Thursday, August 26, 2010

Odyssey...~~~ 8- Anguish

Van did not come home one night. Sleepless and worried, Hana went to Behroz's home at five in the morning; running the entire twenty minutes walk to her grandparents. Everyone at home was in bed. Nobody knew that she even left home. She woke up Behroz by throwing a rock at his window from the alley. She had to repeat that a few times until he woke up. She did not want to ring the bell and worry her grandparents. Besides their room light was on; which meant they were up to do their first, before sunrise prayer.
When Behroz joined her and heard the story, they both ran all the way to that inauspicious house in that alley. There, standing breathless, they looked at each other without speaking, as though each was expecting the other to take an action. Hana, after a few minutes of bewilderment knocked the door. A young, stern man opened the door. He was dressed in suit and tie that early in the morning. After looking at him for a moment in an ambiguous way, Hana finally found the courage to speak:
"I am looking for my brother."
"So your brother was one of them." The stern man answered; and then he added: "Are you one of them, too? I must arrest you, too."
Before Hana and Behroz could realize what was happening, a few more men also showed up from inside the rooms and they handcuffed and blindfolded them both. They put them in the back of a car that was parked there. The driving took about half an hour to Hana's estimation; while neither of them knew where they were taking them. However, they understood those men were Savak agents and they were taking them to one of Savak buildings. Inside, after their eyes were gradually accustomed to the light, they found themselves in a small room. A dim lamp was hanging from the ceiling; and it made the room like a scary cage. There was no window; and the only furniture was a big desk with one chair at one side and three more at the other side of it. A middle-aged man, about fifty, with civilian suit was sitting behind the desk and looking at some papers. Hana and Behroz, who had shared many secretive things being so close family and also having a strong friendship, felt a gloomy hope of being together. That aspiration enabled them to answer all the questions honestly and fearlessly. Finally the interrogator said:
"You can go, both of you. You're clean; but Van is not. We need to get rid of these communists who try to overthrow our monarchy."
"Oh, please, he is just a young boy!" Hana said hysterically.
"These young boys, as you put it, are more dangerous than the other ones." He had no mercy in his tone of voice.
"Please, for God's sake, we just lost our father. Have a little leniency. My mom is going to die if she hears about this."
"Where was she when your brother was planning a sabotage?"
"Oh, God, he is just a boy. How can he? My mom is still mourning the death of my father. She didn't know."
"There is many of them out there, young lady, and together they can bring down a government. Conversation is over. You must leave now before I change my mind about you two."
Behroz began pulling Hana by hand, but Hana was still begging for Van.
"Can we see him?" She said.
"No, you can't."
"Where is he?"
"I can't tell you."
"What are you going to do with him?" She asked while her uncle kept pulling her to leave: "Let's go."
"I can't tell you; and stop questioning me." Hana saw in his eyes that another question of her would be catastrophic.
The first man that they had seen in front of the house, where Van was attending those meetings, this time only blindfolded them and drove them somewhere in close approximately of where they lived and dropped them, but not before to get the black blindfolding fabric out of their eyes. Before driving out, he told them to keep their mouth shout.
Two months passed and no one knew or had any idea where Van was. Meanwhile, searching for a clue, Hana trusted a colleague and told her about the misfortunate disappearance of her brother. Fery, being very sympathetic, told Hana about a friend of her brother.
"My brother has a friend, and I think he has a relative in Savak."
"Hana, all excited, begged Frey to introduce her to her brother's friend. That was how she met Hamid.

To Be Continued

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