This imaginative touch and contact brought Neda a false happiness that was disturbed by qualm and apprehension. She, who longed for her father, the way he used to be, found a new father in Mansour. Notwithstanding, she mistook this feeling of wanting her father back with being in love with Mansour. If she only knew that her mother, as always, was right.
Her mother's recent complaining and feeling sorry for herself made her children to forget her perpetual wisdom. Father did not object Neda's marriage to a man much older than her with no real job or education. Mehri was right. He had planned all these to get rid of Neda, since she was the only one who knew how to make him conscience- stricken of himself. He was better off without Neda at home. He knew Neda hated Sima, his second wife. He knew they would never get along. If Mehri, his first wife, finally accepted the existence of the second wife, Neda would never approve of her or her father's second marriage. There would always be a turmoil in the house especially when Neda would be a little older. The only bachelor he knew at the time was Mansour. He knew that Mansour was not an evil man; but he also knew that he and his daughter had nothing in common. But that was not his concern or standard to marry off his daughter at this point. All he cared for then was that Mansour was a decent man. He hated and resented the intrusion of his fifteen years old daughter on his personal affair!
Jalal was a changed man! He wanted passion in his life. Sims, he believed, was the one who could give him that affection. Intimacy with this new wife was delightful and so different than what he had with his first wife. Sima gave him pleasure; Mehri did a job; Sima mutually enjoyed their affinity and knew what he wanted. She had desire of her own. Mehri used to tell him to hurry up and get it over with. How poorly he and Mehri understood each other. That was an obvious thing to him and to the majority of men his age around him, who observed the new him with envy, yet gratification.
The way Mehri acted when it came to closeness with her husband was not an unusual action for women her age or even younger. Women were never taught to enjoy intimacy the same way men did. In fact their mother's advice to them on their wedding night had always been to be dutiful, to please their husband, and to bear children; but never among those counsels were: "You have right, too. Intimacy is for both men and women; or you can refuse to have children."
Therefore, Mehri was not an exception. She did her job well; she was dutiful, she bore two children; and after that for some unknown reason, she never got pregnant again. Since she had done her role well as a wife, Jalal's indiscretion made her to suffer even more. She just could not stop moaning and crying.
Neda could never forget or forgive her mother's complaining and whining. She did not understand why mom did not do anything about her misfortune which in her opinion was horrific and disgraceful. Why didn't she cry and lament for her husband? Why didn't she say those hateful words to Sima, her rival? Then it came a day that mother immersed herself in defeatism. That was the day that father was finished with decorating a room for his new bride and brought Sima home with a lot of fan fair. Mehri continued her grieving, but now only when she was alone. It came a day that she finally accepted the second wife of her husband. She talked to others about her situation in a way that seemed to her audience that she has convinced herself that Jalal had a God given right to have another wife. Her pain now appeared to be more physical than emotional.
To Be Continued
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