Rain Born

by Zoha Kazemi

  The most amusing tales of the outside world were those about the Saviour followers. They would make fun of them with the Atlan fishers laughing at the absurd and meaningless rules set by a child! The part where the Atlan fishers made fun of the ridiculous rituals of the Saviour were those that would attract the most tired and sleepy workers. Soon, the Paradise Island had become a strategic part of Atlan. The Atlan chiefs knew very well that they needed this place to produce dairy and vegetables and they visited there in the dry season. The dry season festivities were held with music, dancing and feast in the Paradise Island, which was a gateway to the lost world of the pre-rain times. The Atlan chiefs were careful not to let anyone else find out about their treasure land and hide it well, cautiously surveying all the comings and goings of the island. They invested in Paradise, using the poor cheap workers to export expensive goods to other regions outside of Atlan.

  But the new generation, like their ancestors, never accepted the name Paradise for their home. They were too tired of long, working shifts in the farms and greenhouses and the tales of the outside world didn’t amuse them anymore. They would gather in small groups, practicing their musical instruments at night, preparing for the festivities of the dry season. They would drown themselves in the mythical tunes of oud and tonbac and sing in their sad plaintive songs about their lost paradise and their newly forming loves. It was one of those nights that Asin, learning to play the oud, had fallen in love with Narivan. The small Paradise music group was slowly changing into a hidden circle looking for ways to escape the long working hours and the pressures put among them by the newly assigned island chief. The word ‘Traveller’ had once again surfaced in their talking. The small group consisted of Asin, her brothers, Narivan and his sister and a few other young villagers. At first, they were not sure what a Traveller was and they would just use it for a person freed from all the oppressions they were facing, someone who was able to travel the world freely and play music on every land and ship.

  Asin’s younger brother and Narivan explained the escape plan to others. It was not dangerous; they just had to get far away from the island. They knew that Atlan would replace them very quickly not to leave their works unintended. But they weren’t sure if they would be punished for stealing a boat. That was the greatest danger of their plan. Narivan’s sister had told them right away that she wouldn’t go. But the other nine group members were keen to go. They had stolen, stored fuel, food and water for a few days, trying not to get caught and leak their plan. Narivan’s sister had helped them, distracting the harbour guards and taking them away from their posts. Asin had kissed her mother goodbye in her sleep and had arrived at the harbour. Most of the work was already done. Fuel tanks, buckles of water and food boxes were taken into the boat. Her brothers were waiting for her by the boat. Narivan was carefully transferring the instruments to the boat deck by the help of one of the girls. When he had seen Asin in the red light of the dawn, he had slipped, nearly falling down and throwing an oud into the water. But Asin’s brother had helped him taking the instrument from him so he could go and fetch Asin. They had sat together on the deck. Asin’s older brother, who had been fishing for some time, knew how to sail a boat. They had rowed away from the land for an hour and then turned on the engine. Very soon, the Paradise Island had turned into a small spot in the early-morning horizon and disappeared altogether in their view.

  Asin’s first day on the sea had been hard in unlike what she expected. She had thrown up the whole day from seasickness. She had lain on the deck floor feeling the moist breeze of the sea and the fast trembling movement of the boat. Most of them had felt sick and they had to change their destination to the nearest ship. Although the ship was afloat on the water, it didn’t have as much motion as the boat and Asin had felt calmer standing on the ship. The ship residents had welcomed them and allowed them to stay for a night, playing music. Narivan had said to the group that this was not enough and they should be paid in coins as well as given a shelter and food, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to carry on. The next two ships were more successful as the group was paid in coins. Asin had gotten used to the sea motion. One night on the boat, she had sneaked out of the girls’ cabin and gone to Narivan’s. All the four girls shared a room and Narivan’s brothers were sailing the boat. She knew that Narivan would be alone, probably fallen asleep after a hard day spent on playing music and planning their journey. She didn’t want to wake him. She just wanted to lie down by his side. But Narivan had turned towards her upon smelling her scent. He had taken her in his arms, kissed her and caressed her and had taken away her virginity. Asin still remembers that night with all the details, sounds, smells and feelings and she knows even with the amnesiac effect of the sea, she would never forget her first lovemaking. Every time she sees Dalia, she wants to believe that she was conceived on that dreamlike night. But even though the timing would match, Dalia’s looks and behaviours were more like Asin’s diver husband than Narivan. Dalia was a child of the sea.

