Free The Corpse Exhibition by Hassan Blasim Page B

lines to the Darkness district, and I also remember what the people did when they found out that a group of evildoers were planning to attack the blonds close to the river. They had a discussion in the mayor’s house and then warned the evildoers that they and their families would be thrown out of the neighborhood if they went ahead with their plans, and the bad guys backed down.
    â€œNo more than two years after the blonds first appeared, every wish had come true, just as miracles happen in myths and legends. The old maids got married, the muddy lanes were paved, everyone with a chronic disease was cured, most of the children passed their exams, whereas previously their results had been embarrassing. The biggest miracle of all was the overthrow of the monarchy through a coup by heroic officers who enjoyed the support of the people. It’s clear that all this good fortune and felicity had come to the people by virtue of the blonds. From then on harmony and love reigned among the people of the neighborhood, and enmity and violence almost disappeared. Another new thing was that the schools became mixed, with boys and girls together, and the government built a clinic close to the neighborhood, and I used to sell chickpeas in front of it. The government did something very logical when it changed the name from the Darkness district to the Flower district. It chose the new name after a government official visited the neighborhood and submitted a report in which he mentioned how many flowers there were and also how clean the neighborhood was. Almost every house had a telephone line, and it was noticeable that more than a few of the inhabitants had come to have cars. The other new thing in the neighborhood was that the old people now took part in the adult literacy program and were enthusiastic about discovering the mysteries of the alphabet and of language in general. In short the neighborhood acquired a new vitality and prosperity after the medicine began to take effect. But the happiness evaporated on that ill-fated morning, the day after the military coup, when the children went out to the edge of the neighborhood to wait for the blonds to come. They waited long and the blonds did not come. Their mothers joined them and sat with them on the wasteland. The government had built a wide road across the middle of the wasteland and now tanks and armored personnel carriers were driving along it. Then the rest of the local people came along to join them, and everyone was looking at the tanks on the main road, belching out black smoke. They had a sense of bitterness inside them, lumps in their throats and tears in their eyes.
    â€œThe sun had set and darkness had descended again.”
    My grandfather blew out the lantern flame and gave a long sigh.
    â€”——
    It was after midnight, and the new government’s tanks were invading the neighborhood to remove the statues of the blonds. The men of the neighborhood had taken up battle positions on the roofs of the houses and in the alleyways. A fierce battle broke out, and even the women took part. I had slipped through, along with three friends carrying grenade launchers to destroy a tank that was moving down the middle of the main road, but the helicopters firing from above restricted our movements. We hid behind a taxi parked on the pavement. Then some of the shops and other buildings caught fire. It looked like we were doomed to lose the battle because of the constant bombardment from the helicopters. We broke one of the windows of the taxi and hid inside, with plans to drive it off and escape. Suddenly one of the helicopters in the sky burst into flames and crashed onto the roofs of the houses. Then our fighters hit a tank with their missiles, and we saw the government troops withdrawing in panic. A while later we saw a group of young men from the neighborhood rushing forward like madmen, shouting “Allahu akbar” and spraying bullets around at random,