An Iranian Story

A Novel

A story of Life, Love, and Death in a Restrictive Society.

Chapter Two

1. The Wedding (well almost)

With less than 12 hours to go until her wedding, it should have been easy for Hafsa to get to sleep, and then prepare for her nuptials. The opposite was happening at her hotel. She was climbing the walls, and driving her mother up them with her.

Ryla (Her mother) asked, "What is your problem. If you do not want to get married, prepare to die. It is just that simple. Abraham explained it to you over, and over again this afternoon. He even showed you the weapon he was going to use to slice off your head. It cannot be plainer than that."

"Mother, you are not telling me anything I do not know. Why am I acting this way? I have no idea. I believe I am just crazy. Maybe I can borrow Fi's psychiatrist for a little while. There is a screw loose in my head."

The door to their hotel room opened, and Abraham walked in.

Ryla said, "You cannot be here, it is the night before your wedding, it is bad luck."

"My intended is keeping half the hotel up. I am going to put her to sleep one way or the other. You will excuse us, please, your daughter is in my hands forever."

"Abraham, that is what I am worried about."

"It is after midnight, she will be my wife in less than eight hours, if I take her virginity away now, she can always claim she lost it on her wedding day."

"Mom, you should not bother arguing with him, you will always lose. I tried fighting with him all day yesterday, and I thought I had a winning hand every time. Every time the bastard beat me. Then, he shoved my face in the sand. Not only that, I thought he did it in private, but he did it in front of 80 people. How embarrassing can that be? I will never live that down."

"Darling, there were only 75 people there"

"Fuck you!"

"You will, many, many times, and you will love it."

Ryla said, "Daughter, for being a foul mouth, disobedient, bitch, I hope Abraham is hung like a horse."

"Mother, NO!"

"DAUGHTER, YES, because of your attitude, and your language, I hope he comes out of your mouth."

"Oh God, please do not let that happen. I promise to get better. I will read the Quran, pray with my husband, and go to the mosque. I know I have never done any of these things before, because of who I was, but given the chance, I will change."

Abraham said, "Wife, come with me."

She saw where he was heading, and screamed, "No, we cannot go in there. We are not married yet. I want to remain a virgin, until I married."

"Hafsa, this may be as close as you will ever get."

"Why couldn't I get my head out of my ass, and act like a normal person?"

"I believe, if you did that, I might not have been attracted to you."

"You mean, all this would not have happened if I had been normal?"

"Would you have hidden your chest from me?"

"No, probably not. I liked showing it off."

"Then the result would have been the same. Get in bed, now."

"I am still dressed."

"Do you want me to undress you?"

"No, not really."

"Then get into bed, and cover yourself."

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"My bride said to me this afternoon, "I am going to look like a wreck at my wedding." I did not want that to happen. I wanted her to look beautiful."

"Where are you going to sleep?"

"If I tell you, you will scream."

"So, you are going to sleep, with me."

"I most certainly am. I am going to keep you comfortable, warm, and calm all night. Nothing, and no one will disturb you, if, I am with you."

"What about you? Are you going to disturb me?"

"I told you that I am going to keep you comfortable, and calm all night. If I had other intentions, neither of those two options would be available to you."

"Thank you, Abraham."

"Do you realize that is the first time you said that to me."

"Yes, normally I call you a cock sucking son of a bitch."

"There is my girl. Now, begin cleaning up your language, and go to sleep, before I spank you."

"I am 17 years old; I am beyond the spanking age."

"My little girl, you have a rude awakening coming to you. In marriage, spankings are a part of lovemaking. They are given out by both parties as a form of pleasure. As Ava told you yesterday, there are things you think are obscene, that you will find are wonderful."

"I do not like getting hit."

"I will hit you every morning and evening, just so you get to love it."

"Do you remember what I told you yesterday?"

"Do you mean the line where you said you hated me?"

"Yes, that is the one. I think I will get a plaque with your name on it, and those words inscribed underneath it."

"Hafsa, if you are not asleep in 10 minutes, I am going to issue your first spanking on your bare bottom."

"You cannot... Oh fuck it, why bother. Good night."

