Odyssey...~}{~ 26- Agony

Valery likes Hana as a friend. In fact, Hana in her quiet manner has helped her to straighten her wild life. Watching Hana and talking to her like an older sister has made her to realized that there are other things in life besides giving in to transient desires. Hana with her elegant behavior has taught her virtue, a word described in dictionary, "Moral excellence or goodness". That is the reason she gave up her last boyfriend, with whom their relationship have been only about physical attraction, something she has never admitted before, even to herself. As hard as it is not to have someone to fill her desperate loneliness, she has come to realization that in past all her disastrous relations with men have been only for filling her physical need not for satisfying her spiritual hunger. In past, anytime she was with a man, she temporary felt love, a word has been used for ever by ordinary people, writers, poets, and in movies, paintings, music, and so on. She knows now, learning from Hana, that love in any shape must be combined by virtue, integrity, character, respect, and kindness. Valery likes Hana as a friend, for this little woman without acting, like her other friends and teachers, and even her close families, has taught her more than them.

In the park, while John plays, Hana finally tells Valery about the night before. She tells her about her confusion and uncertainty; and then confesses to Valery that she has not been with any man ever except her dead husband. How could she, coming from a culture that required virginity for women on their wedding night but not from men? Valery, perplexed, asks her:

"How can it be? If men are not virgin, means they got to be with a woman! This doesn't make sense. You say that women have to be virgin!"

Hana smiles. She understands her friend's confusion.

"There were some women who gave in to their desires; but then they never able to marry and had a normal life. They were rejected by the society; and most of them ended up as prostitutes. Those outcast women were cursed and there was no forgiveness for them. I know personally of some women who secretively used some doctors to sew them up. Those doctors were not your regular doctors. They charged a lot and they did abortion and sewing up the women."

Valery, who learned about the existence of a country, named Iran, after revolution, by American Media, and followed the news of hostages in Tehran intensely, has never thought that her best friend, one day, would be a woman from that country. She, like many others, hated Iranians and what their harsh government did which made her to believe that all Iranians are terrorists; nevertheless, in the last two and half years since she knew Hana and has become close to her, she has gradually changed her idea about Iranian people; and without taking any classes, she has learned more about the history of those people that she could possibly gain in any school. While the educational system of her country has ignored the cultural aspect of this ancient country, she becomes educated by Hana about Persian Poets, their literature and history, rather than terrorism. She comes to understanding to separate people and their culture from politics, corruption and power that comes with politics.

Even though Hana has taught Valery by her behavior to get out of the haunted confusion, now Valery notices Hana's fervid ambiguity in their honest and simple conversation. Thinking in exasperation, she wants to help Hana. After all she owes her a lot. "How can I help this inexperienced woman?" She thinks to herself. Her own life is a mass. She has a son out of marriage. She has had two abortions. She struggles just to survive and does not know any other way to take on the harshness of life.

To Be Continued