Mahmoud Dowlatabadi - Missing Soluch

Kadkhoda Norouz spoke up. “Let’s move on, Salar! We need to go the heart of the matter we’re gathered here for. Right to the heart of it. Karbalai, please, tell us what’s on your mind.”

Karbalai Doshanbeh didn’t respond. In his place, it was Mirza Hassan, who was heard saying, “Don’t you know how Karbalai works by now, Kadkhoda? He takes a word, chews it in his mouth a hundred times before he spits it out. And by then he’s swallowed half of it, after all!”

Salar Abdullah said, “My father has no interest for this kind of thing.” He then continued, “I’m saying this in front of you all. He doesn’t approve of this.”

Mirza Hassan said, “Are you saying he doesn’t want to contribute his money into this plan, even though he’s not doing anything with it?”

Salar Abdullah replied, “That’s right. It’s not clear to him what the end of this is. Right from the beginning, after he sold those camels, he didn’t buy a bit of land or any water. We all know this, don’t we?”

Mirza Hassan asked, “How about you, Salar?”

In the silence that followed, Abbas crept to the edge of the sitting room’s door. Salar Abdullah finally replied, “Me? I’m just a farmer. And that’s all I do.”

“So how much can you put into the pot?”

“I’ll sell off forty of my sheep. Whatever I get from that, I’ll put into this.”

“How about you, Zabihollah?”

Zabihollah chewed on his lips and said, “I’ll see what I have around. Maybe I can put in something like twenty. Twenty thousand toman . Honestly, I had set aside half of it for my wedding and had planned to use the other half for a few deals, but I’ll use it for whatever’s best. So I’m in.”

Now Abbas could see half of Mirza Hassan’s pockmarked face and part of his slim black mustache in the light shining from a wax lamp. Mirza Hassan ashed the tip of his cigarette onto a tray by the hearth and said, “Kadkhoda … I’d guess … we can count on you for forty or so?”

Kadkhoda Norouz sipped at his cup of tea, placed a hard candy in his mouth, and said, “Maybe not that much. But … I have some ideas.”

“It’s just that at some point we have to determine how much each of us can offer. Because we need the money to go forward and get the loan from the Ministry of Agriculture.”

Before addressing Mirza Hassan’s comment, Kadkhoda Norouz asked, “Have you thought of the land yet? They have to send surveyors to look over the land. They have to determine if the soil is appropriate and if it will be suitable for pistachio farming or not. In this area, pistachios are an absolutely new crop. The government’s not just going to throw its money away, you know?”

Mirza Hassan paused a second, then said, “It’s just as you say. The surveyors will have to see if the land is right for this. The reason we’re here is that in actuality our plots are all next to each other. And so our land may have a problem.”

“Yes, I know. The problem is that we all still want to plant our usual crops and to harvest them from our own plots. We don’t want to give up on planting wheat, barley, cotton, cumin, honeydew, and watermelon and use our precious land for pistachio planting, only to slap ourselves in the face in seven years and find ourselves sitting at the roots of some unripe pistachio saplings! Beyond this, pistachio plants need soft soil. You can’t farm pistachios in dry, hard land!”

Mirza Hassan replied, “This is my view as well, Kadkhoda. That’s why now I’m thinking about using God’s Land”

“God’s Land?”

Karbalai Doshanbeh smiled at Mirza Hassan as he spoke.

Mirza Hassan said, “You’re laughing, Karbalai? Yes, God’s Land. At the edge of our land and Zabihollah’s. And one side of your son’s lands extends up to it. We can easily stretch out into God’s Land.”

Karbalai Doshanbeh said, “God’s Land is all that the poor people have to work with.”

Mirza Hassan replied, “People work on it, but they don’t own it!”

“So who owns it?”

“God does! That’s why His name is on it!”

“Fine. And now some simple souls are working on it and they raise a few watermelons from it.”

“What’s a few watermelons worth to them? We’ll pay them for the land!”

“What if they don’t take the money?”

“We’ll take it and register it. The more documentation we have, the more money we’ll be able to get from the government for it. I’ve even laid the groundwork to do this.”

“You don’t say!”

“And why not, Karbalai? It seems you only have bad to say about all of this; you’re jinxing us!”

“We’ll see!”

Karbalai Doshanbeh rose from the hearth and went to put his shoes on.

Mirza Hassan said sarcastically, “Oh, now are you upset with us, Karbalai Doshanbeh?”

Karbalai, busy tying up his shoes, said, “No, no … Goodbye … Goodbye …”

Karbalai Doshanbeh was about to leave the room when Mirza Hassan delayed him by saying, “Karbalai, come on, and for once put your unused money to some good, why don’t you!”

Karbalai Doshanbeh stepped outside the room and then said, “I didn’t get this money from water, so why should I try to irrigate God’s Land with it?”

Abbas hid himself in the shadows. Karbalai Doshanbeh came down from the porch steps and Hajj Salem rose before him. Looking at the father and son, Karbalai Doshanbeh said, “What’s going on here? A funeral?”

He didn’t wait for an answer, and set off. Moslem began following him, but Hajj Salem pulled him back. “Take it easy, fool! Don’t you recognize him? He’d take the life from the angel of death himself!”

Abbas crept to the edge of the door. Mirza Hassan was lighting a new cigarette. Karbalai Doshanbeh had humiliated him. He had to recover by saying something.

“He’s a coward!”

Zabihollah said, “From the start, I didn’t have high hopes for my uncle. If he doesn’t have his money near himself, he can’t even sleep at night. He’s a person who for twenty years has eyed the alms hungry beggars collect, just to figure out how he can get a cut of it. How could we imagine that he’d come here and put his precious money into something like this?”

Salar Abdullah said, “Any older person, my cousin, and not just him, eventually loses his nerve and ambition. It’s not just about him.”

Kadkhoda Norouz said, “Good. So let’s go the heart of the matter. Mirza Hassan Khan, you think you can register God’s Land somehow? You say you’ve already started the process?”

Mirza Hassan replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll register it!”

“In your own name?”

“No. In all our names. I’ve already made the request. In Zaminej, we only need a water pump and a tractor. That’s all! Once we’re all in agreement, I’ll set out for Gorgan City. There, I can find a used tractor in good shape. I know people there.”

Salar Abdullah said, “So Mirza Khan, how much will you be able to put in yourself?”

Mirza Hassan replied, “My mother, Bibi, and I can put in fifty. If necessary, more.”

His mother’s voice sounded from the kitchen. “Mirza Khan, dinner’s ready.”

He rose and said, “Bibi, bring the embers from the kitchen and put them on the hearth here.”

Zabihollah and Salar Abdullah rose and made to put on their shoes.

“What about dinner? Aren’t you staying?”

Zabihollah said, “I need to leave. My cow is about to give birth. I think she’s overdue.”

“What about you, Salar?”

“I’m going to go to work on convincing Karbalai Doshanbeh. After all, what’s he doing sleeping on all that money and not using it?”

Mirza Hassan said, “Don’t push him too hard. He’s already said no. Anyone who’s going to be a partner on this needs to be committed.”