"Good night my love." He kissed her head and slipped off the side of the bed and sat in a chair across from her. She looked at him for a few minutes, then closed her eyes. She was nearly asleep when he slipped into the bed beside her, and enfolded her into his arms. She was a tiny little thing compared to him, but he wanted every inch of her.

In the very early morning, it was barely light outside, and she woke up nose to nose with him. He was still sleeping and suddenly she was feeling frisky so she bit his nose.

Without opening his eyes, he said to her, "If you do that again, I am going to pull down the covers, and bite your nipple."

She pulled the covers over her head, and said, "Why do you always have to have something better to do or say than I do?"

"Darling, what is your position in life?"

"I am a student."

"What is mine?"

"You are the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Iran."

"Does that tell you the difference between us dear?"

"Sometimes Abraham, I truly and deeply detest you."

"I thought you only hated me."

"Yes, that to."

"In that case, I have changed my mind. I do not want to marry you. I am going to cut off your head this afternoon."

"No, you cannot do that. Everyone knows were getting married today. What are you going to tell them?"

"I am going to tell them that you are a pain in the ass, and that I just could not put up with you any longer."

"Yes, they will believe that. Will it hurt?"

"You will not feel a thing. One second you will be alive, the next second you will not be alive. The sword will go through you in 1/4 of a second. Do you want to go for a run?"

"Excuse me?"

"I asked you if you want to go out for a little exercise."

"Abraham, you have me totally confused. You are going to cut off my head soon, but you want to take me out for some exercise. Is that what you are saying?"

"Yes, exercise is good for the body."

"And you say I am crazy."

"Yes, and I can prove it. Now I am asking you again, do you want to get some exercise?"

"I would rather keep my head."

"We can talk about that while we are running a mile."

"A MILE! Are you out of your fucking mind?"

"Okay, here is the deal. If you do not watch what comes out of your mouth, I am going to wash it out with lye soap. Do we understand each other young woman?"

"You do not play fair."

"I do not have to. I want a wife to be proud of, not a whore. Not a trash talking streetwalker. Can you understand that, Hafsa?"

"Yes sir. More than that, you are absolutely-correct. I promised God I would get better, and with your help, I will."

"You will get all the help you need from me, and more."

"Believe me, I know."

"Okay, let us get dressed and go for a run."

"It is my wedding day. I am supposed to be primping, doing my hair, trying on dresses, and painting my toenails, not going for a run."

"I told you that life with me was going to be a strict military routine. I run 5 miles every morning with your father, before breakfast. You will never guess who is going to join us."

"You know you have me six ways from Tuesday. If I do this I die, if I do that I die, if I do the other thing I die. Even if I go to prison I die. If I marry you, because of your fitness regimen I am going to die. I know the 5 miles is only going to be the beginning of it, too. I can only assume there will be some other tortures thrown at me after breakfast, am I correct?"

"You wound me. No one can do physical exercise directly after breakfast. You need time to digest and let your body begin to break down the foods into energy producing particles. At 9 o'clock, everyone is attending school. That is everyone, from generals to privates. Generals must attain PhD's in everything from atomic physics, to educational psychology. Privates, who enter the military, to get a better life for themselves, will probably start learning the alphabet, and basic math. They are useless to us as idiots. Other regimes used them as cannon fodder. I do not use them that way. All life is precious, except yours, and we train these men and women to become intricate parts of the military. We try to retain all these people for 20 years or more. If they are happy, it makes them more valuable to us.

At 11 AM, we start our physical training program: calisthenics, weight training, boxing, Oriental arts, swimming, diving. That takes three hours of our day. After that, or men go to their units to continue their unit training. Infantry, tanks, antitank, communications, artificial intelligence, command and control, artillery, and everything else that we do."

"What time do your men get off?"

"When their sergeants tell them it is okay."

"That gives their sergeants an awful lot of power."

"Sergeants run the Army, Hafsa, without them nothing moves."

"Oh!"

"Now, you have delayed us long enough. Get out of bed get into some athletic clothes and we will go for run."

"Do we have to?"

"Absolutely. We must get the inside of your body looking as good as the outside."

