However there was another side to Jalal's personality which frightened both his children and even Mehri, his wife. When he was in that mood, his face was often veiled with a strange and masculine roughness which was not unnatural for an Iranian man. On those occasions, he was bitter, and coarse. He showed that he was the man of the house, meant the boss of the house as most men were; with a conventional face which on those episodes was masked to cover real him. These kind of sporadic behavior made people, especially his family to avoid him. When it came to his children, they were mostly unnerved by his as though he was a different man not the loving father they knew.
His children, Sohrab and Neda, in those special episodes that he was not in his loving self, would also change attitude. As soon as they heard his foot step coming home from work in the evenings, they knew by the sound of his walking, the way he would throw his briefcase on the chair or remove his jacket or loosen up his tie, if their father was pleasant or in one of his tirades. They hid from his view and never came out to say even hello when he was angry for no obvious reason known to his family. Nevertheless, the same father, like being two different men in one body, most of the time was entirely loving; it was like a demon who had captured him, suddenly left his body. When his mind was free of beasts, he would want his children by his side always, especially Neda, his little girl. Sometimes he mentioned her name by adding, "my true love". He would be kinder to his wife, Mehri. He would praise the food. He would admit that he was a very lucky man. Who was the malignant spirit taking over him sometimes? Nobody knew knew about double personality, or at least none in this family heard about it. If they apprehended such thing, they would call Jalal the perfect example of a man with a beast possessed him somewhere in the layers of his brain; or a man who had good and bad days and did not know how to handle the bad ones; therefore he would blame his family for no apparent reason. When the demonic mask was removed from his face, his love for his family, particularly Neda was immeasurable. At these times, one could see tears would well up in his eyes. He would take off his glasses which had very thick lenses and pretending that clearing his nose, use his white handkerchief to clean up his teary eyes.
His love for poetry, however, was his only escape from his daily routine. His amusement was reading books and seeking knowledge. He had only high school diploma but what he knew about Persian Literature, poetry, and the World's Politics would qualify him to have a debate with any professor on those fields.
His study which he called it office was on the second floor of the house. It was the biggest and brightest room. The master bedroom was on the first floor. They had two more rooms on the second floor which one of them was Neda's. The hallway of the second floor was square and big. It had a window which faced the yard which they called it garden. They had made a small living room from this square shape hall way; a sofa on one side and a love seat and a chair on another side of it. There was also a full bath there that nobody used it except Neda. No one used the second floor living area; it was mostly like a show case with their antique furniture. Sohrab's room was down stairs, a small room that was not supposed to be a bedroom, but that was what he wanted. The extra room on the second floor was mostly filled with stuff that they never used.
Jalal's study had two windows, one on the south side and one on the east. They were covered with two layers of curtains. The first layer, closest to the glass, was white lace drape and the second one over it was a thick, lined drapery fabric in Burgundy color. It matched the color of the furniture and the Persian Rug in the middle of the room. The furniture were leather. Jalal used the drapes always according to his mood. Sometimes he had a lot of lights in the room while other times he made the room as dark as he could during the day.
The room was furnished with an oak, antique and very large desk. There was a love seat on the opposite side with a small coffee table, made of oak in front of it. They were bookcases, all custom made, all around the room, even behind the desk and love seat. The book cases were all the way to the ceilings. There were even book cases were the windows were, beneath them. All of them were filled with books; in fact some of them had double stacks of books.
To Be Continued
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