The Pebble Device اسماعیل عومه ری چایچی رواندزی
He was my father’s youngest cousin, a twenty-two year old man, not very noticeable. In fact, he looked as innocent as a baby or to put it differently he was a true little devil in disguise. You might even have said: No, he looked so innocent; he couldn't hurt a fly, inconspicuous, uninvolved or even absent-minded. He used to fill his pockets with pea-sized pebbles, take me with him to the city, go by bus and hurl them at innocent people.

Like a marksman he never missed his mark. People reacted after the second or third hitting and started swearing. I found it difficult not to laugh but he warned: I’ll only take you with me if you keep quiet. I really admired his dexterity but couldn’t learn it although he tried hard to teach me. Once when I was alone I wanted to try my hand. I took two or three pebbles in my pocket got onto a bus and….. No, either I missed the mark, hit somebody else or couldn’t stop laughing. People soon found out who the culprit was, hurled abuse at me and threw me out of the bus.

When the news of his early death reached me the first picture which came to my mind was how he enjoyed throwing pebbles at people. Suddenly I felt an urgent need to do the same. But I didn’t really want to throw pebbles at innocent people or play such tricks on them. I was no more a child now. Besides, even if I wanted I was not good at it. True I enjoyed destroying other children’s Lego houses when I was a child. But what I wanted now was striking at people I put on my black list. The problem was I didn’t have his dexterity to hit the mark or look innocent. I thought the pebble technology needed improvement to comply with the modern technological advances.

I started working hard on a technology of powerless people. I wanted to do it either in the comfort of my home; in the darkness of the night or stalking like an animal after creeping up on them behind a bush. Finally, after hard work I was successful. I could indeed invent a device that could hurl pea-sized pebbles at people from a distance without missing the mark. I made little holes in all the windows in my house so that I could change direction. Then I started collecting pea-sized pebbles after work. At the weekends I even went to the beach to lay in stocks.

It looked like a contraceptive device but was more explosive. It accompanied me wherever I went. In the mornings I took it to work and in the evenings or late afternoons whenever it was sunny and my grumpy neighbor with his fat wife wanted to sit on a bench in front of their house I always hit the mark.

Jamshid
12 July 2007