The Child of Events!

by Teymur Roshdi

  22

  Early in the morning we moved toward the winter house in the town . We were few families who intended returning back to the town , so all the furnitures and necessary things have been placed in two wagons and we were escorted by a gendarmery car . The ways and the roads were very unsafe and the'pirates' and 'armed hooligans' were stalking in all corners .

  At noon we arrived to the town , I was surprised by the cemetery silence which reigned over there, a city which was usually full of crowd and uninterrupted sounds of all sort of activities, a city whose markets were always full of customers moving in all directions , whose factories never stopped its alert hoots for the workers and the car trafic recalled an alive city . And now the city was quiet, sad and extinguished . The markets were closed , the people around depressed , upset and in famine because of the dearth and scarcity of foods everywhere , all of this has created a very disturbing and stressful circumstances . Four years of worldwide war had already exhausted and exasperated the population , not yet getting over of that they became the prey of the civil war . The armed groups formed against the governmental forces extended the dimensions of the chaotic situation . The valleys and the hills in the western part of the city were the scenery of a very heavy fight . The sound of the canons and the burst of bombs were heard everywhere and this conflict reached its summit in the two last nights . As it is usual in such conditions and during longlasting wars , some groups among the population find the opportunity to give a free course to all their tameless fantasies and their wildest desires to destroy the foundation of the society and to exhaust it from the inside . This sort of people taking advantage of the social disorder getting all sort of guns ,occupy themselves with all sort of evil doings , attacking people and the houses , even killing them and pillaging their properties and goods and proceeding armed robberies . These people have an insatiable nature for all sort of advantures and they can satisfy themselves just by creating an unsecure and disturbing state of things to take advantage of that . So our city was not an exception and wasn't spared from the presence of this sort of advanturer armed groups who with the cars they provided for themselves attacked the houses , robbed everything , raped the girls and women and killed the household , and sometimes they were involved in severe armed fights with the governmental forces . These people in such circumstances feel themselves free of any responsibility in front of anyone and spared by any sanction and punishment acted as they like and followed their lowest instincts because no one could controll them or forbid them of all the evil-doings. Sometimes the wicked ones , just because of some resentment against their neighbors or out of jealousy , finding the situation propitious , they took revenge over their past frustrations or offenses , attacked their neighbors house , firing it , raped the women and children and so they were feeling satisfied.In such a circumstances , even a powerful police woudn't be able to involve itself in the details of the private life of the families or the neighborhood in all districts of all cities and prevents the committment of this sort of atrocities and crimes which will leave such an impact and traumatism on the individuals throughout all their life , even more horrible than the effects of the traumatism left during an open and 'official' war .

  Once we arrived to the house , the guard of the house expressed his joy for our arrival at time because of the troubles around, he was grateful that he had not to face the armed pirates alone and eventually to be killed , also he told us that not a single night was spent peacefully because each night some of the houses of the neighborhood were attacked and pillaged . Our settlement in the winter house of the 'charitable woman' began with a great sense of terror and fear . The awesome garden in front of the building seemed more and more scarey because in each corner of it many evil-doers could be hidden and this increased our terror .

  That night , the whole household remained awake and no one could sleep out of anxiety and stress . The successive terrible sound of the burst of canons and gunmachines broke the silence and the passing bursting shot of bullets increased our fear and terror , all of us were expecting some attacks the whole night , but fortunately nothing bad happened . The next night the situation worsened and the forces of the rebels broke the first defensive lines of governmental forces and approched the limits of our city which was in the summit of its disturbing and chaotic state . The famine reigned on the city and a piece of bread or meat was found with an outrageous price . The situation was indescribable and very strange , the whole society was like a car without any driver , which was following automatically and dangerously a dreadful and fatal way which would end in an horrible crash in an unavoidable abyss . The most habitants of the city were equiped with all sort of guns to defend and to protect their life, honnour and property . The household of the 'charitable woman' followed the same rule and because some of the friends and relatives of the late husband of the 'charitable woman' were gathered in the house to protect her family , everyone even the servants were equiped with some guns . The 'charitable woman' because of her wealth was a possible prey for all the pirates and armed thieves , and her house a favourable place for the pillage . By the advice of one of the relatives of the 'charitable woman' , some of the bold and fearless gunmen of the neighborhood were hired to protect the house and the household of the 'charitable woman' . They were mostly some idle adventurers who accepted eagerly this occupation because of the pay and also because they were fearless and by nature were seeking for fight just for their amusement .

  Only few days after our settlement in the city, a group of four men entered the house as guests , they have been invited to have lunch with the family and all friends of the 'charitable woman'. At the moment I was a bit afraid by their look and couldn't understand for what purpose they have been invited . On those days the tales of all sort of atrocities and crimes committed all around were so spread and I had heard too many of those stories that by seeing those men who looked so harsh and so unkind wearing strange clothes and around their waist a train of bullets and some guns I was really impressed and at the first glance I thought that they were coming to kill all of us and pillaging the whole house . But when I noticed the warm greetings of the 'charitable woman' and her cheerful face , I felt comforted . At the table , they began telling the stories of their boldness , bravery and successes in confronting all the armed agitators and thieves and they promised to their host that till the moment they are watching over everything in the house , and having all under their control , even the most dangerous groups of pirates and gangsters would never dare approching the house .

