Read Online Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi - Free Book Online Page A

continued to chatter. Abbas indignantly fell to one knee in front of his brother and said, “So you’re deaf and dumb? What’s wrong with you?”
    Abrau responded in fits, “Fever and chills. My bones are coming apart; my veins are being ripped apart. Help me!”
    “What should I do? You’ve gone and thrown every rag and scrap on top of yourself already!”
    “Yourself, yourself! I can’t stop shaking!”
    Abbas stood and lay on top of the blankets, belly down. The motion of Abrau’s body also shook him.
    “What’d you bring on yourself this time?”
    “My belly, my insides …”
    “What shit did you eat?”
    Abrau didn’t respond. He only moaned. Abbas slid off the blankets and brought over the bread.
    “Maybe because you’ve not eaten anything, huh? Here, here!”
    He took a piece of the edge of the bread and fed Abrau.
    “Chew it well. Chew it. I’ll give you some more. I’ll give you more. Chew it.”
    “Cold. Cold. Warm me somehow. My bones are cracking. Cold!”
    Abbas went straight to work. He tore his shoes from his feet, slid under the blankets, and grabbed his brother tightly. Abrau’s shaking body shook him as well. But Abbas, like a harness on a bouncing ball, kept Abrau snug in his arms.
    “Eat some bread. Eat more; eat as much as you want! Your belly’s empty; that’s why you can’t shake this fever. Eat!”
    Abrau swallowed piece after piece of the bread. Slowly, more and more of the bread was being consumed. Like a hedgehogthat has grabbed onto the tail of a snake, slowly, slowly swallowing more of it. If Abbas had remained generous, the whole bread would have been eaten. But he came to all of a sudden, grabbing the last piece from Abrau’s teeth. “You two-timing bastard! I didn’t say eat the whole thing! You ate most of it already!”
    Abrau wailed, “You’d eaten the larger part already!”
    “Oh, so now you’re complaining, too! I shouldn’t have … Well, anyway, you seem better, no?”
    “A little.”
    Abbas’ shirt was soaked in the belly from Abrau’s sweat. He let go of his brother’s body and dragged himself out from under the blankets, saying, “Don’t let air get to you. You’re soaked with sweat.”
    Fever. A moment later, Abrau’s body was in an oven. He was burning in his sweat. Sticky, slick sweat. He was in a bad way, and bit by bit felt more and more as if he was suffocating. As if he was trapped beneath a mountain’s weight.
    “Take these old rags off me. I’m suffocating”
    Abbas would not agree. “You’re having the sweats. The last thing you want now is air blowing on you.”
    “Then lighten what’s on me. I can’t breathe!”
    “No. Hold out a bit.”
    Abrau began swearing before his brother. “I swear to God, to the Imam, on the life of anyone you love, I feel I’m going to die under all this. Please do something!”
    Abbas stopped his restiveness, and he slid the last piece of bread into his shirt, swallowed the morsel he was chewing, and said, “Fine, very well, now that you’re swearing all over the place, I’ll take one of these off of you.”
    He removed a sackcloth.
    Abrau continued pleading. “Another, just take another. I beg you on Papa’s life!”
    Abbas hesitated a moment.
    “That reminds me; why has he not been around for the last few nights? What do you think, Abrau? Is he really, really gone, or is Mama just acting in front of that bastard, Salar Abdullah?”
    Abrau kept pleading, “God, it’s like I’m in an oven! Take another off me.”
    Abbas replied, “But where is she? I mean Mama. Don’t say she’s also taken off in a different direction.”
    Abrau screamed, “Abbas … Abbas … Have mercy, I can’t breathe! Take the mattress off me!”
    Abbas dragged the mattress that he had laid on Abrau off and placed the last piece of bread in his mouth. “Better? That’s the mattress.”
    Abrau said no more. It was as if he was losing consciousness. He laid one side of his face on the ground, brought