The Curse
As the night was getting darker, Husain’s condition was getting worse; his mother was sitting near him, constantly reciting prayers & blowing on him. There were tears in her eyes.
She looked at her husband very disappointed and then said in a very sad tone. Meer Rafsanjani ———Husain’s condition is not well, he is very ill, his health is getting worse day by day, he has a mild fever for several days but since this evening his temperature is so high that he is not opening his eyes.
Can’t we take him to the doctor?
Forough —- Let it be morning – it is 11 o’clock of the night, so no doctor will get available at this time. Rafsanjani responded with a tired tone.
We can’t wait till morning. Husain’s condition is getting worse. We have to take him to Central Hospital immediately. She replied ——- her tone was terrified.
You are right. We cannot wait till morning. He laid his hands on Husain’s forehead and said.
He called a taxi and took Husain to the central hospital in Isfahan with Forough. The emergency was open, junior doctors were on duty; they carefully examined Hussein, his condition was critical, he had one hundred and four degrees fever, his blood pressure was too high; He had a heavy cuff in his chest He was barely breathing.
The doctors admitted Husain to the hospital & kept him in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) & started giving Oxygen.
He needed a ventilator, but the hospital had only counting ventilators that were already in use by patients, and there was not a single ventilator that could be fitted to Husain.
The doctor was helpless, and hopeless too, they gave him some medicines through Injection and said that his condition is serious; pray for him; senior Doctor will see him in the morning if he would alive till morning. Let the morning come; only then can we say something.
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In the morning the senior doctor came and saw Husain’s pulse and examined his chest, and then addressed the junior doctor, he is suffering acute pneumonia; his life can be saved but its medicines are not available due to American sanctions in Iran.
Neither our country has money nor resources;
We’ve been tolerating US sanctions for a long time; People are dying and the world is watching the spectacle.
The senior doctor looked at Husain in desperation and said, this is a civilized world, or we are still living in darkness. There was anger at his gesture.
It was difficult to say whether his resentment was against American eccentricity or Iran’s weakness and backwardness, but he was disappointed and shook hands.
Hussein’s parents were standing idle near Hussein’s bed listening to all these conversations.
Eventually, Husain died that evening due to a lack of proper medications, the carcass of their young son lay in front of helpless parents.
Their hands were empty and their hearts were broken.
They wanted to cry but the tears were not ready to come into their dry eyes.
Forough’s condition was worse, She was standing near the dead body of her son; constantly gazing the corpse of her son without blinking eyelids like a statue.
She felt like Husain was not dying, but he is sleeping and he would just get up and call her — oh my mom.
I will live your memories forever, and when spring comes I will meet you.
You will feel my touch in the twinkle of the stars.
When you see flowers blooming, you’ll find me.
Oh, my mother oh my dear mother.
And when you miss me & cry I will make you smile.
After all, she was a mother; how long she would control herself; at last, she finally fainted and fell to the ground.
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The grave had been dug, and Hussein’s corpse was being buried.
Forough stood at some distance watching the corpse of her young son being buried in the grave & and the doctor’s words were repeated in her mind, “Husain’s life can be saved but its medicines are not available due to American sanctions in Iran.”
She felt like someone was hammering her brain.
She was unable to decide who was responsible for the death of her son; the US might or the mutual hostility of Muslims uma that made them so weak that they are suffering from all forms of oppression today?
She told herself, in dismay ——– to oppress and to bear oppression both are sins. Someone may oppress you and put restrictions on you when you are weak.
Therefore, it is obvious that the greatest sin is the weakness of a community, as long as the Jews were weak, they were being tortured, today Muslims are weak and backward, they are being oppressed and facing restrictions and the lives of the Muslims have no value in the eyes of this insensitive world.
Panicking, she grabbed her head with her hand.
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After Hussein’s cremation, relatives and friends left the graveyard one by one leaving Meer and Forough in the graveyard as they told them, they wished to stay nearer to their son’s grave.
And now they were alone.
The weather was cold.
The sun was setting and darkness was rising. There was moisture in the air and it was blowing a little faster than usual.
Meer wanted to comfort her by placing his hand on Forough’s shoulder but he was not getting proper words to console Forough.
She said removing Meer’s hand from her shoulder—-You will see if a god exists; He will take vengeance definitely and people in the whole world including the west will come in the grip of a disease whose medicines are not yet available.
People all over the world will die in agony. It will be difficult for them to breathe.
Do you know what you are saying——If people all over the world die mercilessly, then there will be deaths in Iran too and Muslims will also die in large numbers? Meer replied.
So what —- dead people do not die again, we are already dead—— to oppress and to bear oppression both are sins. ————– The oppressor and oppressed deserve equal punishment. —-Farough said.
She was continuously crying, it seemed like all the world would be drowned in her tears.
Husain’s grave was decorated with flowers & candles were lit at his tomb.
Suddenly a gust of wind came out and the candles were extinguished.
