"
I was in a house on fire. It was surrounded. The soldiers surrounding it
were all on horses. They had made a ring around the building.
The soldiers pulled out swords and trumpets. They flashed one
and blew into the other. I stayed inside. I had set the fire. Those men
were not going to take me alive, or at all. I climbed into the basement,
pulled the door shut behind me. I would be safe down here. I had built a
lock that was indestructible. I had everything I needed: grains and grass,
a small orange tree. Even had a box with a piece of the sky in it. I had
found it behind the farm many years ago. It wasn’t much to look at. Had
obviously been cast aside due to its sickly nature. But I had taken it in
and nursed it, and it had grown somewhat. I didn’t need much else. I
could stay down here as long as I needed to.
I did.
I stayed in the basement for 317 years.
One day I climbed up my steps and opened the door. In the time that had
passed, a large department store of the future had been built over the
place where I had once set fire to my house. I tried to buy some new
clothes but the only thing they sold were flowers.
I Was in a House on Fire - Anis Mojgani
