Chapter 5

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That morning was different. The headache was unbearable. Sleep had left him very exhausted, and the dizziness had come and gone steadily since the early hours of the morning. His mind refused to let go of the memories of Arash and the scream...

«XIIIIIIN!»

But when he wanted to call for help, and from the other end of the phone at the reception desk he was asked to come down with his passport to order a doctor's visit, he noticed something that, whether through innocence or stupidity, he had not yet realised.

"My wallet... where is it?" he wondered.

With difficulty Xin recalled everything he had done the day before, starting from the moment he had left the hotel to explore the city, and calculating and fighting against inaccuracy until he reached the instant of returning, dead tired, from the streets of Tehran.

He had hardly eaten, and the only thing he had bought was the amulet of Sandaramet; which in fact, had been the last time he had used his wallet, as he had walked back to the hotel. After thinking it over without wasting much time, he decided to retrace his steps with the intention of retrieving his money and documents, no matter how much despair would overwhelm him.

To his chagrin, when he stepped out onto the street, the heat and the crowds of people crowding around him did not help his headache. But that didn't matter much to him. Echoing the same strength that, perhaps, Arash had needed to carry his arrow, Xin decided to stay focused and not draw too much attention from passers-by, as he had always hated that very much.

After an hour and a half of walking, he returned to the same place that had so captivated him yesterday: the prevailing bazaar of the 12th district, next to the royal mosque and the ancient palace. Then, amidst another dizziness and another distortion of his vision, a shout, or perhaps it was an echo in his memories, startled him with his name once again, and when Xin turned to get his bearings, he was met with a sudden burst of applause and whistles.

When Xin's eyes found the source of the noise, he noticed that he had finally arrived at his destination, right at the stall of the vendor from whom he had bought the amulet the day before. Relieved and optimistic, he quickly walked over to the crowd that was currently enjoying the vendor's spectacle; the vendor was once again doing his routine of juggling in the air, while a woman, the customer, kept her eye on the object that was going up and down.

Curiously, had it not been for the dizziness and his lack of concentration, Xin would not have discovered how behind the customer, mesmerised by the act of entertainment, a tall man with a slim and swift build was making a very discrete signal to the salesman, who nodded almost imperceptibly. Suddenly, the opportunity to take the wallet out of the poor unwary woman's purse became apparent, as did the joint work to bring the event to fruition.

It was then that Xin understood what had happened to his wallet.

The man quickly began to slip away through the crowd, and without a second thought, Xin made a mad dash to chase him down. Just as he was about to disappear down an alternate alleyway in the bazaar, Xin managed to grab him by the wrist and stop him.

"Give me back my wallet."

"What?"

Xin repeated the same thing, spitting it almost in the man's face as he turned around. The man looked at him in annoyance and said something in Farsi, which Xin couldn't understand as he tried to break free to continue his escape, but Xin held him even tighter.

"I know you have it, and I want it back."

"Pfff, you're confusing me with someone else," the man told him as he managed to wiggle free of Xin's grip. "Now get lost."

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