 

  In fact they were right , because during all the time and all the nights that they were settled there , nothing bad happened to us . Meanwhile , some of the relatives and neighbors of the 'charitable woman' , especially the ones who had young girls or children in their household came joining us and spending the night peacefully . Usually a danger which become a common threat , creates a sort of solidarity during which people forget all their selfishness , jealousy and all the previous conflicts and criticism and become close to each other to escape the danger and to protect themselves . So it was on all those nights , everyone , kids and the elderly , men or women , poor and wealthy forgot momentarly the differences and also because all of the leisure places were closed , they enjoyed the assembly and spent time by playing games , telling jokes , laughing , singing and dancing . Sometimes the voice of this noisy assembly was heard even outdoor and the guards with all their bravery stories and their loud boasting air , their dispute over the most brave among them , increased the noise and the warmth of these 'partylike assembly' and gathering .

  The guards spent the whole day outside , busy with their personal and private occupations and were gathered in the house of the 'charitable woman' just for spending the night. They have been located in the souther
n part of the garden in some big lounge which was previously designated for the stay of the servants , its window looked to the garden and when they were laughing loudly or boasting about their braveries , they made such a noise that every passer-by in the street could hear them and noticing their presence , a fact which guaranted our safety . Anyway these guards had their peculiar and temperament especial to each one . They were all young and healthy with impressive stature who looked like 'giants' to me who was a frail and skinny boy of seven . They all had boxer and fighter shape and their natural boldness increased their impressive look . Given their natural boldness, the force of their young ages and their health , they couldn't remain calm and quiet or idle , so they spent the whole night playing card games or telling 'heroic' stories in which they played the role of the 'hero' . Sometimes they were so exagerating their force , courage and bravery that they provoked the protestation or the refusal of some other 'fighters' and this dispute over the authenticity of the boast about the force of their bravery and boldness ended in an open ' fight' and boxing among them . Meanwhile , the household , attracted by all the noises of the fighting scene , joined the lounge of the guards and were enjoying the spectacle , obviously I was following the family and joined them to watch the spectacle of that fight between two of the boldest guards which lasted almost half an hour , it was really exciting and the audience appreciated this spectacle , and applausing the winner , they were laughing and expressing cheerful feelings , then the 'charitable woman' , impressed by this spectacular 'fight' invited all of them to some beverage .

  After the scattering of the household and the family members of the 'charitable woman', I remained there because I was fascinated by the impressive stature of those men and the train of their bullets around their waist and also all the guns they were bearing . One of them who was the boldest and the tallest and was supposed to be their chief , took the new revolver he had provided, from its holster and showed it to all people present there at that moment . Apparently that revolver was the newest model that no one has seen a similar one until then , because all were astonished by its brilliance and its shape . The owner of that gun was describing the assets of it , its solidity , the easiness of its targetting and so and so . In fact , that gun was bigger and heavier than the other ones , the small bullets were easily sitting in its 'tank' and its shootting was automatic . Eveyone touched and tested the gun with a sort of admiration , of course without pushing the detonator because of the recommandation of the owner of that gun .

 

 

