Abstracted with an ashen heart, which has withstood the most periodic phenomenon of compellable calamities, Hana withers in her safe corner which has been the only escape from gnawing. The extremity to feel sad becomes a weakness as the years have enfeebled her. Looking back to those days has brought all piteous cataclysms to a surface that has already been lamented. She is halted by the apparent load of hatred towards unknown places and people which overwhelmingly wastes her in a life of anger and crises in Dallas. Alone in a world of stories and myths, news and discoveries, she is lightheaded and does not know what life is all about. Remembering all endeavors and hardships for survival, all sleepless nights to finish college for better future, and everything else she had done to support, give, and ease, bring her a feeling of stifling oppression.
Hamid is worse than ever. His abuse, irresponsibility, and selfishness have reached an unendurable point. A few friends they have made, one by one scatter since he flirts with all women, young, old, married, or unmarried; and ruins everyone's party with his excessive drinking. Farhad and Sam have reached the age that standing a father like Hamid becomes impossible for them. Life in this apartment looks like a spark beneath cinder awaits coming to blaze any second.
Twenty years old Farhad, sees the reality of life outside the circle of his family and the world in that apartment. He sees the outside world mostly normal. He sees his friends mostly have conventional and stable lives. He exasperates for the cursed life that he, his brother, and his mother live. Being ashamed, he can not even talk to his closest friend about his deepest affliction which leaves him in an abnormal way of solitude. This feeling causes him the lack of concentration, enthusiasm, and purpose. The bitter feeling results in unsuccessful accomplishment in college one semester after the other; while he hides those failures from his mother. Meeting a wrong friend for his state of mind adds to all these disastrous dilemmas; and soon coming home late becomes a normal habit for him. He had seen so much miseries in his short life. Alcohol turns to be an escape; and getting drunk gives him a sense of frivolous oblivion. Angry at everything, he wonders why his mother does not do anything about this excruciating life! How can she take all these emotional and physical abuse he has witnessed? He just does not understand it. He, who at this point is more American than Iranian, can not comprehend his mother anymore. He feels that she must be crazy to put herself and her children through this tortured life! Discovering his true feeling brings him a world of abandonment that he no longer can cope with it. What does he do? While not being able to talk to anyone, he makes a desperate decision. he packs his clothes one day that no one is home and moves to his friend's apartment.
Sixteen years old Sam finds the answer in football. In tenth grade, he is popular and well liked by his schoolmates; and is adored by girls. In the gym, he builds up his muscles and shows them off by wearing tight shirts or tank tops. In the field, he discharges his anger by tackling the players of the other team very hard, running harder, and becoming a star. However, an accident brings him to a mental collapse so devastating and dire that shatters him entirely. A fall, while playing football, causes him to go to the hospital. The doctor treats the fracture on his ankle. After doing many session of physical therapy, he thinks he can be back in the game. He is so impatient to play football again, that he does not give himself enough time to heal. He wants to be back right away; and even his coach tells him that he needs to take more time off. Trying hard and pushing himself to do what he did before, brings him a torturous pain; and when he finally gives up football, he also relinquishes all other activities. Nobody is there for him to tell him that he can be back in the game if he practices some patience. He changes to a lonesome teenager who finds no elation in anything that has thrilled him before. At home, a place that has always been devastating with his abusive father, depressed mother, and indifferent brother, he finds no solution for his deplorable fortune. In the chasm of obscurity, he finds himself lying in bed, doing nothing. Soon, he becomes a gluttonous creature, who finds pleasure only in eating. Very soon, the fit, muscular teenager turns to an overweight person. Excessive fat covers his body while he loses all sense of courage and grace.
To be Continued
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