Quickly I go to my own corner, the other side of the curtain. It is the cradle robber who is shading her face with her hand and looking at the end of the alley.

There goes a well-dressed, beautiful woman, and it is not hard to guess what is going on in Amir’s head. But he always makes me doubt my talent in reading his mind. While still standing at the window, he says, “Poor thing.”

“Poor who? The cradle robber or the baby?” His answer is important for me.

Amir says, “Poor me who is looking at the world through this small opening.”

Chapter 24

24

Amir wakes up and is asking for the tape that he brought back from Baku.

I say, “I’ll find it later.”

“No, right now.”

“First sit down and have your breakfast.”

Amir does not want any breakfast. He wants his tape.

I ask, “Did you have a dream?”

He does not answer, and like someone who is in a hurry, quickly goes through the drawers. I find the tape. “Here you are.”

I think he should at least give me a thankful look, but it is as if I don’t even exist. He puts the tape in the tape player and turns it on. The Kamancheh is playing. I sit by him. I can’t ask him what he is remembering. It is impossible to figure out where Amir is right now. Is he alone or with someone else? In a concert hall or on some street? But wherever he is, I am not there. I want to bang the dishes together and make noise. I want the power to go off so that the tape player stops. A secret has crept into our house like a small animal that I don’t recognize. I cannot even pet it.

I say, “It is late. Don’t you want to go to work?”

He does not hear me. The echo of an ululating voice has filled the house. It’s not like the birds singing. The music has brought down even the sky.

I say it louder, “You are late.”

He moves away from the tape player, like a kid who is still hungry and is forced to leave the table. He wears his shoes, and looks at me as if it’s my fault that I don’t look like a woman he could passionately love at this moment.

Chapter 25

25

I write:

Dear Mahin,

Yesterday morning Shadi got your letter from the mailman and brought it home screaming happily. But she got into a fight with Shahin over opening it. I told them whoever opens the letter the other one gets to keep the stamps. Shahin immediately backed down. Shadi opened the letter. Amir said, “Let me read it.”