Stranger No More by Annahita Parsan

Author:Annahita Parsan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2017-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

A week or two later I was back at the shop, waiting in line at the counter to buy a comb for Roksana. When it was my turn to pay I stepped up and smiled at the shopkeeper.

“You must pay what you owe me first before you can buy anything else,” he said.

“I don’t think I owe you any money. You know I always pay when I come in and use the phone or buy things.”

“Your husband doesn’t, though. Look,” he said, pulling out a bill from beneath the counter. It was a long list of cigarettes and Johnny Walker whiskey, things I’d never bought in my life but that I knew Asghar had developed a taste for. The final amount was as much as I had earned from a month of sewing clothes, money that I had been saving to pay Agha Danesh to get Daniel out, if my parents ever changed their minds. I handed it over and left.

I was enraged all the way back to the center, and when I walked into our room and saw Asghar lying on the bed, I shouted at him. “How dare you go and buy all that stuff in the shop and expect me to pay! I was saving that for Daniel, but as fast as I’m earning it you’re smoking and drinking it away.”

“Who are you to tell me right from wrong?” he spat back at me. “And who are you to talk about Daniel? You never say anything about Cherie, never say anything about wanting to get her back. You’re not a mother. You’re nothing.”

It had been weeks since he had hit me, but as soon as his fists shot out toward my shoulder and chest, I remembered exactly what it had felt like before. I was back in the cell in the basement, cowering in the darkness. I was back in the kitchen in Isfahan, hiding among the broken glass as he brought the shovel down on me again and again.

He stopped when there was a knock on the door and a voice I didn’t know asked to come in. Asghar opened the door and walked right out.

It was 3 a.m. when he came back again. I could smell the booze and cigarettes before he had even stepped into the room. I braced myself for more pain, but he was too drunk and tired for that.

“You’ve got another bill to pay off,” he said, before lying down on the bunk next to me. Within minutes he was snoring. Only then did I let myself cry. Once I started, I couldn’t stop.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.