In “Orkideh and Pres­i­dent Invec­tive, Mar­tyr!”, the nar­ra­tive unfolds in a dream­like mall where two fig­ures, Orkideh and Pres­i­dent Invec­tive, engage in poignant inter­ac­tions. Cyrus dreams of Orkideh appear­ing bald yet vibrant, her expres­sive bushy eye­brows and over­sized sun­glass­es cre­at­ing an intrigu­ing vis­age. Accom­pa­ny­ing her, Pres­i­dent Invec­tive strug­gles to keep pace, don­ning a notice­ably over­sized blue suit, evok­ing both humor and dis­com­fort.

Their stroll expos­es the suf­fo­cat­ing ambiance of cor­po­rate excess with­in the mall—fluorescent lights and high-end stores—contrasting sharply with Orkide­h’s ease and amuse­ment, while Invec­tive pant­i­ng­ly ques­tions the pur­pose of their pres­ence, reveal­ing his dis­com­fort in their unusu­al set­ting. As they walk, Orkideh shares mem­o­ries of her first Eng­lish joke, show­cas­ing her charm and deep­er reflec­tions on iden­ti­ty through lan­guage, hint­ing at her past life in New York.

Their path leads to art, notably an encounter with the icon­ic Mona Lisa. While Invec­tive rev­els in its beau­ty, Orkideh high­lights the paint­ing’s his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance, point­ing out the nuances of its fame. The con­trast between Invec­tive’s super­fi­cial appre­ci­a­tion and Orkide­h’s insight­ful per­spec­tive depicts a deep­er com­men­tary on art and cul­ture.

Ten­sion esca­lates as they reach a store fea­tur­ing sig­nif­i­cant pieces of art, where Orkide­h’s knowl­edge con­trasts sharply with Invec­tive’s super­fi­cial­i­ty. After reveal­ing her inter­est in Bruegel’s “Land­scape with the Fall of Icarus,” she sub­tly cri­tiques its themes, caus­ing Invec­tive dis­com­fort. His dis­dain towards the deep­er nar­ra­tive of strug­gle encap­su­lat­ed by Icarus reveals his fear of being over­shad­owed.

The cli­max unfolds dra­mat­i­cal­ly when Orkideh decides to pur­chase the Bruegel, lead­ing to a shock­ing and vis­cer­al act as the cashier forcibly ampu­tates a fin­ger to final­ize the trans­ac­tion. Pres­i­dent Invec­tive, over­whelmed and ter­ri­fied, bolts from the store, show­cas­ing his com­plete detach­ment from the grim real­i­ty of the scene. Orkideh, uncowed and even amused, adorns her fin­ger’s stump with a hand­ker­chief and con­fi­dent­ly exits with the paint­ing, main­tain­ing her agency amidst chaos. The con­trast­ing reac­tions of both char­ac­ters under­score themes of fear, iden­ti­ty, and the nature of per­cep­tion in art and expe­ri­ence, leav­ing read­ers ques­tion­ing the impli­ca­tions of their actions and inter­ac­tions.

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