I need a favor. I know you're busy, but I promise it won't take too much of your time.

Yesterday they bulldozed our tree. You know the tree we would braid each others' hair under?  The tree that we would bloom with its blossoms every spring. We would pick its blossoms, and find a piece of grass to tie into a circle, and knot it to each little flower, and make a ring, and then pretend we were getting married to a handsome man who would take us away from the sounds of battle guns, our mother's tears. Take us to a place where we wouldn't have to walk on earth without fully knowing whether we were walking on someone's body with distance. 

Its roots are in the air. We tried to keep it alive. We would carry buckets of water and place the roots in it for a while, but I think the tree just lost hope like our mothers have. It just gave up.
I guess my friend shouldn't have given them that stare or thrown rocks at them, but she didn't mean it. She was just sad. All her mother does is cry.

Only now that our tree is gone I've realized how dry the landscape is. There's no river to flow through the city. No trees to give shade. Our city lacks color. Everything has been thrown up on the dirt, and the earth tries to hide the destruction by covering all that lands in its path, but now everywhere I look is muddy colored.

I took a rifle and planted it into the ground, and put my tree's roots in so they would find a way into the earth. Pretty soon it'll be a tree. I can just feel it. The steel of the rifle will protect the trunk from the dirt and dust, rocks and bulldozers. The stems will breathe up through the other end and soon the stems will be carpeted in leaves and blossoms so that it'll cover the steel and the trigger that gives us shivers upon its sight.

I found a soldier's uniform. It was dirty, but I washed it. I straightened it out and placed it under my tree. Now it looks just like grass! Of course it's only temporary until my tree gives the earth enough nutrients to grow a patch of grass below it.

I only need one more addition, and I'll have created my own oasis.

I can't do this part without your help. You see, I need water. I'm trying to convince my older brother to get me a bulldozer and bring it near my tree so once you bring water it'll slide off of its chains, like a water falls, and once it fills up in the bulldozer's mouth, it'll be a little lake. 

I'll be ready in a few days. Can you give me a lot of water? I know you're busy, but I think it would give everyone hope. Maybe it'll lift their spirits enough to find strength and stop losing hope in you.

To be honest, I never saved the blossoms from my last tree. I really just want a blossom to make into a ring and keep on my finger and feel like one day I'll move away.

Give me 3 days. Then I'll be ready. Hope this letter gets to you in time.


Shokoofeh Rajabzadeh