"I am sure I have said this before, but I do not like you."

"That is okay, I love you enough for both of us."

"Can I ask you when that happened?"

"Yes, you can, while we were running."

"Bastard!"

"Ryla, what takes a woman so long to change clothes?"

"Abraham, you are new to all this. It is not the clothes; it is the hair and makeup that go along with it. The clothes may take five minutes, the hair and the makeup may take an hour."

"Doesn't she know that the hair and the makeup are going to get ruined by the perspiration, and the exertion of running?"

"She is a woman, she must look good at the beginning, it does not matter what she looks like at the end."

"That does not make any sense."

20 minutes later, "I am ready."

"You look very pretty dear," her mother said.

Abraham said, "I am going to mess up every hair on your head."

"I used hairspray."

"... And that means?"

"It means my hair should not move."

"I will use a 'Wind Machine' to dishevel it. Move out."

"Out where?"

He took her by her arm, and started pulling her.

She yelled, "Hey, wait a minute, it is 7 AM, I am supposed to get married at 8 AM, are we going to be back in time?"

"I move the time to 2 PM. Too many important people could not make the 8 AM service."

"You were going to tell me, when?"

"When you asked me."

"We are going to have to work on our communication skills."

"I agree. I will talk, and you will listen."

"Abraham, that is not how communication works."

"It was the way you communicated with your sister."

"Yes, and look how well that worked out."

"Alright, how do you suggest we proceed, and be very careful with your words, Hafsa, because I can buy soap at any store?"

"I was thinking about me saying something, and you responding, and then the reverse. Nothing extreme, just a normal conversation between two adults."

"Do you think you can do that with another adult, without going off the rails?"

"I am going to have to learn to do that quickly."

"I can go along with that, but I am going to keep my sword with me, just in case you cannot keep your end of the bargain. If you go too far away from your end of this commitment, I am going to separate your body from your head, and end this torture of mine forever. Before you, I never wanted to marry. You did something to me that changed that fact. Your behavior has me teetering on the edge."

"My father told me, that he warned you about me. You should have taken that warning seriously. I am not a good person, I am going to try to become one, because I am going to marry you. It does not mean I am going to change instantly. It means I am going to change over the next 70 years. I am only 17. 70 years to me is not even a lifetime. You are in nearly 40 years old. 70 years to you is a death sentence."

"The Bible says that women are a death sentence to men, regardless of how good they are. They are put on this earth to kill the man they belong to, as quickly as possible."

"The Bible does not say that."

"How would you know?"

"No holy Scripture would say something so demeaning about a woman's duty on earth."

"Prove it."

"How much time do I have?"

"Until 4 this afternoon."

"Okay, why 4 this afternoon?"

"One of two things is going to happen at that time. You and I are going to get married. Or your head is going to be separated from your shoulders."

"I thought it was 2 o'clock."

"I did not think the cramps in your legs would be gone by that time, so I move it 4."

"Let me get this straight: you were able to change the time for the Mosque, the Madarzan-Salam (Hello Mother-in-Law Ritual), and the caterer, in a matter of moments?"

"Yes, I have a marvelous staff. I say very few words, and they take fantastic actions."

"You must be a real prick in the office."

"Apparently, they do not think so, why should you?"

"Because, I think I know you better than they do."

"How can you possibly say that? You have not spent one full day with me, and here you are passing judgment on me."

"Abraham, over the many hours you have talked to me, you have torn apart my mind, my body, my spirit, and my soul. Not only have you done all those things to me, you have done them with a smile on your lips. So do not give me this shit about me passing judgment on you, so quickly, I have a deep, and abiding dislike for you."

As they approached the elevator, he stopped pulling her. He said to her, "Do not move, the consequences will be tantamount to murder."

She believed him.

He picked up the house phone, and when the operator answered he said to her, "This is Gen. bin Sultan, get me my office please."

"Good morning, General."

"Sgt. Yaa, I need two large cakes of pure lye soap at my hotel within the hour."

"It will be done sir."

Hafsa asked, "What did I do wrong this time?"

