Read Online The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani - Free Book Online

daughter--"a distant relative," Gordiyeh said.
    "How many of those do we have?" Mehrbanoo asked her mother, with a big laugh that revealed several rotten teeth. "Hundreds?"
    "Too many to count," said Gordiyeh.
    I was taken aback by this airy dismissal. As if in explanation, Gordiyeh said to my mother, "Our family is so large that my girls can't keep up."
    Shamsi entered the kitchen just then and said to Gordiyeh, "Your revered husband has arrived."
    "Come, girls, your father is always hungry after Friday prayers," Gordiyeh said, ushering them out of the room.
    The whole kitchen began to bustle. "Hurry!" Cook hissed, handing me a few cotton spreads. "Lay these over the carpets in the Great Room. Don't delay!"
    I followed Gordiyeh and her daughters, who had arranged themselves on the cushions and were chatting without paying me the least attention. I was eager to sit and eat with them, but Cook called me back to the kitchen and handed me a tray of hot bread and a dish of goat cheese and mint; she followed with the plate of honor, heaped with eggplant and herbs, while Zohreh tottered under the weight of the rice. My mother emerged with a large vessel containing a cool drink she had made of rose water and mint.
    Back in the kitchen, Cook said, "We may as well begin the washing," although we hadn't eaten yet. She handed me a rag and a greasy pot encrusted with eggplant. I stared at them, wondering when we'd be called in to dine. My mother pushed a strand of hair back into her scarf and began cleaning the rice pot. Surely we'd be asked to join the family soon! I tried to catch my mother's eye, but her head was bowed over her task and she didn't seem to be expecting anything.
    After we had completed most of the cleanup, Cook sent me back to the Great Room with a vessel of hot water so the family could wash their hands. Everyone had finished eating and was reclining comfortably against the cushions, their bellies large with food. My stomach growled, but no one seemed to notice. Zohreh and Shamsi collected the platters, and then Cook divided the remaining food among the six members of the household staff and the two of us. Ali-Asghar, Taghee, and Samad ate together outside in the courtyard, while we women ate in the kitchen.
    Although the meal had been served, Cook couldn't seem to quit her labors. She'd take a bite, then rise to clean a serving spoon or return a stopper to a vessel. The flavors in her food achieved an exceptional marriage, but her nervousness dulled the pleasure of it. The moment we finished, Cook told each one of us what to do to finish the cleanup. When the kitchen was spotless again, she dismissed us for our afternoon rest.
    I threw myself onto my bedroll, my limbs aching. Our room was so small that my mother and I were nose to nose and foot to foot.
    "I have nothing left," I said, with a large yawn.
    "Me, neither," my mother replied. "Did you like the food, light of my eyes?"
    "It was fit for a shah," I said, adding quickly, "but not as good as yours."
    "It was better," she replied. "Who'd have thought they would eat meat every week! A person could live on the rice alone."
    "God be praised," I replied. "Hasn't it been a year since we've eaten lamb?"
    "At least."
    It had felt good to eat as much as I wanted for two days in a row.
    "Bibi," I said, "what about the eggplant? It was too salty!"
    "I doubt that Gordiyeh has had to cook in many years," my mother replied.
    "Why didn't you tell her it was too much?"
    She closed her eyes. "Daughter of mine, remember that we have nowhere else to go."
    I sighed. Safa had been right; we were not our own mistresses now. "I thought Gordiyeh would have invited us to share the meal with them again," I said.
    My mother looked at me with pity. "Oh daughter, whom I love above all others," she said, "a family like this one keeps to itself."
    "But we are their family."
    "Yes, and if we had arrived with your father, bearing gifts and good fortune, it would have been different," she said.