Mamou found us like that, Laleh laughing at thetelevision, me reading my book and concurring with my sister when necessary.
“Sobh bekheir!” Laleh said, switching back to Farsi now that she had a receptive audience.
“Sobh bekheir, Laleh-jan.” Mamou kissed Laleh, and then me. “You had your breakfast?”
“Baleh.”
“There’s still warm sangak in the basket,” I said. “I can make some more tea.”
“Why don’t you make me the special tea you brought, maman?”
“Okay.”
While I pulled down the FTGFOP1 First Flush Darjeeling, Mamou pulled out a big bowl of qottab covered in plastic wrap from somewhere deep inside the refrigerator, gave me a wink, and carried it into the living room.
I heard Laleh cry out “Yum!” in a voice three octaves below her normal register.
Laleh liked qottab even more than I did.
I put the pot of tea on a tray, along with a few cups, so I could serve Mamou in the living room.
“Thank you, maman,” she said. She inhaled long and slow over her cup. “The smell is very nice.”
Despite what Ardeshir Bahrami said, it seemed like tea could be for smelling after all.
Mamou closed her eyes and took a long, slow sip.
“It’s good, maman! Thank you.”
I offered a taste to Laleh, who refused—it was too hot, and it had not been sweetened at all—and then took my own sip.
Mamou smiled and scooted closer to kiss me on the cheek.
“Thank you, Darioush-jan,” she said. “Your gift was perfect.”
I really loved my grandmother.
Mom emerged around ten o’clock, already dressed. She pulled a headscarf off one of the hooks by the door. “Mamou,” she said. “Bereem!”
Mamou emerged from her room, dressed up too.
“Where are you going?”
“We are going to visit my friends,” Mamou said.
“It’s tradition,” Mom said. “On the day after Nowruz.”
“It is?”
Mom nodded.
“We never do that back home.”
I remembered how Sohrab had looked at me, when he asked if he would see me. How he was surprised I didn’t say yes right away.
How could there be a Nowruz tradition I didn’t know about?
“Well,” Mom said. And then she blinked at me, like she wasn’t sure how to answer. “Why don’t you go visit Sohrab?”
