299 Mirdaamaad Blvd, Tehran, Iran

We have almost arrived. Almost but not quiet yet.

We are very close to the point where we can forever get rid of the brown four story building at 299 Mirdaamad Blvd... the building that destroyed a family, the love between a mother and daughter, two brothers and now a brother and sister.

How much power can a building have over human beings?

I have a vague memory of its inception...brand new carpets and new paint. I must have been two or three. Then came all the times we got stuck in that elevator, all those scary nights we spent in the "cellar" to hide from the bombs, all those night and days we had to take the stairs down after a power outtage, all those snowy days I played in the yard, all those moments we spent on the roof looking at the far distant airplanes landing at Merhraabaad...wishing so very badly that we would leave soon in one of them and never come back.

Well, we did leave but this brown building was mad when we all left him alone by himself. He felt abandoned, like an orphan, but worse since orphans' parents are usually dead, while his parents had left him for a better land, America. First he had to endure a bridge being built in front of him viewing his block, which brought lots of noise and pollution with it. Then he became so angry and enraged that it decided to send his negative energy all the way across the world, pulling us back to himself one by one. He told himself, "They left me here, and I am going to make them suffer. I am never going to let them move on..."

The most proper way would have been for us to sell him to a new loving owner who would take care of him and maintain him, just like 90 percent of people who sold their damn properties before they left. We should have done that, for his own sake. We should have had a proper closure, a decent funeral. We should have never had unfinished business like this...

I have a dream of one day, in 30 years, I would go back there and spit over his face for what he did to us. By then, all the big players involved that he victimized will be gone and only ashes will be left of them...Mamani, Daee S, Daee H and Mom, but this bastard will still be standing tall at 299 Mirdaamaad. Isn't that ironic that human beings build buildings that stand longer than themselves, for years and years to follow?

Unless, of course, a new owner buys the damn thing and decides to destroy it and build a brand new "borj" at that prime location. Then I would be very happy because if all the people i love have to suffer b/c of him, he needs to die soon. Maybe then that day, in 30 years, I will go back and buy the 15th floor of that borj for myself, where it has a beautiful view of Tehran, 360 degrees, you see Damaavand from the North and airplanes still flying in Southern Tehran. By then, I can invite my American born grandchildren to come visit their grandma in her home country and I can tell them stories of this old brown building that stood there 60 years before and all that ensued after...

That day will come. I can see it now.

Be gone brown building....Be gone soon. Time to say good-bye.