  The Atlan Island with its roofed alleys had given them a different experience. They had introduced themselves as Travellers coming from northern borders of the pre-rain Iran, and Asin’s brothers who had become competent sailors were introduced as their boatmen. The Atlan guards had not suspected them to be the boat thieves of the Paradise Island. The Atlan market was very profitable to them. They had stayed for two weeks gathering lots of coins, setting up their boat and filling it with supplies and set off to new lands. Before they sailed from Atlan, Asin and Narivan had announced their engagement to the group and one of the boat cabins was given to the new couple. The first night on the boat, after leaving Atlan, was spent celebrating the marriage of Asin and Narivan. They were drunk from the wine they had bought in Atlan, singing and dancing and playing whatever music they liked. The next morning, they were hung over. Asin could hardly walk out of her bridal cabin. She had thrown up in front of it. The rest of the passengers were in a similar position. One of the ouds was found with a broken neck lying around the boat deck and the skin of Asin’s brother’s tunbak was torn. All passengers had bent over the boat gunwale throwing into the water. When the sickness and cleaning up had ended, they had realised the mistake they had made the previous night, they had forgotten to anchor the boat and they didn’t know where they were and where they were going. Asin’s older brother, still sick and ashamed of his big mistake, had taken control of the rudder and had tried to find their way with a compass, sailing towards west and hoping that they would reach Oxan.

  That night, a wild storm had tor the boat apart. It had all happened very fast. The sky of the dry season was covered with black, grey and red clouds. Thunderstorms and the howling wind had disturbed the waves, raising them up. Asin’s brothers had learnt to sail the boat in calm waters and to navigate by trial and error, but to ride a boat through such storms needed much more experience. The boat had turned upside down with the whipping strike of the waves. Asin had fallen out into the sea with the first impact of the waves and her life was turned over like their ship had. Her path had become separated from Paradise, Narivan, her brothers, oud and its melancholic tunes. She doesn’t remember how she had clinged to a broken piece of the boat body and how long she was on the water until the divers of Avij had found her.

  Chapter 20

  Dalia doesn’t know how to take in her newly found past history. All these years, Asin had never said anything about her childhood and youth. Dalia also feels ashamed of never having asked her about it. She knew her mother was found by the divers of Avij and presumed that day was her mother’s origin. She has been ignorant like the people of the sea, having lived her life incurious and indifferent to her roots. She had no idea that she was rooted in land, although she had always thought that she and her mother never settled down on the ship, as if something was always off. And now, having seen her mother’s brother and Narivan seems to have dissipated a thick fog that had always blinded her view. Asin had said strange things, naming objects and food that sh
e had never heard before or seen, like vegetables called mushrooms, tomatoes and corns. Asin had told her about the trees, the green moss that covered the thick ancient tree trunks. She had told her about the fountain in their village and the wells that provided them pure drinking water without having to evaporate and distil the seawater. And the women who would sit all morning by the looms waving cotton fabrics and the children that played between the farms and the trees all day long. Narivan had played music for Dalia and her uncle kept staring at her and Asin with non-believing eyes, bursting into tear from joy. She is happy not to return to Avij yet unsure about living on the island that her mother has told her about. Can she fit in there among the land people? She has been born on the sea and lived there her whole life and what she has seen of islands so far, is not promising. The Saviour Island had been too unkind to them and she doesn’t like the noisy crowded alleys of Oxan.

  Narivan was dressed in a peculiar way, unlike the men of the sea or the island people she has seen so far, covering his body from neck to toe. He had pulled his braids up his head like the Saviour women and covered them with a scarf. His behaviour was not like the sea people either. People of the sea have no past, nothing to hide, gain or lose. They just live in the moment and this short reliance on life has made them much simpler than the men of the lands. Still Dalia doesn’t fully understand the men of the islands. They seem cruel and ignorant with a suppressed anger and peculiar agendas. They seem to be living in ancient times and at the same time in the far future. They keep missing the ‘present’. The only exception so far has been Tirad. But he has his own problems. Tirad seems lost in the complexities of his people but Narivan is not like that. Even though he spoke of his wandering on the ships and islands, he doesn’t seem lost. He knows what he wants and what to avoid. He had wanted Asin all these years and is happy to have found her. Dalia had never seen someone look at another person with such love and adoration as Narivan looked at Asin, even though Asin’s body and face are still bruised from her beating in the Saviour Ship.

  Dalia’s father had no family on the Avij ship, the whole ship was considered as his family. Yet as soon as he disappeared, they had forgotten him. His father had never spoken to her or anyone else. Their communication was a silent agreement. They would go diving together. Whenever she thinks of her father, she hears the roaring of the waves and the still silence of the underwater world, breathing under the oxygen mask. Her father reminds him of the solitude of the sea, the moments so close to dying. Anything can happen under the water and the smallest incidents may lead to death. Time stretches under water and changes modality and one has to be very careful to track it correctly, not to stay under more than appointed. They have to keep track of the depth they have dived and keep adequate time to return to the surface, all need to be calculated carefully. Her father is the symbol of the stretched time under the waves and continuous calculations, and going to Narivan’s island would mean forgetting her father. What if her father had lost track of time or miscalculated the time he was away and returns to Avij very soon? Even though his long absence means that an accident may have happened and incidents on the sea are as dangerous as the one’s under. She has no other way. Asin has already made up her mind, having found her way home to her family after sixteen years. She can’t leave her mother, relying on a thin hope of reuniting with her father on Avij. She can’t tell her mother about Tirad’s proposal anymore. What Asin has told her about her past is so distant from the ways of the Saviour that even mentioning the idea seems absurd. Of course, Asin would prefer playing music on her own island than do janitorial work on the Saviour Ship!

