Daughter of Sheena (22)

Behnaz Zarrabizadeh

Daughter of Sheena-22
Memories of Qadamkheyr Mohammadi Kanaan
Wife of Sardar Shaheed Haj Sattar Ebrahimi Hajir
Memory writer: Behnaz Zarrabizadeh
Tehran, Sooreh Mehr Publications Company, 2011 (Persian Version)
Translated by Zahra Hosseinian

Chapter XI
Now I had two daughters and a lot of works. Waking up in the morning, I should do house works, washing and cleaning, cooking or taking care of babies. My sister-in-law was a great gift. She never left me single-handed, either she came to my house or I went to her house. Also most of the days I would go to my Haj Agha’s house and stayed there. But Thursday was a different day than the others. I jumped for joy from early in the morning, when I woke up. In fact, Wednesday night I would sleep soon, so that Thursday comes up sooner. I would wash and clean up everywhere from early morning. I would tidy up babies. I would dust everything. Anyone who would see me would think that I had a dear guest. Samad was my dear guest. I would cook his favorite food. Then I would drop into it so much that got bored. Sometimes, in the afternoon, my sister-in-law would come to my house, took babies, and said: “Tidy yourself up.”
We would spend days and weeks so, until the Nowruz comes up. It was on the fifth of Nowruz and we had exchanged most of our visits. “Today I want to go.” Samad said, when in the morning we woke up.
I said: “What's going on! You must stay. Go after sizdah be-dar(1) .”
He said: “Qadamkheyr! No, don’t force me. I must go. I have a lot of works.”
I said: “I’m single-handed. With these two little babies what can I do if some uninvited guests arrive?”
He said: “Let’s go together.”
I got surprised and said: “Go to whose house at night? Do you have any place there?”
He said: “I’ve rented a small house. Not bad. Come and see it, you’ll like it.”
I said: “Forever?”
He smiled and said in coolness: “Yeah. This way is also better for me. My works get harder day by day, and commuting get more difficult too. Let's gather our things and move to Hamadan.”
I did not believe that I could leave behind my Haj gha and Shirin Jan, my sister-in-law and my house simply. “I can’t stand. I’ll miss them.” I said.
He frowned and said: “You’re very smart. You can’t tolerate this distance, then how could I tolerate missing you and babies? I'm afraid new babies are added to our family sometime soon and then what do I do?”
I said: “Bite your tongue. God forbid.”
Finally he convinced me and I consented to go with him. Suddenly I saw I’ve set off to Hamedan.
I said: “Just until the end of Nowruz holidays. I’ll come back if couldn’t stand!”
As soon as he heard these words, he got up and gathered some household goods, put them into the trunk of Dyane, and said: “So we’ll spend a week there. You’ll stand, God willing.”
I accepted and we went to my father’s house. Shirin jan didn’t believe. She was tongue-tied. We asked her to look after babies, and we ourselves went and said goodbye to whole family till noon. Our babies didn’t separate from my mother. Khadija was in her arms and didn’t want to come. She was crying and with sweet talk said in tandem: “Sheena, Sheena.”
Finally, I separated her from Sheena. We got into the car and moved off. Samad had filled the car so much that there is no room for us. Dyane would roar and move along.

1 . Sizdahbedar or Sizdah Be-dar (also frequently stylized as "13 Bedar") (Persian: سیزده بدر‎) is the name of a festival in Persian Culture. Sizdah is the Persian term for thirteen. Leaving the house on the Thirteenth Day of Farvardin (the first month of Iranian calendar), and joyfully spending the day outdoors have been a national tradition since ancient times in Iran.

To be continued…