A TIME TO BETRAY (4 page)

Kazem let out a groan. “Here we go again—Naser’s love story.”

Naser scowled at Kazem. “How about you, Kazem? Do you have a good view of Mina from up here? She’s wearing your favorite skirt, the shortest one. Hey! Look!” He pointed into the distance. “She’s waving at you.” Mina was talking to a guest on the other side of the yard.

When Kazem turned his head to see, Naser blew a raspberry at him and said, “Keep dreaming, man.”

Kazem seemed a little embarrassed, but he recovered quickly. “At least I have a chance with her. Your big nose would scare away an ugly witch.”

Sometimes when we were up in that tree, we shook the branches and watched the walnuts fall to the ground. We laughed every time a walnut hit Soheil or one of the other kids who were too small to climb the tree. When there were enough walnuts on the ground for everybody, we would climb down, gather the walnuts, and sit on the bench next to Grandpa and Davood. We listened to their stories as we hulled the walnuts. We knew that cracking so many walnuts was going to leave a black stain on our hands, but since it was summertime, we didn’t care. We always left the biggest walnuts for Grandpa.

Around this time every Friday, Grandpa and Davood would start debating. My grandfather’s recollections of World War II often led to animated conversations about the shah and the lack of political freedom in Iran.

“The shah has done wonders for our country,” my grandfather
would say. “Look at all the modernization, the new high-rise buildings, and the universities. Women in Iran are free now. This is progress.”

“You’re right about that, Agha Joon,” Davood would respond, “but we lack freedom of speech. We need democracy. The shah rules with an iron fist. God help those who stand up to him.”

“That will change, Davood
jon.
He’s been making changes all along. We have a good life. We’re very prosperous because of his programs.”

“What are you saying? We have more political prisoners in our jails than ever before. All our progress is meaningless if our basic rights are being denied.”

My grandmother always found this talk annoying. She’d shake her head and say, “Bah, they started this again! There are kids here. They might tell someone at school that we talk bad about Shahanshah at home.” She would turn to my dad and scoff. “I think Davood is looking for trouble.”

This would lead to my father putting his arm around Grandma and saying, “Don’t worry, Mother. They are talking about history and democracy. It is good for the kids. They learn to be open-minded.”

My mother wouldn’t agree. “Your mother is right. Some kids can interpret talk like this as disrespect to the shah.”

Grandma would jump on this to reinforce her point. “They should teach these kids piety instead. That’s how they learn to be good. It’s through God and religion that we can teach these restless kids to be honest and trustworthy.”

My parents were not religious people nor political. They did believe in God, but they thought religion kept people from discovering science and the purpose of being. “Religion mandates what to do and how to do it,” my mother once said to me. “It stops your way of thinking and exploring your options in life.” My mother always thought progressively. While most Iranian women chose to be housewives, she spent most of her time in a children’s hospital as a nurse.

While my mother and father had similar perspectives on the world, my grandparents thought very differently from each other. Grandpa thought that man was all about his background and roots. He would say, “We are a nation of royalty with a rich history of kingdom.” He spoke proudly of the rule of shahs over the centuries and about our rich culture of arts and crafts. His love affair with the Pahlavi dynasty started when Reza Shah-E-Kabir, known as Reza Shah the Great, took the reins of the country in a military coup in 1921 and confronted the Soviets, hoping to control Iran by helping rebellious militias in the north of the country. Reza Shah dethroned Ahmad Shah, the last king of the Qajar dynasty. He then chose the name Pahlavi for himself, becoming the first king of this new dynasty. My grandfather believed in Reza Shah’s edicts, such as the order that any woman seen wearing a chador should be made to remove her veil. This was a direct insult to the mullahs and Reza Shah became the immediate enemy of the clerics, but he did not let up. He continued to Westernize Iran, building roads, bridges, railway systems, and universities.

Reza Shah’s monarchy ended badly, however. During World War II, the Allies felt he was sympathetic to the Germans, and because of Iran’s vast oil reserves, they attacked our country—the Russians from the northwest and the British from the west and the south. They conquered Iran and unseated Reza Shah. The British sent him into exile in Africa for the rest of his life, and they appointed his twenty-two-year-old son, Mohammad Reza Shah, the new king of Iran. The new shah continued many of his father’s policies, but he was more moderate, allowing people to practice their religion freely.

