This was such a weird weekend. On my way to the park I saw the daughter of our neighbor against the door wall, listening as her parents fought. She was holding on to her stuffed teddy bear and rested her head on it. Due to heavy rain the area was flooded and there were fish swimming everywhere. At the park an older couple sat on a park bench, watching the neighbor’s door float by them. The older couple had lost everything. Their flooded neighborhood has been deemed a disaster. The home they believed they would die in together no longer existed. Earlier they had seen most of their clothes drift by. They kissed as the door reached them. On my way back a neighbor invited me inside for a drink. In the kitchen, she put some powder in a blender. She unscrewed the cap of a liquor bottle and poured it in the mixture and took a drink. Then the man came home from work. He took off his jacket and tie and unbuttoned his shirt, Underneath he was wearing a black bodysuit. It seemed like he feared to tell people his secret. His family would have disowned him and he could lose his job if any of his colleagues found out.
"My parents, brother, and I left Iran in 1980, shortly after the revolution. After a brief stay in Italy, we packed all our belongings once again and headed west to the exotic and the unknown: Vancouver. We had recently been accepted as landed immigrants, meaning Canada graciously opened its doors and we gratefully accepted; we arrived at Vancouver International Airport on my 10th birthday, three suitcases and one sewing machine in tow. After respectful but intense questioning at immigration, we were dropped off at a hotel on Robson Street, which was then still a couple years shy of becoming the fashionable tourist hub it is today. We were jetlagged, culture shocked, and hungry, so that first night, my father and brother courageously ventured out into the wild in search of provisions. I fell asleep before they returned. The next morning, I woke up at 5 a.m. and ravenously feasted on a cold Quarter Pounder with cheese and limp French fries that had been left by my beds...

Comments
Post a Comment