Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story)

by Daniel Nayeri

Reader, if you think anything of Oklahomans, I hope you’ll remember Jim and Jean Dawson, who were so Christian that they let a family of refugees come live with them until they could find a home, and who made them sandwiches with Pringles chips, which is the best chip any place has to offer, and means you’re welcome, and who let them play with their grandson’s Nintendo.

But what you believe about the future will change how you live in the present.

This was my life, as I experienced it, and it is both fiction and nonfiction at the same time. Your memories are too, if you’ll admit it. But you’re not a liar. You’re just Persian in your own way, with a flaw.

I have a son now. He is the exact age I was when I freed Mr. Sheep Sheep, and I can’t imagine ever losing him. I pray that he will be rich in memories of me holding him. He is named after my Baba Haji.