Ormen Oganezov (2024)

He didn’t flinch. He simply produced a small brass key from the hidden fold of his cap and opened the door.

“To mop the sea,” he said. “It’s still red in places.” ormen oganezov

Ormen Oganezov had been the night janitor at the Pankisi Valley Community School for forty-three years. Everyone knew his stooped shadow, the soft clink of his key ring, and the way he would pause in the hallway to listen to the silence between the boiler’s coughs. He didn’t flinch

“Because I promised to clean the blood until the blood remembers it was water.” “It’s still red in places

“The floor was wet,” Ormen replied.

He was seen one last time, years later, in a train station in Tbilisi, carrying a bucket and a string mop. A child asked him where he was going. Ormen Oganezov smiled—the first smile anyone could remember.

Inside, there was no mops, no broken microscopes. Instead, a single oil lamp burned on a wooden crate. Around it sat three men: one young, one middle-aged, one old. Their faces were his own—his father’s jaw, his brother’s scarred brow, the son he had buried in a shallow grave near the Alazani River.