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Iowa Writes AMEENA HUSSEIN Sunil died in the bomb blast. He was my fruiterer. Which bomb blast you ask? Does it matter? He had gone for the election rally at the Town Hall. The bomb went off. Sunil died. That's all. When I got home two days later that was what I was told. Sunil died on a Monday. I met him the Saturday before at the Colpetty market. "Baby," he said. That was what he called me. Baby, even though I was 20 years old. He called my mother Mummy to me, and nothing to her face. When he wanted to sell her fruits, he would say, "Baby likes this," and when he wanted to sell me fruits, he would say, "Mummy always bought this," holding up an apple like Eve, or an orange—imported not local, as the local ones were prohibitively expensive, which brought home another anomaly of the age we lived in. Anyway, that Saturday, Sunil asked me, "Baby, do you want oranges?" I told him, "Let me ask Mummy. Mummy!” I said moving towards her, “Sunil wants to know if you want oranges?" My mother turned from her vegetable man from whom she was buying keera, brinjals, pathola and thalana batu, and came towards Sunil and me. "Not oranges, but anyway how much are they?" My mother likes doing these things. She likes saying she doesn’t want something but still asking the price. The price determines whether she wants it or not. Sunil must have quoted a good price. Six oranges were put in the bag. "Papaw?" Sunil looked hopefully at my mother. She shook her head and took out her wallet to pay for the six oranges. Sunil's response to that was to simply say, "Papaw for juice." My mother asked, "How much?" The papaw was put in the bag. Sunil smiled at me who had been standing all the while beside the two of them. I smiled back and my mother and I went down to the car. That was on Saturday. Sunil died on Monday |
About Iowa Writes Since 2006, Iowa Writes has featured the work of Iowa-identified writers (whether they have Iowa roots or live here now) and work published by Iowa journals and publishers on The Daily Palette. Iowa Writes features poetry, fiction, or nonfiction twice a week on the Palette. In November of 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Iowa City, Iowa, the world's third City of Literature, making the community part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Iowa City has joined Edinburgh, Scotland and Melbourne, Australia as UNESCO Cities of Literature. Find out more about submitting by contacting iowa-writes@uiowa.edu AMEENA HUSSEIN Ameena Hussein, a Sri Lankan writer, has published two short-story collections, Zillij and Fifteen. She participated in the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program in 2005. “An Ordinary Death” first appeared in The Iowa Review’s Fall 2006 issue. |
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