Then I walked to the shops and bought a leg of lamb, vegetables, fruit and yogurt, and wandered back. My mother was still asleep. I prepared the salad and then went to broil the meat on the fire. A couple of the women began chattering with me. They had come here for a vacation, visiting the shrine every day.

I came back with the meat and spread a sauce made with tumeric, onions, and yogurt over it. I arranged everything on plates we had brought with us and then woke my mother to eat.

“Do you think everything will be all right for you here in Iran? You’ve been with me for two months now,” she said suddenly.

“I wasn’t happy before. No matter what I do now it couldn’t be any worse,”

“I hope so,” she said. “I’m an old woman. I’ll die soon. You have to think of yourself.”

“I know,” I said. “Everything seems simpler to me now.”

At that moment I was so happy that I began to fear that something would happen to destroy it, something beyond my control.

After we ate I washed the dishes in the stream, then we went to bed. Soon it grew quiet, everyone climbed into tents and the gas lamps and fires were put out. The moon now reflected on the stony ground. The sound of the stream, the barking of dogs somewhere, and the jeering of insects took over. Listening to those sounds I fell asleep easily. I woke very early and felt the dew in the air and heard the stream again and the birds singing clearly in the trees. Children were waking up. A donkey brayed and rattled its chain.

I turned over and looked at my mother. Her face was serene in her sleep. I knew soon I would have to make decisions, think beyond the day, but for the moment I lay there. Tranquil.

Copyright© 1978 by Nahid Rachlin

First published as a Norton paperback 1979; reissued 1999

All rights reserved

Book design by Jacques Chazaud

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rachlin, Nahid.

Foreigner.

I. Title.

PZ4.R1215Fo 1978 [PS3568.A244] 813’.5’4 78–1603

eISBN 9780393346565

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

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www.wwnorton.com

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