Kheir-allah Kheir-allah was devouring greedily the milk cream that he said, “two minutes later”.
Alikhan also shouted after him, “One more will be died in two minutes.”
The cattle and sheep have been brought into the small square opposite the public bath and Kheir-allah Kheir-allah was looking at them. Alikhan asked, “Khal-Gholi*…I say…what about the place I am in, am I not taken into!?”
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah took his pouch out of his chest, put his calumet into it and said, “No.”
The Milakis didn’t put a step forward out of Dasht-Rahan.
Alikhan asked in Milaki accent, “How long more should they stay there?”
- Can’t you speak Farsi?*
- Yes, Agha* Kheir-allah, “How long more should the Milaki people stay there?”
- I will tell you.
He went forward furthermore and as if he is the owner of all the cattle and sheep he looked at them and said, “what about the hens and roosters?”
- Now, they are all in Dasht-Rahan.
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah had a look in his book and said, “The women can come.”
Alikhan shouted, “The men must stay there.”
Then as if he remembered something, he continued, “The women can come.”
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah passed his hand over the neck of the cow that was mowing.
Alikhan said, “It is Mash* Asad’s.”
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah brought out his book under his arm and had a look into it. He stopped for a moment and took a distance from the cow.
Alikhan asked, “Is it of no use?”
Ho got no answer. Golnesa was ahead of all. She came up from gach-koreh* and asked in Milaki accent, “khala-Gholi, what must we do now?”
Alikhan told her angrily to say it in Farsi.
Golnesa said, “Now everything is in your hands and in your book.”
Then she tried to say in Farsi, “Khalak-pesar,* what must we do now?”
Alikhan had a look at Kheir-allah Kheir-allah. Kheir-allah Kheir-allah was touching the hoof of the horse. He pointed him to talk.
Alikhan said, “Bring the hens and roosters.”
Golpari who also came now wanted to ask something that Golnesa said, “We must bring the hens and roosters into the middle of the square.”
The men stayed down the Dasht-Rahan and watched that their wives were going out of site in the allies.
Alikhan said, “Angholi…”*
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah interrupted him and said, “My name is Kheir-allah Kheir-allah, I said it thousands times.”
- Oossa* Kheir-allah Kheir-allah.
- Yes!
- Isn’t it better to explain it more for me?
- Why?
- You know I brought you and you don’t talk to anyone.
- So what?
- You know?
He wanted to say if there would be no result out of what he was doing, what should he say to the Milaki people? But he said nothing. Kheir-allah Kheir-allah who preferred that way, cleaned the on-the-neck-left milk cream and started devouring it.
Alikhan looked at the Milaki people who were in Dasht-Rahan. The cigar smoke of Kablai was up. Golbanoo came with the clucking of her hens. She took the four hens by feet and as she reached the square asked, “What is the use of them?”
Alikhan answered, “Certainly they are for something that he said to bring them.” Kheir-allah Kheir-allah had a look and said, “They are just hens!?”
Alikhan asked Golbanou, “Don’t you have a rooster?”
Golbanou said, “No, and they are listless either.”
The square was filled with hens and roosters.
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah poured the ash of his calumet over the grave stone that was before his feet.
Alikhan said, “It’s my father’s soil.”
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah ran after the rooster that jumped on the baje* of the bath.
The rooster escaped and Kheir-allah Kheir-allah picked up his book that had fallen under his arm with face on the ground by the baje. Alikhan ran and took the rooster and gave it to Kheir-allah Kheir-allah.
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah said, “Tell them to come.”
Alikhan shouted, “Come on.”
The men stood up and ran towards the village. Kheir-allah Kheir-allah looked at the rooster and asked, “Whose was it?”
Goljahan went forward and said, “It’s mine.”
She took the rooster from Kheir-allah Kheir-allah.
- Those I am seeing them, must not be mixed again.
Alikhan wanted to repeat it that he saw Goljahan was fastening the feet of the rooster to her own feet with a piece of thread. The rooster flapped its wings to escape.
Kablai behind of all climbed up the acclivity of the gach-koureh.
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah said, “Bring the roosters.”
Alikhan didn’t let Kablai talk and faced the people and said, “Bring the roosters.”
Nabat-Ali wanted to give his rooster to Alikhan that Alikhan pointed to Kheir-allah Kheir-allah.
Nabat-Ali nagged, “As for us he doesn’t talk to us, I thought he might not take this one too.”
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah looked at them. He gestured with hand to take away the rooster.
Alikhan said, “Take it away.” Then he continued, “Don’t mix them again.”
They all lined up from the stable of Mash Safar up to the door of Ra’na’s house to have their roosters seen by Kheir-allah Kheir-allah.
Kablai said, “What does it mean!? I don’t know. First he said to bring the cattle and sheep, now the hens and roosters!?”
Alikhan said, “Don’t talk to him, it will distract him.”
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah sat on the platform in front of the public bath. The cat above his head gave him a sort of dignity – turquoise tile.
He took out his calumet. He opened the band of the pouch and put the neck of the pouch into it. He took out the calumet and shook the extra tobacco into the pouch by its thumb and as the pouch was hanged from its band to his hand, he took it by mouth.
Iman-Ali struck a match. Kheir-allah Kheir-allah had a look at Alikhan and didn’t wait for Alikhan to tell him to keep his rooster, and set the fire to the pile of tobacco.
Kablai said to Golnesa, “What are you waiting for?”
Golnesa said, “The same thing that you are waiting for.”
- When the time of death comes, it’s no need of so much effort.
Alikhan said, “Well you are all like each other. There is no youth among you.”
Goljahan said, “Just God knows. So many dead people and one after the other!?”
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah saw Nabat-Ali’s rooster and said, “Tell them to take away the cattle and sheep and say ja ja* to the roosters and hens.”
