Shahin Asmari

Mr. Lombartsky sat himself down by the bank of the river, placing a cold beer beside himself. Looking at the boat deep into the river, occupied by two men in their late twenties, he was drowned in thought of his prime time when he was at the same age as those men on the boat.

He was tired of the long week he had passed behind, going on stage every other night, and acting the three-hour show everyone in the town was talking about. He was the main role of the piece and had to be on stage for about two hours and twenty-three minutes out of the three hours, and his lines were the longest and most complex compared to the other actors. Knowing that he might not be able to cope with his rheumatism for he was in his late sixties, he had begged the director to consider a smaller role for him; however, his request was politely turned down by the director after a quite long but cordial discussion on the importance of Mr. Lombartsky’s role in raising the interest of the mass and soaring the revenue of the theater.

Having lost his wife a few years back due to failure of kidney and having left no children behind, he agreed to do his part in the show as his income for the twenty appearances on stage was so mouth-watering that he promised himself to take a break for two years and enjoy himself and the money he would secure by the offer. It had become his habit to get some money and have a break for a while until the money gets less. Meanwhile, he would go on strolls or sit by the river on afternoons to let the day go by when he had not much to do. It was a lazy Sunday and the drowsiness and cruel sunshine from above had made him very sluggish, so he had no intention of taking a walk. As a result, he remained there and sipped on his cold beer which was slowly turning lukewarm. You know lukewarm beer is good for nothing, right?

Repeating some lines of the script which he tended to forget every night, running away from the terror of the audience by coming up with his own version of those sentences, a young boy came and sat beside him, peering into the man’s face, smiling as he looked at Mr. Lombrtsky. Then, he asked:

– “Are you Mr. Lombartsky?” grinning cordially.

– “Yes, young man. But who are you if I may ask?” Mr. Lombartsky replied with a sense of surprise.

– “My name is Fred. I finish high school this year and I want to study acting at the university. My goal is to be a well-known actor like you.” Fred replied with a glow in his eyes.

– “I am not famous, it’s just the people of this small town in the middle of nowhere who quite know me.” Mr. Lombartsky said, continuing “besides, they know me only on stage. I am not too much known off the stage. I’m an ordinary person just like any other person here.”

– “But people go to theaters because they know you will be on stage, and you get interviewed almost every week. Also, I have seen you driving your old timer which drives every girl crazy. I do wish I were you!”

– “Want a sip of beer?”

– “I’m not old enough for alcohol. I said I am still in high school.”

– “What if you don’t make it until 21. What if you have an accident going home tonight and your life comes to an abrupt, premature, tragic end?”

– “That’s harsh. I shall not think of such a thing. I have a lot of years ahead of me, why shall I worry about a horrible thing like that when the chances of that happening is very low?”

– “Life has many surprises young lad, some aren’t surprises though, some are shocks which leave you in terror and change your direction and purpose once and for all. It is good to have goals, to try to reach them, stay positive, dream and catch them, but you should never deny the risk of unforeseen incidents. How old are you again?” Mr. Lombartsky had a serious look on his face which brought a frown to the boy’s face.

– “Seventeen. I’ll be eighteen in almost a month. Why?” Fred replied with a perplexed mind.

– “That’s a nice age to be in. You have no responsibility, no worries, and you have not lived long enough to be twisted and turned by the ups and downs of life. Enjoy it while you can.”

Mr. lombartsky said that with a smile and grabbed his beer bottle again, sipping a bit and tasting the drink in his mouth instead of gulping it down. He avoided looking at the teenager, instead he focused his attention on the sun in the sky which was crawling downwards at a very slow pace. While he was doing so, his peripheral vision proved him that the boy was doing the same. He was looking at the same direction with another perception of the scene. I reckon, Mr. Lombartsky was thinking of his dawning age as he had not too many years ahead of him. The boy, on the other hand, remembered he had exams coming soon and the melancholic days of cramming the books and cursing the circumstances left a gloomy look on his face.

– “How many children do you have?” Fred asked curiously.

– “None” said Mr. Lombartsky bitterly.

– “Don’t you wish you had one at least? Your child would have accompanied you to many places, helped you with your chores and pursue a dream to make you proud! Wouldn’t that be amazing?”

– “How sure could I be of that? What if he was a jerk and became an addict to drugs and I had to fetch him in the dregs of the town? Or if she were a girl, what could I have done if she fell in love with someone and had to move another town or country, almost forgetting she had a father? Wouldn’t that be awful now?” Mr. Lombartsky replied laughing heartily.

– “See, you can never predict what is good or what is bad. Everything has a meaning once we make it happen. Certain things like drugs, alcoholism, suicide, or disloyalty are always evil, no matter how delicate or perfect you conduct them. There are also things like kindness to others, honesty or healthy eating which are always a blessing, no matter how badly you do them. The vital point is how you take actions which could make you end up into either category. So, do what you think of as more positive and give all you can to make it good.”

– “That’s very interesting, I will remember it and act like that in my life.” The boy replied.

– “There’s a backlash to that though.”

– “What do you mean?” Exclaimed Fred.

