopped scratching the wall with the handle of a spoon. On the third day Orange Slippers stopped by my cell. I felt she’d been keeping an eye on me for a while. “Why you hang your head down like a sick chicken?” she asked in an admonitory tone. I said nothing.

—Boss, Come and see if the dent is fixed.

—Give me the hammer.

—Here . . .

—Oh, for goodness’ sake. Is this filler putty or a baby’s shit?

Someone is playing with the radio dial, tuning in one station after another. I didn’t know why the man with the gruff voice pestered the boy so much. I developed a dislike for him. But whatever he was, he was a part of life that went on behind the wall. They came in the morning and left at night. In between, they lived life’s routine. I felt like an observer watching some cave-dwellers through an opening in the wall of the cavern. My own life had become immaterial to me, like a vaguely remembered dream in which a middle-aged woman ran after a car trying to give one of the occupants a gray-hooded overcoat. This woman was not my mother. I did not have a recollection of ever having a mother. She was a figment of my imagination.

The paint sprayer stopped. The man with the gruff voice issued some technical instructions to the boy, or at least that was what I presumed.

—Leave that alone. The wife has made us eggplant stew. Wash you hands and turn on the burner.

—Why do you trip me up, Boss? You remember I nearly smashed my knee last time.

—You’re so damn slow. Get a move on.

— [silence]

—What do you think? Red or blue?

—Blue looks better, Boss, I told you so.

—All right, all right. Enough of that.

—I’m going to the stadium tomorrow.

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