A Persian Requiem Read Online Free

keys and now they sleep hugging the keys tightly. If they don’t have the keys, they don’t sleep a wink. I’ve never seen a little girl so in love with the stars, and I’ve never seen a town like yours where you can hide stars in its cupboards …”
    He took another sip of his drink and said: “That’s the end of Mina’s story. Say bravo, Yusef! See what a yarn I’ve spun from odds and ends you’ve told me about your twins. You say the people of your town are born poets: well, the Irish are like that too …”
    Then he became silent.
    Zari was deep in thought when she noticed her brother-in-law, Abol-Ghassem Khan, approaching. McMahon stood up, picked up his glass and left. Abol-Ghassem Khan took his seat.
    “Is that whisky?” he asked.
    “No, it’s gin,” Zari answered. “Shall I pour you a glass?”
    Abol-Ghassem Khan said quietly to Yusef: “Listen brother, you’re being as stubborn as a mule. After all they’re guests in our country. They won’t be staying here forever, you know. And if we don’t give them what they want, they’ll take it by force. They won’t be put off by the locks and bolts on your store-rooms either. Besides, you know they’ll pay. I sold the entire contents of my store-rooms in one go … I’ve already taken a down payment for the wheat before it’s even sprouted. After all, they’re the bosses.”
    “I’m all too well aware that they’re unwelcome guests,” Yusef told his brother dryly. “But the worst thing is the feeling of inferiority that’s taken hold of everyone; overnight they’ve turned all of you into their lackeys, go-betweens, and errand-boys. Why don’t you let at least one person stand up to them so they can say to themselves that they’ve finally come across a man?”
    Before Abol-Ghassem Khan could reply, dinner was announced. The guests filed inside the house. Zari, her husband and her brother-in-law pretended to be on their way too, but lingered.
    “Sister, say something,” said Abol-Ghassem Khan, turning to Zari. “Your husband is downright insulting to his elder brother.”
    “What can I say?” Zari challenged.
    Turning back to Yusef, Abol-Ghassem Khan said: “Now listen, brother, you’re young and you don’t understand. You’re gambling with your life with this stubbornness of yours, and creating trouble for all of us as well. These foreigners have to feed a whole army. You know very well an army that big can’t be kept hungry.”
    “But our own people can be!” Yusef replied sharply. “The peasants who have been expecting to survive on the provisions from my store-rooms can be kept hungry!”
    “Listen, last year and the year before you got away with not giving them anything and somehow we covered up for you and made up the amount. But this year it just won’t work. Right now provisions and petrol are even more valuable to them than guns and ammunition.”
    They were still arguing when Gilan Taj came up to them and said: “Mother says please come in for dinner.”
    As they walked in, Abol-Ghassem Khan whispered in Zari’s ear: “I hope he doesn’t take it into his head not to come to their party tomorrow evening. They’ve even invited Khosrow. I’ll pick you all up myself.”
    “But tomorrow’s Thursday; it’s a holy evening and I have a lot to do. You know the vow I made.”
    “Sister, I’m counting on you!” Abol-Ghassem Khan pleaded.
     
    When they reached home, Zari sat on the bed. She only took off her shoes. Yusef was straightening out his trousers on the bed, ready for the hanger. When he had put on his night-clothes he went into the children’s room next door. Zari could see him from where she was sitting, standing by the twins’ bed watching them. Then he moved forward out of sight, but Zari knew he would be smoothing out their pillows, taking the keychain which they liked to hold at bedtime. She knew he would be kissing them and murmuring endearments to them. Then she heard a door open, and knew he had