My grandmother agreed with the shah’s approach to religion. This irritated my grandfather. “Khanoom, we are Persians, not Arabs. Islam is not for us. We are the nation of Zartosht, Zoroaster. The British have long helped the mullahs to keep us entangled with Islam and keep us busy with Allah and his punishments while they take advantage of our oil.”

“Agha, bite your tongue. Our belief in God is just. It has nothing
to do with the British. You haven’t learned anything about Islam. How did I spend so many years with such an ignorant person?”

I learned what I knew about religion from my grandmother. She showed me that Islam was a religion of honesty, love, respect, courage, and justice. She told inspiring stories about the Prophet Mohammad and Imam Ali. One of my favorites was about how Ali would go out at night in disguise to help the poor. Although a leader with the highest regard among his people, he led a life of hardship and deprivation, disdaining material wealth and comfort.

My grandmother’s voice still echoes in my mind. “One day Ali’s brother, who was a blind man, approached Ali, saying to him, ‘Ali, you have control of the treasury. Why don’t you share some with your poor brother?’

“Ali told him to come and take what he needed. Then, instead of giving his brother the coins he wanted, he placed a candle in such a manner that caused his brother to touch its flame. His brother cried out in pain, demanding to know why Ali had done that.

“Do you know why he did that, Reza? Ali was the ruler and the most honest, trusted man in the eyes of his people. He wanted to show his brother that stealing was a sin. He shouldn’t take money he didn’t earn. If he could not bear the pain of a little burn on his finger, how could he bear Jahanam’s fire, hellfire?” She finished this story as she always did. “You must always choose right over wrong.”

I loved both of my grandparents, but I secretly loved my grandfather a bit more. It was through his passion for his garden that I learned how precious life was. Grandpa spent most of his leisure time in the garden tending to his fruit trees, red roses, white jasmines, and several small pots of flowers. Every afternoon, he filled his watering can in the pond and, holding on to the back of his long robe, bent and carefully nurtured his beloved flowers, speaking fondly to them as he did.

“Agha Joon, why are you talking to your flowers?” I asked him once while he was doing this.

Grandpa turned toward me. “Reza, my son, there is life in flowers.
They are like humans. They have feelings. They are God’s creation. Cherish them and they will flourish. Neglect them and they will perish.”

I continued to learn from my grandfather as the years went by, even as the outside world became a bigger and bigger part of my life. Summers went by in a blur. Soon Naser and I, now seventeen, were preparing to enter the last year at our all-boys’ high school, where we carried a heavy load: two-hour classes of algebra, chemistry, physics, history, English, and more. Kazem went to a different high school and still had the job delivering meat orders for his father. He received some teasing for this from some neighborhood boys. Most young people in Tehran didn’t work. Only those who lived in poverty would allow their sons to have jobs. Kazem was not ashamed of working and he brushed off the taunting.

Meanwhile, Naser and I were having the time of our lives. Now that I was older, I spent most of my days at my parents’ house. While my parents were at work, Naser and I smoked cigarettes and drank beer there. Kazem occasionally joined us when he was done with his meat deliveries. We hid our bottles of beer from him because we didn’t want to subject ourselves to his lectures about temperance. They were worse than the lectures my grandmother gave me.

One afternoon, when the three of us sat on the deck off my room, Naser put out his cigarette and stood up. “I’m thirsty. Is there anything to drink?”

“We should have some 7UP and Coke in the fridge,” I said. “Do you want me to go and get it?”

“No, I know my way around your house. You guys want some too?”

We both nodded. When Naser went inside, Kazem pulled his chemistry book from his bag, saying that he hoped Naser would help him prepare for a test the next day. Kazem needed to ace it to pass the course.

“He’s got nothing to do,” I said. “I’m sure he’ll be able to help you. God, I hate chemistry.”

Naser came back with three glasses on a tray. “Reza, turn off the lights. That’ll keep the mosquitoes from attacking us.”

