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A Yalda Love Story (Part III)

After his divorce, Amir was immersed in memories of his childhood and his first love again. Thoughts of "what if?" and "where is she now?" constantly haunted him. A few days before Yalda in 2001, just like all the other Yalda's before that, he was overwhelmed with nostalgia and thoughts about Iran, his family, and Maryam.

Maryam’s daughter, Tara, was preparing for college in 2001. On a lazy Sunday morning, she and her brother were doing their homework and Maryam was ironing. Their television was set on the Iranian program and they were absent-mindedly “listening” to the program when on a commercial break, an advertisement for an Iranian business appeared. When the announcer said: “……under Mr. Amir Azimpoor’s management…,” Maryam looked up and on the TV screen, there was Amir’s face, his blue eyes and his face, older, more settled, with graying hair, but still the same, was looking at her. Catching her breath, she said casually to her daughter, “That is my old classmate, Amir.” Tara quickly wrote the number down in her open notebook, and suggested her mother call her old classmate and invite him and some of her other old classmates in the area to their traditional Yalda celebration the following weekend. It took all Maryam’s might to speak in a normal tone, telling Tara that this wasn’t such a good idea.

The vivacious Tara , however, had a mind of her own. Amid her mother’s protests, she picked up the phone, punched in the numbers just mentioned on TV, asked to talk to Mr. Azimpoor, and once he came online, she handed the telephone to her mother. Maryam took the phone and said: “Hi, I just saw your commercial on TV, and I am wondering whether you were a classmate of mine in middle school.” There was a silence on the other end of the line. Amir then said: “Yes, Maryam Khanoom. I was your classmate, and I have waited all my life for this phone call. I knew you would call me someday.”

(To Be Continued...)