In Iran I used to have a friend which I will call Ghasem. Ghasem used to
see this girl (let's call her Sakineh) riding the minibus every night
and of course she had noticed him too. Unbeknownst to Ghasem Sakineh had
a lover in the Azari neighborhood whose name was Esmail. To Esmail
Sakineh was a possession like a jewel on his crown. With each ride that
passed Ghasem and Sakineh's story continued and eventually Ghasem took
Sakineh's heart. So one day she looked him in the eyes and said they
couldn't meet again. Meanwhile the word was out on the streets that
Sakineh was messing with someone. As a result Esmail began looking for
Ghasem with a vengeance and a gun. We kept telling Ghasem he better run
and that he was playing with fire but to no avail. One night as time
stood still Ghasem met with Sakineh on a rooftop in the night but they
couldn't hear Esmail coming until he had them both in sight. A shot ran
out like thunder and the blood was on Sakineh's hands with nothing won.
The moral of the story is when someone lies there dying lovers finally
understand.
With the patchy information released we never quite understood who shot
who. Sakineh was taken into custody so we initially thought she shot
both Ghasem and Esmail but there was only one body bag. Another theory
was that Ghasem and Esmail each shot each other. If that was the case
then they both died because of Sakineh.
"My parents, brother, and I left Iran in 1980, shortly after the revolution. After a brief stay in Italy, we packed all our belongings once again and headed west to the exotic and the unknown: Vancouver. We had recently been accepted as landed immigrants, meaning Canada graciously opened its doors and we gratefully accepted; we arrived at Vancouver International Airport on my 10th birthday, three suitcases and one sewing machine in tow. After respectful but intense questioning at immigration, we were dropped off at a hotel on Robson Street, which was then still a couple years shy of becoming the fashionable tourist hub it is today. We were jetlagged, culture shocked, and hungry, so that first night, my father and brother courageously ventured out into the wild in search of provisions. I fell asleep before they returned. The next morning, I woke up at 5 a.m. and ravenously feasted on a cold Quarter Pounder with cheese and limp French fries that had been left by my beds...

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