Page 63 - I Live in the Slums: Stories (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

feeling anxious; this was a consequence of my injury. Still, it turned out okay;
our lives were tranquil and meaningful.

Now let me tell you about the small garden. Behind the school was a little
garden that no one took care of. Wildflowers grew there—rhododendron,
balsam, canna, gardenias. So many varieties! The soil was fertile, and an

abandoned pool was filled with dried leaves. The little garden was where we
foraged for food; it supported us. We often went there for meetings—we would
have discussions as we hunted for food. We made an awful lot of noise. The
sound of magpies is hard to take, but the monotonous language is full of warmth
—and you can understand it if you only try.
A skinny woman often sat on a stone bench next to the pool staring at it
blankly. I observed her for a long time: How were she and the pool connected?
Had her children drowned in it? Or was she thinking of committing suicide by
throwing herself into the pool? I thought her gaze was eerie. But my wife didn’t
think so. She said this woman was intellectual and sentimental. My wife’s
perception was always accurate. One time, I was searching for insects under the
rhododendron. When I looked up, I saw that the woman had passed out and
fallen off the stone bench. At the moment, no one else was there—not my wife
and not our neighbors, either. I was extremely worried. I hopped onto the woman
and screeched loudly, over and over. Later, she slowly regained consciousness.
The first thing she did after she came to was to grab me. God, I’d never been

captured before. I didn’t move. My heart was beating like waves in a big river.
She stood up slowly, took two steps, and knelt down next to the pool. The pool
was full of water. What was she doing? She pushed me down in the water. I
don’t know how long it was before she threw me into the wildflowers and
walked away. I recall that when I was in the water, I actually felt sort of lucky. I
was drenched. When the wind blew, I shook from the cold. It was then that I
finally realized that I hadn’t died. I was still alive. And the several insects I had
found were still beside me. I had to carry them back to the nest; my wife was
sitting on her eggs at the time. I hastily mustered my energy, spread my wings,
and let the wind blow the water away and dry my wings. I shouted to myself,
“This is wonderful!”
My wife listened quietly to my story, her eyes shining with emotion. Later,

baffled, she asked me, “It’s impossible to understand what’s going on in
people’s minds, isn’t it?” I absolutely agreed with her. I certainly couldn’t
understand what I had just experienced. Afterward, I ran into this woman one
more time. I couldn’t help approaching her, but she didn’t pay any attention to
me.