THE COLOR OF FIRST CONVERSATIONS
ALM 92, August 2026
SHORT STORIES
I only know that the piano has long since fallen silent. The crowd has gone home. The tables have been cleared away.
Yet somehow, that small detail remains. Some stories begin with a glance. Others begin with a detail so small that no one expects it to matter.
It began on an evening wrapped in piano music.
The hall was alive with movement. People wandered between tables displaying handmade treasures and colorful creations. Laughter drifted through the room, mingling with melodies that floated from the piano like fragments of a distant dream.
Amid all that beauty, his attention settled on the smallest thing.
A pair of velvet-pink lace socks.
I smiled when he mentioned them. Of everything surrounding us, that was what he had noticed. The observation felt unexpected, almost amusing. We exchanged a few words, then a few more, until conversation began to flow as effortlessly as the music itself.
One conversation became many.
Many conversations became a familiar presence.
Now, when I think back to that evening, I wonder what truly began there. Attraction? Curiosity? Friendship?
Or was it one of those rare stories that quietly grows from an insignificant detail into something neither heart can fully name?
I still do not know.
Raida Jarjis is an Iraqi poet, writer, and artist. Raida's work has appeared in Arabic literary journals and cultural newspapers, and has participated in literary and artistic events internationally.
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