Odyssey... {}}{23- Deprived Memories

The sleeplessness of the night before seems to affect Hana at work. She, who suffers insomnia for so long, is drowsy and very tired specially today. She can not wait to go back home to do what she has promised herself and Lila the night before, to throw this indecent girl out of her house. Around two in the afternoon, she is called on the phone to find out from Farhad that Karen is gone, so does the television, VCR, Farhad's camera, and God knows what else. Regretting why she did not throw her out that morning, she takes the rest of the afternoon off and goes home. Farhad is very upset not only because of all the stolen things but because he believed in Karen and her life story. He thought she loved him as he did her.

Hana slowly goes through everything. She has always kept some cash at home for emergency. She discovers that not only the cash is gone but all her jewelry, specially her two rings, one a beautiful ruby with small diamonds around it, and the other a rich blue sapphire with diamonds are gone, too. She breaks down completely and faints on the floor. Farhad does not understand the reason of his mother's collapse for her rings; however, when Hana gains her consciousness, she tells him the story of the rings.

Those rings were the only things she had left from her past life. They were her mother's gifts to her when she gave birth to her sons. Her mother had gotten those from her mother, Hana's grandmother, and she had received them from her mother, and so on. Those rings went back about three hundred years, Hana was told. At the time of the smuggling, when she had sold everything including most of her clothes and all her jewelry, she could not sell something that the oldest or the only daughter in the family had inherited from their mothers. The jeweler in Tehran, whom Hana had sold her other jewels to, wanted to buy those rings, but Hana told him that they were not for sale; however, the jeweler appraised them.

"They are priceless, lady. Take care of them." That was all he said. Now they were gone. Her only belonging from her mother, her only memory from her grandmother, the only things that remind her of who she is and where she has come from. Her wedding band with a gold bracelet and necklace are stolen, too; but she does not care for them. She wants her rings, her mother's grandmother's, great grandmother's,... back.

When Farhad learns the story of the rings, he cries with his mother before confessing that he actually does not know anything about Karen. He has never seen her father, or where she used to live. She had told him not to call her at work since her boss does not like it. Calling police seems the last and only solution. The young officer makes a list of all the stolen things. He learns that Karen and Farhad were friends only for six months and she lived with them for three weeks; however, these mother and son have no clue of who that girl really was.

"Where did you meet her?" The officer asks Farhad.

Farhad looks at him while crying and does not say anything. He seems agitated by the officer's question. The officer, who sees Farhad's inside struggle, says:

"Let's go outside. I want to look around your apartment."

Hana knows instinctively that she is not invited; and her son has a secret about meeting Karen for the first time that he does not want her to know.

Outside the door, the officer repeat his question:

Where did you meet her?"

"I met her in a club. She was sitting on a bar stole and drinking beer."

"Why didn't you want to tell me inside?"

"My mom has never known that I go to clubs sometimes."

"What do you tell her when you come home late?"

"A friend's birthday party or..."

"Listen, I'm just curious. How old are you?'

"Almost twenty three."

"Going to clubs is a normal thing for young people here. Is your mother very strict? I'm just confused."

"No, sir, she is not strict. She is a very good mother. Her belief is different than yours and mine. I just respect her a lot. I just don't want her to work hard mentally to understand this way of living. She's already works hard physically. I want her to learn the differences slowly and gradually as they come to her not like a shock."

The officer put his hand on Farhad's shoulder and says:

"You're a very nice young man. I just don't understand how could you trust a woman you didn't know anything about and brought her to your home; and if you respect your mother so much, how could you have your girlfriend live here with you and your mother! Maybe her name isn't real either."

"I don't know. She seemed so innocent and loving and my mother even liked her. She said she loves me."

"That is how those con artists are. I hope you learned a lesson. Well, I must go now. I am going to do my best to help you and your mom, but I bet you that she's already pawned everything and pocketed the money."

And how the officer was right. Nobody knows who Karen is. The store manager, she said she worked there, did not know anything about her. It seems as though she was an alien from another planet who had come onto the earth to rob Hana's precious memories and Farhad's positive attitude towards life.

To Be Continued