  Not much time is left until dusk. Dalia had said goodbye to Lealy and now she is going to their guesthouse to say farewell to Tirad. He should cancel their trip to Avij and get his coins back from the port officer. She had gone with her mother to meet Narivan and had returned to Lealy after a few hours, in time to help her pack her things. Mart had ordered Lealy to go to the refugee harbour with Surnat and Soushia before the sunset. Helay was to start treating the refugee patients and the two missioners were to talk to them and prepare them for Circle’s decision which was to be announced that night. From what Dalia had learnt, the Oxan chiefs were going to have a meeting with Mart, Tirad and Yuma and go to the harbour after dinner. Lealy had listened to Dalia’s words about her mother’s Paradise Island with disinterest, seemingly not believing a word she was saying. She had said goodbye coldly and followed the two missioners to the eastern gate. Dalia didn’t understand Lealy’s stone-cold reaction, perhaps she didn’t want to make their goodbye emotional. Or maybe she was too tired, having worked all day, she must have expected a resting time instead of being sent straight to the refugee harbour. Dalia had thanked her. She had tried to help Lealy for the past few days to show her gratitude. She didn’t want to leave her like that; Lealy seemed sad and left out. She was mad at Tirad. He had only come to the Saviour stand telling them about the booked trip to Avij and had brought some water for Dalia at Lealy’s command. He was in such a hurry that he hadn’t heard Narivan playing that enchanting music in the market, although he must have seen Lealy’s frowning. He seemed restless and turbulent. He had said goodbye to Dalia as if they were never to see each other again, even though the boat to Avij didn’t leave until the next day and they had another night together.

  Dalia gently opens the guesthouse door. The lights are off and there is no one in the hall. Two room doors are open and one of them is closed. Dalia takes off her leather sandals walking on her nail-less toes. She looks around the hall. There is no sign of Tirad or his things. She stands behind the door. Mart and Yuma are talking. She just listens to be sure Tirad is not with them and go looking for him outside. But what she hears makes her freeze where she stands.

  “Are you sure?” Yuma asks Mart.

  “Absolutely! The courier boat that comes in tomorrow morning will bring the news of Hurmaz’s death! Everything is taken care of!” Mart says excitedly.

  “I’m asking about Tirad! Are you sure about the boatman?” Yuma asks again anxiously.

  “You said so yourself… He came here and took all the coins. There were one thousand coins in that bag!” Mart answers boldly. Yuma doesn’t say anything probably because he agrees with him.

  “I told the boatman to take care of him. I told him to stay on the water until tomorrow morning, so that we can tell everyone Tirad has escaped. When he comes, we will let him keep five hundred coins for his good service,” Mart continues.

  “How can you be sure that the boatman won’t run off with all the coins?” Yuma asks again.

  “I can’t be sure… These boatmen may do anything! But I have threatened him enough. Khunas said this boatman is trustable,” Mart answers.

  “What about Lealy and those two fake missioners? Are you sure they haven’t found out about our plan?” Yuma keeps asking. Mart answers furiously as if he is bored of all the constant questioning.

  “Of course! If they knew anything, they wouldn’t go the refugee harbour! We just need things to unfold according to our timeline… Tirad should get on the boat after the accident in the harbour,” Mart says. Yuma sighs as if he is not completely sure yet. He keeps asking questions: What if Tirad doesn’t go? What if the boatman won’t be able to handle Tirad? What if Hurmaz’s assassination won’t be successful? What if Mart’s agents don’t act fast enough? What if someone finds out and tries to stop them? He keeps repeating his questions and Mart gives the same answer over and over, having become tired of all the endless ‘What ifs’. He is sure everything will go as planned!

  “Shouldn’t we have waited for the news of Hurmaz’s death first and then carryout the plan?” Yuma asks again worriedly. Mart yells angrily in reply.

  “We have to carry out our end and they will do their share on the Saviour Ship… We have to do it at the planned time and simultaneously. Don’t worry! Even if we do our part and Hurmaz stays alive to hear about it, he will die from a heart attack!” Mart says and the
y both laugh. Dalia stands a little longer to find out about their plan and the accident that is going to happen tonight. The two disciples joke about Hurmaz and continue laughing. She cannot wait any longer; Tirad’s life is in danger and Hurmaz’s life! This time, she knows for sure. If she stands there to learn about the accident, it might become too late to stop it before happening. She rushes towards the door. She has to get to the docks as fast as possible. If what Mart and Yuma said is true, Tirad must have given one thousand coins to a boatman to take him to the Saviour Island, an exclusive boat with only one passenger who has too much coin with him! He is in grave danger. She has to stop her from getting on the boat. Tirad had believed her when she had told her that Hurmaz’s life was in danger and is going to the Saviour Island to prevent it, he might trust her again. She hastens her steps towards the harbour, slides like a slimy fish, passing through the little crowds gathered in most of the alleys. She doesn’t mind shoving her way through and wouldn’t stop to apologise for it. She keeps running down the Oxan alleys. Tirad’s boat might leave any moment.