Odyssey... 29- Earth, Universe

In every one's life comes a day of perceiving that everything up to that day has not been what appeared to be. The conflicting discord, as disharmony that nature imposes upon trees when changing season, paralyzes all they are needed for enduring a life before it brings to light a new solution or purpose. The temporary immobilization, however, obscures the ambiance to a degree that for some is unbearable while for others is just another task of life needs to be tackled. Why do some people commit suicide? Isn't because they have gotten to a point that their pasts seems indistinct and their rationality for present is affected by their intolerable feelings; therefore, the future light seems like a misty vagueness? Or is it because of the extreme helplessness one feels inside which turns to an intense and subliminal anger against oneself and leaves them no choice but to eliminate himself?

Hana has never believed the cause of Behroz's death was an accident. The letter she finds in the mail box Saturday evening after coming back from Valery's wedding finally clears that long cloudiness. Mina, her younger sister, begins her letter with normal reports of their lives in Iran and how bad things are. Sara, their other sister, is completely cured from epilepsy according to the doctors. Their children are wonderful and smart. Mina describes her eight years old daughter, whom Hana has never seen, a little Hana. Mina says in her letter that Mino, her daughter, not only looks and acts like Hana, but she is also as smart as her aunt, too.

A nostalgic introspection surrounds Hana and she regrets of not being there to see her nieces and nephews grow and perhaps she fills the empty place of her mother, their grandmother, for them; so they can feel the love of a grandma, as her sons did, only in their aunt, Hana. She is overwhelmingly blissful to learn of Sara's complete recovery of the long disease, epilepsy, for she has blamed herself all these years for it. Even though Sara has never answered any of Hana's letter because of her husband's dislike for her, she has never stopped thinking about her and loving her.

Mina's letter is long which is unusual. She feels there must be more than all these wonderful news in the letter. "Mina never writes me long letters." As she continues reading, every nerve in her body twitches and a chill enters her bones. Grandma is dead at age seventy eight. She, who outlived her husband, Hana's sacred grandpa, for fifteen years, her daughter, Gol, and her second son, Nabi, according to Mina, had suffered tremendously because of Behroz, her last child's unfortunate death. Hana stops reading. There are still two pages left in Mina'a letter and somehow Hana knows that the remaining of this letter will tell her the real cause of Behroz's death, as she has never believed even for a second that the car accident had cost him his life. She starts a cigarette and makes herself comfortable by sitting on her bed; and then continues reading. The bag of her forest green, velvet dress are thrown on the floor like a piece of dirty clothes.

To Be Continued