When the telephone rings, Hana looks at the clock next to bed; it is two in the morning. Who can it be? She is almost sure it must be bad news, as many other times in past when the phone rang in the early hours of the morning. It is Hamid. He had an accident which leaves Hana no choice but calling a friend at that time for help and a ride. At the scene of accident, unfortunately Hamid is fine but the car is not. While thinking how she will go to work next morning and how they will be able to buy another car while they still have a payment on this one, she does not speak her true feeling: "It's okay. Thank God you're fine, Hamid."
The significance of having car for Hana is going back and forth to work; whereas for Hamid is going out at night and getting drunk.The same friend who gave Hana a ride, cosigns the notes so they can buy another used car. She prays that Hamid will not abuse this one like many others.
While she tries to smooth out many problems they face everyday because of Hamid's selfishness, Lila, her other- half, finds the courage to convince her of freeing herself from this miserable marriage. Hana does not know why she has not done anything about this matter yet. Is it because of fear, loyalty, or the culture she was brought up in? Strangely she comes to conclusion that the only way out of this situation is her husband's death and nothing else.
Numerous occasions of Hamid's violent behavior in the three years living in Dallas Make Hana think about Lila's recommendations. She begins planning different techniques to get rid of him; however knowing him the way she does, she recognizes that as long as he lives, he would not leave them alone even if they are divorced. Temporarily she forgets about her plan. Instead she tries to inspect life from past to present more to discover how she has gotten to this abyss of affliction.
Tehran-
As lonely as Hana felt in both her inside and out side world, another distress tormented her. Van, her brother, was coming home late every night. He was talking about quitting school although he was an excellent student and if he studied hard, he would had been even better than Hana, her older sister. Hana's talking to him irritated him and she could not make him to speak with her. His given name was Vandad, but he had become Van during years. He was at twelfth grade, a very intelligent young man that now was rude and did not care about mom's worriment. He slept all day and stayed out all night. Since Hana could not make him to open up his feeling to her, she decided to sneak on him by following him one night. She asked Behroz, her only confidant, to go with her.
In the dark alleys they followed Van. He walked fast and occasionally stopped to watch back as though he was afraid that someone was following him. In the turn of an alley, Hana and Behroz thought they lost him; but soon they saw him again entering a house. Hana's prediction was wrong. He was not spending his time somewhere drinking. What came to Hana's mind shivered her, for he was doing something far more dangerous than drinking or doing drugs. Behind the closed doors of that house, Both Behroz and Hana were thinking the same thing without speaking it, "political meetings"; something that was very common those days among young people. Totally frightened, they returned home and decided to do some investigation about that house.
The next night, Hana and Behroz went there earlier than Van. They wanted to see what kind of people went to that house. Eight young men, one of them Van, and three young women entered the house. Some of them carrying boxes which seemed heavy. Behroz suggested to climb the wall to see what was happening there; but Hana said that would be too dangerous. How could they find out what was going on in that house? The next night an older man, about forty, entered the house which nearly proved Hana's theory. Behroz suggested to approach some of the boys he knew, and to pretend he wanted to join. She agreed. It took him couple of weeks to gain their trust' and finally one day he told Hana the shocking news:
"This is an antigovernment meeting. They're brain washing these young men and women. The boxes you saw are filled with books and handouts."
Even though Hana had instinctively known, the news made her shudder. She recognized what the Government and Savak (the Iranian Intelligent Agency that worked for the Shah, and even its name brought a shiver to people) could do with these people if they found them.
"What are we going to do? Mom can't take another misery!"
"I don't know. We must talk to Van. We must stop him of going there; and we must not tell anyone." Behroz said with concern.
"Agreed." Hana stammered.
Talking to Van was useless. He stubbornly talked about government unjust policy, political prisoners, and freeing the country and people from all the inequitableness. Deep down inside, Both Hana and Behroz knew he was right; nonetheless, changing the regime would take more than bunch of young people with some books and handouts, whom mostly had faced a hard life or a loss. All Behroz and Hana could do was praying. They never thought to discuss this matter with a wiser member of family, like uncle Nabi, for Van said:
"If you try to stop me, I leave home. They will give us room and board. Then I can become like a foot soldier. Do you want that?"
Someone else was doing his homework at the same time. Reza, Hana's uncle, whom she had thrown out from their home, was still angry at Hana's treatment of him and Asad. He had planned in details to stab his dead brother's family in back. Now that he had learned by his sources about van's activity in one of antigovernment parties, he decided by betraying the location of that house, to avenge his unruly niece. The soft hearted Asad, his younger brother, could not stop him of going to the officials; and it happened.
To Be Continued
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