"Young woman, if you do not know, the soap will help you remember. Your mouth is like a toilet that does not flush. It regurgitates crap time after time, without regards of who you are talking to, or what the conversation is supposed to be about. I am about to change that in you, or you are going to lose your vocal cords."

"Can you please tell me what I said that was wrong?"

"The sentence went, 'so do not give me this shit about me passing judgment on you...' when it could have been said in a much more professional way. I could cane you into submission, but that would leave scars on your body, and that would be displeasing to my eyes. Your body is lovely, it is young, and it is pliable. All the things a 17-year-old body is supposed to be. I cannot have you walking around with socks in your mouth so you cannot talk."

"Fi would love it. By the way; how is she?"

"She is playing chess with her advisor, and winning. I sent her a psychiatrist, not a Chess-master. She is having so much fun beating him, that is talking up a storm, and that is helping her. I have taken her out of jail, and put her into the hotel. She will be at the wedding today. She will be your maid of honor, and if you do anything to hurt her, so help me God I will cut out your tongue."

"Do me a favor, please, just take off my head. If I hurt my sister one more time, I do not deserve to be on this earth."

"I want you to remember that statement, because I will follow through with it."

As they exited the elevator, and walked out the front of the hotel, a bulletproof Humvee waited for them.

"Where the hell are we going in that thing?"

"We are going to the base training facility. You are going to run a mile. I am going to run 5 miles while you are doing it. I have two trainers that are going to be with you. They will hold your arms as you run, to make sure you do not fall on your face. You will run the entire mile. Not walk, not jog, run."

"I am sure you have this memorized by now, but I fucking hate you."

"That soap is getting closer to your mouth every second you speak."

"I can see my penmanship getting better every moment."

"You could just as easily lose your hand."

"Abraham, you are not being fair."

"I do not have to be fair; I must bend your will until it is pleasing to God's, and to mine. It must be pleasing to God's first. I do not matter."

"It matters to me."

"I am happy you said that, it shows you are learning."

"Abraham, you may not believe me, but you are beginning to matter to me. I have only known you for one day, but I have known about you for most of my life. My father talked about you every day, when he got home, and as a man, and a general, he said there is no one finer. Why on God's earth you chose me is beyond reason. I am the worst person who has ever existed. I have tormented God. I have tormented my family. I have tormented my schoolmates, and my teachers. I have no redeeming qualities.

Then one day, I find myself attached to a pole in the middle of the desert, with you firing questions at me that I cannot defend myself against. I know it could not be happening, because all I could see was my sister buried under the sand, and empty desert in front of me, but I could feel my parents laughing at me. I had no idea that they were directly behind me. Knowing my mother she was wetting the desert. Not only were they behind me, but so were 80 other people there. They were having a party laughing at my expense. Every, high ranking, person, in president King's administration now new every fault I had. I would never be able to live them down.

"Thank God there was no alcohol being served. There would have been a riot going on behind me. You would have had to cut my head off, because there was no way for you to keep this secret."

"Our religion does have many redeeming qualities."

"Holy shit, this is your training facility? It looks like a football stadium."

He took out a scarf, and shoved it in her mouth. He said to her, "Try to run a mile with that in your mouth."

She screamed and begged, but no one could understand a word she was saying. As they got to the starting line, Abraham pulled it out. He said to her in no uncertain terms, "Baby, just one more offensive word, and your tongue comes out. Do you understand me? If you do say 'yes,' if you do not say 'no'."

"Yes Abraham, I understand you. Have your knife or sword ready, because for some reason, I cannot control myself."

He screamed in her face, "Yes, you can, Hafsa, think before you speak. Put your brain in gear, before you say anything. Go over what you are going to say, before you say it. I told you at the very beginning, I wanted a strong wife, someone I could discuss my problems with. I cannot do that if my wife is a mute."

"Abraham, as God, and you, are my witness, I swear that I will never use another obscene word in my life. If I do, I will take my own life, by my own hands."

"I will not allow you that pleasure, I will remove your head before you die."

"As you wish, husband."

"Hafsa, do you wish to get out of running a mile?"

"I know in my heart; you will not allow that."