The Shah was talking a walk in is courtyard, a habit he was trying to inculcate. At this time, he heard screeching and loud screams. He ran towards the sounds and saw his beautiful princess, Raiza fall and crash into the earth. There fell Jaspar on top of her, hurting her even more. The Shah ran to their rescue and picked up his Raiza. He looked towards the skies to pray and there he saw ... A girl looking down on him .. At first, he wondered whether he was hallucinating out of sorrow and then he snapped out of it. He flew into a fit of fury. Had Dara pushed his princess ?The Shah never showed Raiza or anyone his love (except for Mali). Deep within, he loved Raiza more than anything. She was the only link he had with her mother, the Shah's one true, precious love. It was the Shah that decided that all meals would be made as per Raiza's choice but no one knew of this. It was the Shah that ordered all upholstery to be Āreghoāney because it was Raiza's favourite too but no one knew of this either. That was the Shah. He never expressed himself to his family, he expected them to know. He expected them to search and find his love in the small things he did for them.
The Shah was all knowing. He knew that Dara was a girl from the day he first saw her. Dara's hairline had a widow's peak like that of Fari. And this hairline was rarely seen among Persian men. An old superstition led the Shah to believe that Dara was a girl. And so, when he saw Dara in a skirt he felt happy rather than angry about the lies. Dara was finally free, she did not have to live as a prisoner of multiple personalities. But that did not change the Shah's anger - Why did Dara push his baby down the tree ?!!? (Ironically, no one cared about Jaspar).
The Shah growled in a low, angry tone, "Get down now!" Dara swung down the ladder and fell at the Shah's feet. The Shah asked Dara why he pushed Raiza and Jaspar. Raiza was still unconscious while Jaspar knew that this was the only way to escape. He accused Dara and stormed off. Dara started crying and said, "Amoo jaan, I saw Jaspar drag Raiza to the treehouse. Jaspar wanted to hit me when the branch broke." The Shah saw the truth in Dara's eyes. He took Raiza inside the palace and called upon Doktur Khan. Raiza was bandaged in almost all parts of her body. She had lost her vision and spent days with a satin cloth wrapped around her eyes.
The Shah and Bahram had a huge showdown which resulted in Jaspar being sent to their outhouse in the Alborz mountains. A dagger had sliced the brotherhood of Bahram and the Shah again. First it was Sati and now Raiza. Why must Bahram always hurt the women the Shah loved dearly. The Shah started living at the palace in Khorramshehr while Raiza lived in the luxury of the Shiraz palace with the rest of the family.
Unknown to everyone, blind Raiza had a visitor every night. Raiza fought these unwelcome visits and tried to scream but now since the Shah did not live in the palace, no one paid heed to her. They thought she was crying in pain or for attention. Raiza's days and nights merged. She felt like she was in a continuous trance. During her sanity, she would think that Doktur Khan was drugging her but she never forgot that come morning, she felt used every single day. What traumatized her more was that she had lunch every day with the man who defiled her body. Amoo jaan she called him and he was known to the rest of the world as Bahram.
Raiza had a secret. She was lonely. Her eyes were always downcast and even though the world around her would give an arm and a leg to be her confidante, she did not feel like sharing the reason for her sorrow. Raiza often went to the cliff to lose her sorrows in the beauty that surrounded her. When she heard Tariq's melody about the Fields of Gold, Raiza's green eyes bore down the tears she had withheld for many years. She wanted to run freely in the field without fear of who knew what about her. She felt like she should share her secret with this stranger who sang from his heart. He would be gone in some time and would never be able to tell any more of her secret than what she revealed. And suddenly, it went quiet. Tariq stopped singing. Her heart sank as she realised that he would never sing for her once he knew her secret. He would never want to even look at her once he knew. But this was the moment, it was now or never. She either let the secret take her down with it or shared it with Tariq and set her soul free. Should Raiza share her secret ? What was so bad that she couldn't even tell a stranger ? .... It was that bad!
A new story will be told next week and it will be released on Sunday, 8 July 2012. Are you excited ? :)
Love,
S.
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