Nobody went.
Alikhan repeated again, “Come back soon that lest again…”
Kablai set off. They were going unwillingly. Kheir-allah Kheir-allah had given Nabat-Ali’s rooster to Alikhan and was writing something on a piece of paper.
Alikhan looked at the graveyard and said to Kheir-allah Kheir-allah, “I don’t want to disturb you with my saying, but how long will this mortality be kept on?”
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah said, “You said how many were there before you called me?”
Alikhan counted, “It was started from Heiran – then Mash Mousa, Mash Ya’ghoub, Fath’ali, Karm’ali, Nastarane, Kereshmai, Sheikh Fatemeh, Delavar.”
He continued, “Within these two days that you’ve come, Mirz-Ali also died.”
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah brought out a ball of thread out of his pocket. As he noticed the Alikhan’s look he said, “It is the gut of cow.”
Then he punched the written paper, passed the thread through it and fastened it to the neck of the rooster. The rooster flapped its wings to escape. Kheir-allah Kheir-allah held his crutch under his arm. Alikhan went forward and helped him with his arm.
- Tell them to gather.
- What do I say?
- Say within two minutes …then he laughed.
Alikhan shouted.
The old men and women ran through the allies and back allies and leaped over the chapar* of the garden and went on towards the down part of the village in Dasht-Rahan.*
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah laughed and said, “Tell them come to the graveyard in two minutes, not Dasht-Rahan.”
He shouted.
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah came in from the mosque’s door.
Alikhan said, “The graveyard is the small square, here, around the shrine, down of the stone fence and down the road too.”
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah said, “Where did you bury those died recently?”
Alikhan pointed to kiblah.*
- Towards kiblah*, straight ahead of Imam-Zadeh.*
He didn’t go down. He sat on the platform of the mulberry trees of the mosque’s yard and looked at the outside of the chapar of the graveyard. Kablai was out of breath. Alikhan was watching that he made inevitably the Milaki people fall out of b breath.
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah asked, “Did you all gather together?”
All looked at each other. Nobody answered.
Golpari said, “If it was plague we knew that it was malady, but what about now?”
Goljahan said, “It is good that you are an alone woman, what about me that I lost all of my belongings.”
Her look diverted towards the wet soil of her dead lover. She wanted to go forward that Kheir-allah Kheir-allah looked at Alikhan. Goljahan stepped back and didn’t go forward. Kheir-allah Kheir-allah blew out his mouth smoke towards the rooster. Its feathers went up. He read something from the book that the people didn’t understand it. He gave the rooster to Alikhan and said, When I reached “کنوز", let it go.”
And recited, "واخرجناهم من جنات و عیون و کنوز و ..."
As if the rooster was rescued, it flapped and flapped and went over the stone fence down the graveyard, the straight ahead of Imam-Zadeh* in order to jump down and go away out of Milak, but it stayed there and looked at the people gathering there.
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah was reciting, "و اذ قتلتم نفسا فاذا رأتم الی قوله یعقلون..."
The rooster flapped its wings. It shook its all feathers and came forward slowly.
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah was reciting,
Kablai gulped down his saliva and looked at Alikhan. Alikhan had a look at Kheir-allah Kheir-allah and at the rooster. The rooster set off and picked no more on the ground. It came and went towards the wooden fence of Imam-Zadeh.
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah closed the book and said, “Dig the ground whenever it peaks.”
It stayed on the grave wondering.
Alikhan said, “I said whatever it is, it comes from her grave.”
He continued, “Namahram* mustn’t stay here anymore.”
He said to Nabat-Ali, “This is your rooster, she is your sister, you dig yourself.”
Nabat-Ali took the pick and shovel that they brought from mortuary. The soil was soft. He wasn’t digging with pick; he was taking the soil with the shovel and pouring it under the wooden fence.
Alikhan came back to say to Kheir-allah Kheir-allah that what they had to do that Nabat-Ali screamed and went away.
It wasn’t eye; it was the bowl behind it that could be seen from the coffin’s slit. A corpse astonished, was looking at Milak.
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah just said, “Lie her down.”
Footnote
Kheir-allah Kheir-allah: it is a name in here, but in word it means a good thing from God
khala-Gholi or angholi: a rustic or vulgar dialect that means a man who people are unfamiliar with, an alien man
Farsi: Persian language
Agha: a local dialect word that means Mr. in English but it is used before a man’s first name as respect
Mash or Mashdi: a person who goes to the Mashhad city of Iran for paying pilgrimage to the holy Imam Reza, the 8th Imam of Shiite (nearly dated)
gach-koreh: a kiln for backing plaster
khalak-pesar: the rustic or vulgar dialect of pesar-khaleh in Persian that means cousin in English but it has the same meaning with khala-Gholi or angholi
Oos or Oossa or Oosta: is the abbreviated of ostad in Persian which means master in English and is used before a name with the aim of respecting someone for his skills in something
baje: an open valve something like chimney pot
say ja ja: ja ja is a Persian song that people sing for the hens to lead them away to their nests
chapar: a fence formed by barbed small trees
Dasht-Rahan: is the name of a plain but in meaning word by word “plain path”
kiblah: the direction to which the Prophet Mohammad faced for praying
Imam-Zadeh: the shrine of a person or a person who is counted as one of the twelve Shiite Imams’ descendants
واخرجناهم من جنات و عیون و کنوز و: prayer in Arabic
و اذ قتلتم نفسا فاذا رأتم الی قوله یعقلون: prayer in Arabic
Namahram: One in front of whom a Muslim woman is supposed to veil herself or someone not of close relationship from religious point of view. This is the opposite of “mahram”.
کمک نیاز دارید؟ 
چت از طریق واتساپ