She sighed and cursed raising both her hands towards the sky——Oh God brings retribution.
Suddenly, she had not even dropped her raised hands; a sound of bats flapping came. She turned and saw; no bats were flying in the air or hanging with tree branches.
She asked Meer – did you hear the sound of bats flapping?
Meer replied. No, I haven’t heard any sound.
She said it could be my illusion and it might be that the bats couldn’t see due to the darkness.
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Ever since Husain’s death, Forough & Meer Rafsanjani made it their routine to go to the tomb of Husain’s grave every Thursday.
On Thursday evening, when they arrived at the graveyard for offering fateha on Husain’s tomb, they saw, a small plant has grown there.
This plant looked a bit different from the normal plants. The stem and branches were bluish- brown and the leaves were reddish-green.
The plant was grown very close to Husain’s tomb, so Meer wanted to raise his hand and destroy the plant. —————— But as soon as he raised his hand to lift the plant. Forough shouted. ——Do not touch this plant. Let it grow up, this is my Husain. —————–One day it will grow and become a tree, shady tree and we will sit in its shadow.
Meer changed his mind about destroying the plant, and then from the same day they started taking care of this plant, they started watering and cleaned the grass- hay, and bushes grown around it.
As the tree grew beggar, Forough felt as she was watching Husain grow young,
But as faster the plant grew she was becoming older at the same speed., and it was not even a year that the plant became a tree, and meantime black hair of the unlucky Forough turned white.
The grief of Husain’s death did not let her live and waiting for the destruction of this world was not letting her die.
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It did not yet spring that the kopals (fresh leaves) started growing on the branches of that tree, and the fruits also came.
The fruits of that tree looked different from the ordinary fruits. It seemed as if there was no fruit on the branch of the tree, the crowns of kings were hanging.
In the meantime, no one knew where the bats came from and made the tree branches their home.
The bats ate the fruits of the tree and used to do the shit under it.
They were living comfortably on the branches of the tree, in the meantime, the spring season passed and autumn came: one day a strong storm came and swept away many bats from the graveyard of the Isfahan Iran to Wuhan –China.
Where these bats were caught by the Bats-hunter and supplied to a famous restaurant of Wuhan& the soup of these bats was prepared in the restaurant and served to customers.
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The current year was nearing its end and the sound of the coming year could be heard clearly.
It was December, the weather was relatively cold.
Meer was at work, Forough was alone at home: Although sleeping during the day was not her habit, the weather was exhausting and she had a mild headache since morning, so she lay in bed before noon and went to sleep.
But she woke up shortly after. Perhaps she had a dream, a terrible dream. She rubbed her eyes from her hands and thought about what she had seen in the dream but she could not remember anything.
She panicked and looked around the room; there was a picture of Husain smiling on the front wall.
She remembered Husain’s childhood, how he used to be stubborn and in what ways did she entertain him. Her eyes filled with tears.
To shed her distracted mind, she switched the television on.
The news was being broadcast on the Al Jazeera Channel.
“An outbreak of Coronavirus2019 (COVID-19) has spread in Wuhan-China, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the medicine or vaccine for this disease has not yet been invented. This disease is rapidly spreading to other countries.
Till now thousands of people have been affected by this disease and many of them have died tragically.
There is a complete lockdown. Emergency has been declared with immediate effect. ”
She turned off the television.
She felt something strange: she could not decide whether she should laugh or cry.
She approached the window and opened the door, she looked up at the sky, the sun was setting and the sky was turning red.
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The next day was Thursday, before dusk she went to the graveyard to offer Fateha to Hussein’s tomb, Meer was with her.
There she saw: that tree had fallen and was lying on the ground.
She hugged the tree trunk and cried for a long time.
Since then she had been desperate to know about the spread of the virus and the deaths of its patients.
She used to watch TV, read newspapers and sometimes talk about the deadly virus spreading from Meer.
Time was passing by; the coronavirus was spreading very rapidly from one country to another, people were dying but there was no medicine or vaccine available for this disease.
Meer told her: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020 and recognized it as a pandemic on 11 March. As of 30 March 2020, more than 724,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in over 190 countries and territories, resulting in approximately 34,000 deaths. More than 152,000 people have since recovered.
She started laughing loudly and then wept in the same way. Maybe she lost her mental balance.
After a few days, she became seriously ill and came to bed.
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From the morning her condition was so bad the eye was not being opened: Meer was sitting on a chair next to her bed.
Forough barely raised her eyelids and asked Meer whether the coronavirus is spread in the United States or not?
Meer told her: the USA has become the epicenter of coronavirus: There have been 142,793 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the USA of which 4,562 are recovered and 2,490 deaths.
She inquired ——- what you say about Italy.
Meer said: Italy ——- Oh —— Don’t ask about Italy. There were 10,779 casualties.
Oh my God ——She repented —– so many deaths.. —-I apologize —
I’m sorry … I’m ashamed——–Lord, forgive me.
She closed her eyes slowly —- forever —– she was dead.