I did so and Naser gave each of us a glass. As soon as I took a sip, I knew he was being mischievous. Under the dim light coming from the window in my room, I rolled my eyes at him. He raised his eyebrows and gestured to me to stay quiet.

“Kazem, have your drink,” Naser said. “It is nice and cold.”

Kazem got a paper from his bag and then picked up his glass. “Thanks, man.”

Naser watched Kazem delightedly while I tried not to laugh. Kazem gulped the drink and then, like a cat sprayed with water, he jumped off his seat and spit the drink everywhere—including all over Naser. This caused Naser to jump as well. I turned on the lights and burst out with laughter.

“Man, you are so stupid,” Kazem said, coughing alcohol. “What the hell was that?”

“We call it Shams. Shams beer. A product of our fatherland.”

As soon as Kazem heard the word
beer,
he ran inside. We followed him and saw him try to wash his mouth under the kitchen faucet.

“Three times!” Naser said, still laughing. “Muslims should wash the alcohol off three times. Otherwise, you go to
Jahanam
.”

Kazem was scandalized. “Shut up, Naser. Why did you do that?”

“Have some fun, man. You won’t go to hell if you have a little fun in your life. It is just beer.”

“Drinking is a sin. Don’t you know anything about your religion? You should get a little serious about life, Naser. All you want to do is smoke, drink, and chase girls—and you are dragging Reza down with you.”

Naser stopped laughing now. “What are you trying to say? That having a little fun means I’m not serious about life? You think the only thing a person can do is follow religious rules? And Reza can speak for himself. He is his own person.”

“Stop this, you two,” I said, trying to defuse the tension. “It was just a joke …” Kazem narrowed his eyes at me. “… a bad one.
Now you should start your chemistry homework before it gets too late.”

I did not want Naser’s prank to cause any trouble between the three of us, and I hated to choose sides. Naser apologized, but Kazem stayed angry for a while. Naser’s helping Kazem prepare for his test ultimately allowed us all to relax. However, this night underscored for us that while we could enjoy soccer, watching movies, and going to my grandfather’s gatherings as a trio, Kazem couldn’t be a part of everything we did.

This, of course, didn’t prevent Naser and me from doing those other things. Every day after school, we would go over to the nearby girls’ school and watch the girls pour out into the street after their classes, some smiling and flirting with us. We would put our home phone numbers on pieces of paper to give to them. Naser had grown into a handsome, sturdy six-footer with a full head of black hair that he kept carefully styled in a Beatles haircut. The Beatles were very popular with young people in Iran at the time. Girls were crazy about Naser and he made jokes and winked at them. Although I was a little shorter and had a slightly lighter complexion than Naser, most girls assumed we were brothers. We had the same hairstyle and even dressed alike in Levis and black shirts.

Once in a while, Naser would steal his dad’s red Chevy Impala convertible and bump the music up while we waited outside the girls’ high school. To impress the girls, we always had a pack of Winstons handy and played songs by the Bee Gees, Bob Dylan, or the Beatles. We were soon dating some of those girls, taking them to the discos opening all over Tehran and clandestinely making out with them. We never worried about getting into trouble, though Davood would have been furious with us if he knew we regularly stole his car. My only regret was that Kazem couldn’t join us in most of our exploits. “He will gradually understand that life is not all about praying and practicing religion,” Naser would say when I mentioned this to him.

As I was getting ready for my high school finals, my dad, a civil
engineer who had studied in America, talked to me about the importance of education. He said I should remain focused on my studies and that I should always dream big. He convinced me that I should go to America to study computer science because he believed that computers were the future and that the universities in America would train me for this future better than those anywhere else in the world. In the spring of 1972, with the help of my aunt, who lived in Los Angeles, I enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC). Although it was a dream for any young Iranian to go to America, I would have preferred to go to the University of Tehran with Naser, but my father’s persuasion was forceful and I could not argue with him.

Before I left, my family and close friends threw a good-bye party for me. During the event, I sat on the bench next to the fishpond watching the crowd wistfully. The people there were an essential part of me. I looked at my grandfather’s flowers. It would be hard saying good-bye to them, too.