In the evoca­tive chap­ter of “Ali Shams and Rumi, Mar­tyr!”, we find Cyrus dream­ing of his father, Ali, a man marked by the weight of his past experiences—wartime ser­vice, the sud­den death of his wife, and years of gru­el­ing man­u­al labor in a new coun­try. In this dream, Ali sits casu­al­ly out­side a music venue, smok­ing a cig­a­rette, a nod to the lit­tle sac­ri­fices par­ents make that chil­dren often over­look. Accom­pa­ny­ing him is the strik­ing Rumi, clad in vibrant silk robes, who express­es excite­ment at meet­ing Ali.

Their con­ver­sa­tion reveals an exchange rich with philo­soph­i­cal insights. Rumi empha­sizes the impor­tance of the small details over grand narratives—a con­trast to their pasts filled with oblig­a­tions. As smoke wafts around them, stars seem more vivid and close, mir­ror­ing their intro­spec­tive dia­logue. Ali express­es his reser­va­tions about smok­ing mar­i­jua­na, yet rec­og­nizes Rumi’s unique nature, allow­ing him some lee­way in this chap­ter.

The con­ver­sa­tion takes a deep­er turn when Rumi asks Ali to share some­thing real, lead­ing Ali to reveal his feel­ings of betray­al from his late wife, Roya. Ali recounts unset­tling moments dur­ing her preg­nan­cy, hint­ing at emo­tion­al unavail­abil­i­ty and secrets that plague him. Rumi reacts empa­thet­i­cal­ly, acknowl­edg­ing the weight of Ali’s con­fes­sion.

As the two dis­cuss the con­cept of fate and the bur­dens they face, Rumi under­scores the lit­er­ary poten­tial in Cyrus, refer­ring to the boy as some­one who might craft an impact­ful nar­ra­tive out of sor­row and strug­gle. Their time togeth­er blooms rich­ly in a set­ting marked by youth­ful exu­ber­ance and the throb­bing rhythm of music from the venue.

As Rumi pre­pares to take the stage, the atmos­phere shifts. Upon his arrival, a remark­able silence blan­kets the hall, trans­form­ing ener­gy into expec­ta­tion. Rumi, radi­at­ing bril­liance, begins to chant, prompt­ing the audi­ence to join him in a pow­er­ful cho­rus that cul­mi­nates in a sur­re­al spec­ta­cle. The imagery of Rumi’s head ignit­ing in flames rever­ber­ates through the crowd as they chant repet­i­tive­ly, blend­ing the ethe­re­al with the real, embody­ing themes of sac­ri­fice and tran­scen­dence .

Wait­ing ai