  One of the men of that audience who was sitting on a chair in front of the table and was wearing a furred black hat asked the owner of the gun to let him examinating carefully that revolver . The owner of the gun vacated it from all the bullets and put them on the bed beside him and gave the empty gun to that man and taught him the methods of using this sort of gun . I was watching with astonishement to those tall and bold men who were discussing about the methods of using this sort of new guns . I had almost few steps distance with the table behind it the man wearing a black furred hat was sitting and behind me , in a corner of the room another bed was located on which another man was laying and was watching the spectacle of the virtual targetting of that tester , but he couldn't remain quiet and worrying about an eventual accident warned the tester to not pushing the detonator . The owner of the gun assured that he had vacated the gun from all its bullets. The man with a black furred hat who seemed a bit ignorant to me with his very thick moustache and eyebrow, was boasting about his skills in handling all sort of guns and was looking for a target to test the empty gun and was playing with the gun taking all sort of gestures . Suddenly as if he has already found what he was searching for , began laughing like a fool , showing his yellow teeth and said :" the rounded forehead of this kid is ideal for targetting ", after pronouncing these words , without any hesitation , targetted me . Astound and paralysed , the only thing I could do was contracting my eyes , my neck and head . The sound of a terrifying burst and the lightening coming out from the canon of the ten bullet revolver fixed everyone at their place for some moments , and me , the victim of this accident , out of terror I began crying and put my hands on my head which was burning and was in blood . Suddenly everyone rushed forward, took me and began examinating my wound . The bullet had wounded the skin of my head which was bleeding , and for few moments all of them , shocked by this unexpected incident , didn't know what to do or what to say . They were looking astonishingly to me who had escaped a definitive death , and then were looking to that tester who was swearing that he ignored that there was a bullet in the gun . The owner of the gun who was so surprised that with a trembling voice swore that he ignored completly that a bullet was hidden in the gun , explaining that this is not unusual with this sort of gun that sometimes a bullet is blocked and hidden in the 'chamber' and we think that the gun is vacated of all its bullets . One of the men took me in his arms out of compassion and said :"oh my god , it would be a tragedy if such a good little boy was killed in this stupid accident", then he began disinfecting my wound and banding it and made me sit beside himself . Then all of them noticed the direction the bullet was followed . The bullet after wounding my head , overpassed the shoulder of the man who was laying on the bed behind me and was sticked in the wall . Eveyone was enthralled and enjoyed that no one among the audience was killed during this amazing and unexpected incident . Then each one began telling some stories about similar accidents . But the man with the black furred hat was insisting on his astonishment about his missing target and repeated many times that he was exactly targetted my front , as if he was regretting why I wasn't touched or killed , and was amazed by my luck . The man who was laying on the bed and apparently was a hired officer of the army began laughing out of loud and said :" no wonder if you missed your target because you are not familiar with the skills of targetting and shooting, in such circumstances you should always fix the goal point a bit lower than your real target because the bullet tendency is always upward ". The tester shooter became suddenly red out of anger because of the explanation of that hired officer and taking the posture of a bold and fearless fighter , said with his harsh voice :" what is the meaning of all these nonsense talkings ? do you take me for a silly kid ? till this moment I killed lot of people and now you say that I'm unable handling a gun or targetting and shooting ?" , the hired officer smiling replied :" I don't say that you are a kid or unable to kill people , but you should know that killing people has nothing to do with the skill of fixing a goal , targetting and shooting ". At this moment this same hired officer took his gun and with a sign suggested that one of the audience throw an apple up in the air , someone with a fast move threw an apple in the air , the hired officer with a faster move shooted and in a wink the apple was crashed in the air and its innumerable tiny pieces were scattered all around the room . Everyone was looking with amazement to that skillful shooter and began praising and admiring him . But the amateur shooter was insisting on all his shooting skills and was so angry and swearing with such a loud voice that he was ready to attack the hired officer and to fight him . Meanwhile , the household awakened by the sound of the firing and all of that noises, came at the room where the accident was occured and tried to reconciliate the two opponents . That night passed by and once again I escaped a certain death , or because of the clumsiness of that awkward shooter , or because of some unknow reason .

  23

 

  Anyway , those bold fighters or rather our 'body-guards', with all sort of character each one had , their presence and their care about the household of the 'charitable woman' guaranteed our safety and security in all those troubled and chaotic circumstances which reigned over the whole society and we could at least spending peaceful nights. Indeed human nature is very complex and very strange , sometimes when the har
dest conditions and the most horrible events last long , they become a routine and a usual way of life and everything in those conditions seem so natural and ordinary and so familiar that the least change in this routine would surprise the people . So we learned to become familiar with the new conditions created by the civil war which has began since few months ago and we considered that as an ordinary way of our daily life . No one was afraid anymore by the sound of bursting bombs , mortars , gunmachines or canons , we were used to live with it , neither the dearth , famine and the shortage of all necessary items for life surprised us , so progressively the businessmen began handling their occupation , the markets were opened carefully and some stores always aware , offered their services and the schools and universities retook their activities cautiously .

  As the 'charitable woman' promised to send me to the school , I began going to my first class in the school located in our neighborhood , the same school her own children were sent . Usually in the morning I went to the school in company of the children of the 'charitable woman' and sometimes I returned back to home with the company of one of the servants of the house . Some other days , my protector 'sherven' who used to go to his university for continuing his studies, came visiting me in the school and recommended me to the director and all the teachers of the primary school. At the school , everyone was attracted by the good look of 'sherven' and all respected him and considered him my cousin . Someday , at noon , 'sherven' came to my school and after offering to me some notebooks and a painting book , invited me to his home for lunch , so we walked together all the way until we arrived at his family house . His fiancee was there too , awaiting for him , along with his parents . The ones who have experienced during the longlasting wars , the hardship of the life , the scourge of the famine , know very well what is the value of a piece of bread , meat or a single potatoe . If I mention here that invitation for lunch is to recall this fact that on those days , even some parents avoided giving a piece of bread to their own children and preserved that for some other hardest days in order to live longer some more days . So the lunch table at 'sherven''s home and his invitation was even more significant to me , even more important than a delicious dish I could eat there , because it was the sign of a generous person who considered me as a member of his own family by expressing lot of kindness and care , introducing me into his family as if I was his old and dearest friend , without expecting something in return , all of this was more precious than a delicious dish to me , the generosity of 'sherven' and his family , their unconditional and unselfish love they expressed toward me enthralled me in such a way that I forgot eating and forgot all of those meals on the table , since my childhood what I was searching for the whole my life was kindness , love and truth , the most beautiful principles in the world .