– “Look! Sometimes, what you want is not what everyone desires, and what you do not want is what the others wish for. Let me give you an example so you can get it better. Today is a hot day, right? I can see you are kind of tired of the heat and you think to yourself, a little rain could have been amazing. It would become a milder afternoon, the air would be fresher, you would feel juvenile and so on. However, if you look one hundred or so meters away from you, you can see a homeless person who has been living under that bridge right over there for the past three years. I come to this spot too often and I usually see him there. For him, the rain is not for the dancing, for him the rain is a disaster, a gloomy Sunday so to say. There will be less people passing by which means he would have less changes to feed himself with at the end of the day; he might get wet by the flow of the water, so he shall be cold after a while and might get the flu. So, you see, your wish is his nightmare.

Or else, say you have a crush on someone. While you’re stumbling on how to make her yours and be lost in the ocean of love you feel inside, somebody else grabs her attention and she goes with the other guy. Obviously, your wish for her should be pure happiness, but that would mean that you will have to moan like a hound which has been beaten cruelly. Would you wish her new relation to fall apart and you try your chance again? If so, you are selfish, and you don’t much care about her. You see what I mean?”

– “Yes! I’m following you. But what shall I do then? I mean there are always dilemmas like that, aren’t they?”

– “Absolutely! The key is to be moderate. You can never act in a way that everyone is happy, but you could cut down the tension. You shall not be a tyrant when you try to reach your goals, but you should be focused. Also, you should not be so moderate that others take advantage of you. This is from the experience young boy. I did prioritize others to myself in many cases and now that’s my regret. I can’t bring back time, so I will carry those regrets to my grave. Have as few regrets as you can.” Said Mr. Lombartsky and drank his beer again.

– “The beer is warm now. Damn the sun! It doesn’t make sense drinking it anymore.”

– “Would you like to walk alongside the river for some minutes?” Fred implored.

– “No, I’d rather sit here and keep my batteries intact for I have to be fresh for tomorrow’s show. If I walk too much now, I would not be able to stand for two hours on stage, and everyone’s efforts will be ruined. Then, I will not be paid, and I shall live in the streets and hope you will never wish for the rain.” Mr. Lombartsky quipped.

Fred did not mind that, so he lingered on and asked again:

 – “What else do you do apart from acting? Do you travel a lot with your friends because you earn good money?”

– “Alas, I do nothing much, I just sit here and there, drinking a beer and thinking of the good memories from the past, waiting for it to happen.” Sighed Mr. Lombartsky.

– “Waiting for what to happen?”

– “Death. It’s about the time. I have lost a bunch of close friends over the past few years. My wife isn’t there anymore and I have no children. It’s better if it happens now than later, you know? I don’t want to decay before death, I want it to come to me while I am still healthy enough to take care of myself. It would be awful to get Alzheimer and forget everything, lose control of your organs and feel the pity in the way everyone looks at you. I mean I tend to be forgetful even now, but I am good enough still. Like I can remember lines of the script of a three-hour show, but I have cleanly forgotten your name and age again. I just remember you are young enough not to drink alcohol.”

– “It’s Fred, seventeen.” Fred said amusingly. “I am sorry for your losses, I thought you must be like Marco Polo now, going around with your pals and having fun.”

– “Don’t be sorry. I’ve had my own golden days as well. Life is for the youth now, for people like you who have no idea what might be coming their way. So, try to enjoy it as much as you can. It will tear you into pieces, put you back together again and break you harder next time; just be flexible and not afraid of being broken. An intact vase might look well, but a vase which has been broken and glued together again is more eye-catching. You know why? Because you can see the cracks and uneven surface, yet you know that this vase would keep a flower inside it as perfect as the intact one. Your only strength must be toughness which would bring your pieces together every time you break. No one ever fixes a broken vase when the pieces go missing.”

Fred was in a loss for words because the conversation had been much deeper than he had imagined. He obviously enjoyed the conversation, but he wondered if he could realize everything Mr. Lombartsky told him about life. He had many questions about how Mr. Lombartsky had come to such conclusions about life, but he hesitated and refused to ask more questions. He was afraid the conversation might get more complex each time he asked a new question, so he decided to leave and courtly excuse himself. Therefore, he stmmered:

– “Mr. Lombartsky, I enjoyed talking to you very much, and I thank you for the interesting talk. I wish I could stay a little longer, but I have to go home and study for an exam now. So, I wish you a pleasant evening.” Fred said very politely.

– “It’s alright gentleman. Go on and try your best. Just remember, lying isn’t one of your talents, so avoid it because your eyes are telling me that you do not have an exam, you simply want to run away from the complicated picture of life I just explained.” Mr. Lombartsky said and laughed loudly, stretching his hand to shake hands with Fred.

– “Please accept my apologies. Goodbye!”

Fred replied with an awe on his face. He shook hands with the old actor firmly and turned back homeward. The smile on Mr. Lombartsky’s face vanished slowly as he turned back again. He noticed that the two young men on the boat were struggling with their fishing rods for the fish was of a massive size in comparison with the other fish in that river. Eventually, they managed to get the fish out of the river and put it in a container on their boat. Meanwhile, Mr. Lombartsky drank the remains of his beer in a gulp and stood up to withdraw to his home.