I can’t talk loud. If you let me, I’ll come a little closer.’ In this manner I went closer, closer, till she gave in.”

Shahbaz was amused. He wanted to say something, but when he saw Mirza Yadollah’s serious face and his eyes full of tears behind his glasses, he restrained himself.

With peculiar emphasis Mirza Yadollah said, “That story goes back twelve years, twelve years! You don’t know what a woman she was, so nice, so kind. She took care of all my work. Oh, now when I remember… She wore a chador all the time. She washed the clothes with her little hands, hung them on the line, mended my shirts and socks, cooked the food, even helped my sister. How well she behaved, how kind she was! She made everybody love her. How clever she was! I taught her how to read and write. She was reading the Koran in two months. She memorized poetry. We were together for three years, the best years of my life. As luck would have it, at that time I became the lawyer for a pretty widow who was wealthy too: well I hankered for her, all right, until it occurred to me that I should marry her. I don’t know what scoundrel brought the news to my wife. Sir, may you never see such a day. This woman who was apparently so silly and dumb! I didn’t know she could be so jealous. No matter how hard I tried to pull the wool over her eyes with sweet nothings, could I be a match for her? In spite of the fact that the widow owed me part of my fees, I decided not to marry her, and our relationship came to an end. But you don’t know what problems my wife created for me for a month!

“Maybe she had gone mad, maybe she’d been bewitched. She had completely changed. She put her hands on her hips and said things to me which one couldn’t even imagine. She said, ‘I hope you’re strangled with your own deceiving turban. I hope to see those spectacles on your corpse. From the very first day I realized you were not my type. May my father’s pimping soul burn for having given me to you. Once I opened my eyes I saw I was being embraced by a pimp. It’s three years that I’ve put up with your beggary. Was this my reward? May God spare us from having to deal with unprincipled people. I vow not to make a mistake like this again. You can’t force me. I don’t want to live with you any more. I don’t want my dowry back, just let me go.