“Get one!” she had screeched and stamped her foot. “Of course you can get one!”
Then supervising Jari tidying away all her clothes and Tommy’s clothes, shedding a tear now and then, not for the loss of their apartment that he had wanted and enjoyed more than she, but only from happiness to be home again. A rest, last prayer, and then a bath and now the massage. “There, Princess,” Jari said, her arms tired. “Now you should dress for dinner. What would you like to wear?”
Wearing the dress that would please Meshang the most, the multicolored woolen skirt and blouse he admired. Then once more checking on the horisht and the polo - the golden-crusted, mouth-watering Iranian way of cooking rice - and the other Meshang specialty, the melon, sweet-smelling and juicy and perfectly sculptured.
Waiting for her cousin Karim Peshadi to arrive - loving him, remembering their lovely times growing up, their families always intermingled, summers on their Caspian estates, swimming and sailing and, in the winter, skiing near Tehran, nothing but parties and dances and laughter, Karim tall like his father, the colonel commandant at Kowiss, and as fine. Always associating Karim with that first September evening she had seen the strange tall foreigner with the blue-gray eyes - eyes that had glowed with the heavenly fire the ancient poets wrote about, the instant he had seen her…
“Highness, His Excellency your cousin Captain Karim Peshadi requests permission to see you.”
Joyfully running to greet him. He was staring out of a window in the smaller of the reception rooms, the walls all small mirrors and windows set into an artistic Persian design, the only furniture the usual low, continuous sofa around the walls, a few inches off the close-sheared carpet, soft-padded and upholstered with the finest Persian fabric - like the backrest that was attached to the walls.
“Darling Karim, how wonder - ” She stopped. This was the first time she had seen him since the day, a week ago, when they had gone together to the riot of Doshan Tappeh, and now she was looking at a stranger - stretched skin over the high cheekbones, the dreadful pallor, dark rings around his eyes, stubbled beard, untidy clothes when usually he was impeccably dressed and groomed. “Oh, Karim, what is it?”
His lips moved but no sound came out. He tried again. “Father’s dead, shot for crimes against Islam, I’m suspect and suspended and may be arrested any moment,” he said bitterly. “Most of our friends are suspect, Colonel Jabani’s vanished, accused of treason - you remember him, the one who led the people against the Immortals and had most of his hand blown off…” Numbed, she sat listening, watching him. “… but there’s worse to come, darling Sharazad. Uncle… Uncle Valik and Annoush and little Jalal and Setarem are all dead, killed trying to escape to Iraq in a civilian 212…” Her heart seemed to stop and doom began. “… they were intercepted and shot down near the Iraqi border. I was at HQ today, waiting to answer our komiteh’s questions when the telex came in from our base at Abadan - those komiteh sons of dogs can’t read so they asked me to read it out, not knowing I had any connection with Valik, that we were related. The telex was marked secret and it said the traitors General Valik and a General Seladi had been identified in the 212’s wreckage from identity cards, along with others and… and a woman and two children… and asked us to check out the chopper, supposedly one of Tom’s company that’d been hijacked, EP-HBC…” She fainted.
When she came to, Jari was patting her forehead with a cold towel, other servants anxiously grouped around, Karim, white-faced and apologetic in the background. Blankly she stared at him. Then what he had said flooded back, what Erikki had said flooded back, and Tommy’s strangeness. And once again the three mixed, another wave of terror started to engulf her. “Has … has Excellency Meshang arrived yet?” she asked weakly.
“No, no, Princess. Let me help you to bed, you’ll feel bett - ” “I’m… no, thank you, Jari, I’m… I’m fine. Please leave us alone.” “But, Prin - ”
“Leave us alone!”
They obeyed. Karim was filled with anguish. “Please excuse me, darling Sharazad, I shouldn’t have worried you with all these problems, but I’m… I only discovered about… about Father this morning, I’m so sorry, Sharazad, it’s not a woman’s place to worry about wh - ”
“Karim, listen to me, I beg you,” she interrupted with growing desperation. “Whatever you do, don’t mention about Uncle Valik, don’t mention to Meshang about him and… and the others, not yet, please, not yet! Don’t mention about Valik!”
“But why?”
“Because… because …” Oh God oh God what do I do? she was thinking, wanting to cry out, I’m sure Tommy was flying HBC, oh God let me be wrong but I’m sure that’s what Erikki said when I asked him how long Tommy’d be away. Didn’t Erikki say: “Don’t worry, Tommy’s charter’s to Bandar Delam - HBC with spares - that shouldn’t take but a day or two.” Isn’t Bandar Delam beside Abadan that’s beside the border? Didn’t Uncle Valik come to see Tommy late at night, much too late unless the matter was very urgent, and then, after he’d left, wasn’t Tommy changed, in misery, staring into the fire? “Family must look after family,” wasn’t that what he muttered? Oh God help me…
“What is it, Sharazad, what is it?”
I daren’t tell you, Karim, even though I’d trust you with my life, I’ve got to protect Tommy… if Meshang finds out about Tommy that’ll be the end of us, the end of everything! He’ll denounce him, he won’t risk any more trouble… or crimes against God! I can’t oppose the family, Meshang will make me
627 divorce. God help me, what shall I do? Without Tommy I’ll… I’ll die, I know I will, I’ll… what was it Tommy said about taking a helicopter on a ferry? A ferry to Al Shargaz? Was it there or to Nigeria? I daren’t tell you, Karim, I daren’t…
But when her eyes saw the enormity of his concern, her mouth opened, and she blurted out everything that she had not dared to tell.
“But it’s impossible,” he stuttered, “impossible, the telex said there were no survivors, impossible he should be flying it.”
“Yes, but he was he was, I’m sure of it, I’m sure of it. Oh, Karim, what am I going to do? Please help me, please, I beg you, please help meeeeee!” The tears were running down her cheeks and he held her, trying to comfort her. “Please don’t tell Meshang, please help me, if my Tommy … I’d die.” “But Meshang’s bound to find out! He’s got to know.” “Please help me. There must be something you can do, there must be som - ”
The door opened and Meshang hurried in, Zarah with him. “Sharazad, my dear, Jari said you fainted, what happened, are you all right? Karim, how are you?” Meshang stopped, astonished at Karim’s ill-kempt appearance and pallor. “What on earth’s happened?”
In the silence Sharazad put her hand to her mouth, petrified she would blurt everything out again. She saw Karim hesitating. The silence worsened, then she heard him say in a rush, “I’ve terrible news. First… first about my… my father. He’s been shot, shot for… for crimes against Islam…” Meshang burst out. “That’s not possible! The hero of Dhofar? You must be mistaken!”
“Excellency Jared Bakravan wasn’t possible but he’s dead and Father’s dead like him, and there’s other news, all bad…”