Miriam

Miriam
She was her father’s favorite to the degree he even bought her cigarettes when she asked for them. He used to put a packet under her pillow. In addition, she was highly in demand. A lot of respectable men proposed to her for she was beautiful and descended from a very respectable family. A man who was married to a beautiful woman, her namesake, proposed to her. She refused because she didn’t want to get married to a married man although this had always been practiced and he was influential.

A young man who was her neighbor and who had just completed his studies to become one of the first primary school teachers in the small town seemed more eligible. He immediately proposed to her and she consented. His father died when he was two years old. He suffered a lot. He used to say: My misery started when I was two. My father died and I have no picture in my mind”. His mother later got married to a man who fled after he was shot in his leg in blood vendetta. Later she gave birth to two sons and a daughter

When Miriam got married to him, her father who was relatively rich gave her a small fortune which she kept somewhere. One day however she found that her money was lost and a short time later her husband announced his intention to build a house. She knew very well he was the thief because he couldn’t have had so much money in such a short time for a house. But she kept quiet and was afraid of accusing him for divorce meant a disaster and would put her on an equal footing with a loose woman. Eventually she lost her footing and gave in.

Although she was the most undefiled woman and was now a mother to his five sons, he was most mistrustful. He used to ask his young half brother to watch their house from a short distance in his absence to report to him if any man entered their house. His mistrust got worse and worse to the degree that one day he came to her and said: Well, Miriam things are the way I want them and if you don’t accept there are enough brothels in the town you can go to”.

The social practices demanded from him to show his dominance and this included beating her now and then. His father was said to hit his mother with a sandal from time to time and when his mother asked: “Why do you him me”. He answered: I like it this way”.

When I met Miriam after more than three decades she was a frail, skinny old woman who could not even walk on a stick. She kept speaking of the past as if it was yesterday. Her memory failed her and she repeated the same thing many times. She asked: Son, why did you disappear so long? And then said: I never loved your father a minute. This house is not his house. It belongs to me and to you because you have been helping us so long. But no matter what a monster of a man he was, he has always been my umbrella. I begged her to take off her scarf. A beautiful face with wonderful grey hair came to the fore.

To be continued
Jamshid
Bremen, 28 August 2008

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