An Iranian Story

"Yes Abraham, she is, but while she is recovering from her near brush with death, I need to speak with you. I am especially going to need your help, and I am going to lean on you heavily. You heard me say I was cutting off all arms shipments from this country to countries that cause terrorism in this region. Not one bullet will leave this country again for their benefit. You will never guess where your greatest opposition will come from. The arms manufacturers in this country! They always got paid. It did not matter to them who paid them, even though most of the time it was this government that paid them. Well now, that is coming to an end, and they are not going to like it one bit. Those on the receiving end will trying to bribe them, and you will not let that happen. If you must burn down their factories, you will do it, just make sure no one is inside. That is your first and greatest job. We are out of the terrorism business permanently.

Next, we have seven borders to protect. Some are docile, others are warlike. You are the expert in this area, not me. You will dispatch your troops along each of the seven borders: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Turkey, as you see fit. You will take all the troops out of the cities and put them into military compounds along the borders of our nation, or in training facilities that you will build and maintain. You will send me a budget within the next nine months, and I will attempt to get it through the Congress before the end of this year. Do not go cheap on yourself. Ask for everything, and I will attempt to get it for you. Is that understood Abraham?"

"Yes Ali, I will do it. I will have the troops out of the cities within one month. It will take that long to redirect them to the appropriate borders. Once that is done, I will have to move the rest of the brigades to our other more formidable borders, and shore them up."

"Abraham, I do not know how to say this to you, and I know it is going to bring you a great deal of pain, because one of your generals hatched a plan to kill me. I did not know the unit number at the time, but it was the Sixth Brigade that was sent to kill me. They were sent to Kersam to set up a trap for me. They set up on a mountains that my helicopter had to fly between. They were on both sides, and on any given day, my helicopter would have flown through that juggernaut and been cut to pieces by the firepower they had. There were more than 1000 men involved, but it did not happen the way they had it planned.

I asked my pilots about it and they said, and I quote, "I either got help from the mighty hand of Allah, or the United States Air Force, because every man on that mountain was killed. I cannot even guess how they knew what was going on, because I did not know my destination the night before. My pilots kept that information from me, so I would not say it to the crowd I was speaking to the night before. If I did not know where I was going, how the heck did they know? I am willing to believe that because of the evil that was intended, that Allah took all their lives to his bosom. I know that the West has very good intelligence, but we do not communicate with them, and they do not communicate with us, so how could they possibly know where I was going. How could they know that the sixth brigade was forming up on that particular-mountain? None of our defenses were down, no incursions were made over our borders. Abraham, I am at a total loss."

"Ali, add me to your list, because I do not have a clue as to what happened to those men. I will send medics, and crime scene investigators to see if they can make any sense out of that scene. If they can, they will report it to us, and we will make it public. All the families will be told what these men were ordered to do, and why they died. The men who ordered these men to die will be court-martialed and sentenced to death; not only the man in the Military, but the Religious Man he was taking orders from."

"Thank you, Abraham, you know how to handle the military side of this. I have no knowledge of it. I can handle the legal side of the government. I need you to handle the military side. I need you to do one more thing for me, and it is just as important as this is. Very soon, a mullah will come walking into my office, and tell me he is going to stay here all day long, every day of my term. He will listen to everything that goes on in the office, and report it back to the others in Qom.

He is going to expect me to argue with him, but I am going to be thrilled to have him with me. He is going to be so shocked; his shorts are going to turn brown.

He should know better than to trust me. I want you to find people who can make me a metal sauna that can fit in this office. I want it to look palatial on the outside. I want a bed on the inside with a comfortable chair. The only temperature I want on the inside of the sauna is 110°. I want it to have an overhead fan. I want him to sweat every second he is in there. He will not be allowed out. He will have plenty of water, tea, food, and linens, but he will not be allowed out, ever. He can ask, but I will always be busy taking care of government business. Both inside and out, it must look like it is fit for a king, but in reality; it must be a dungeon. I want a camera, in there, so I can keep an eye on him. If he faints, because of the heat, I will wait 15 minutes, and have someone go in there and see him. It will be a shame if he dies."

Abraham laughed. "Ali, you are a terrible person."

Ava said, "Abraham, you are just finding this out? I have had to deal with this bum for almost 14 years, and he gets worse every year."

"Ava, I can tell he is getting worse, your breasts are beginning to droop."

Abraham ran for the office door, as Ava ran after him. However, Abraham was in better shape than she was, and he made it out in time. She opened the door, and screamed at him.

"My husband will order you back into this office one day, and I will be here to get even with you. Do you understand me, Abraham, I will not forget this, I will remember that insult forever."

Abraham turned, "Ava, my wife's name is Hafsa. Her little sister's name is Fi. They were born of the devil, and ascended into their father's house, just in time for him to become a master sergeant in my unit. He is my best non-commissioned officer. I met his family often, as we went through the years. This stringy little daughter of his grew up to be a beautiful young woman. She was 13 years my junior, and I could not keep my eyes off her. I was made a full Colonel, and I threw a party for my staff. I called him to my office, and announced my intentions towards his oldest daughter.

He said to me, in no uncertain terms, "Sir, you are out of your mind. She is a hellion. Her mother and I cannot control her. I have threatened to put her in concrete shoes if she does not calm down, and all she does is become worse. I tell her that I am going to put her in a burqa, and she laughs at me. Every time I threaten her, she laughs at me, and I walk away defeated. I want to get my weapon and shoot her in both her legs, just so I can keep her at home. Unfortunately, I could be convicted of child abuse for doing that to her."

"Dymek, I am going to threaten your daughter with a fate worse than death. I am going to threaten to take her virginity away out of wedlock. I am going to threaten to get her pregnant before she gets married, and then I am going to wait to see how she reacts. I will bet you she will calm down immediately."

"Sir, can my wife and I watch you do it?"

"You are Hafsa's parents, of course you can watch. It will put her in such shame; she will not know what to do with herself."

"She is here with us, with her sister, sir. We could bring both in, and have you done it tonight, sir."

"That will be fine with me. What is her sister's name?"

"Her grandmother named her from her deathbed. She is called, "Fi!"

"Oh, my goodness, what is going on in your home? You have one young lioness (Hafsa) walking around in constant conflict with a terrible (Fi) person. No wonder neither girl listens to her perfect parents."

"Thank you very much!"

Two young privates carried Hafsa into the Colonel's office with her feet 18 inches above the floor. As they stood at attention in front of his desk, they did not put her down. She kept kicking her feet like a young child, she was not happy at all.

Two more privates brought Fi into his office, but she was more pliable. She walked in under her own power, stood between them in front of his desk, and waited to see what would happen. She saw her sister suspended in the air, and laughed at her.

"Sis, you will never learn."

"... And you will?"

Abraham said, "If either one of you opens your mouth again, the two gentlemen standing at your side will take you outside, and execute you, with extreme prejudice. Do you know what that means ladies? If you do not, say something, and they will take you outside, now."

Neither girl said a word.

"Hafsa, I have a list of complaints about your conduct that would take me the rest of the month to enunciate. To say that you have a vile mouth and one that is displeasing to Allah is the simplest one. For that offense alone, I will sentence you to civil prison for 20 years. If I did that alone, I would not have enough years left to sentence you for the rest of your crimes. You are rude to your parents in the extreme. I saw you look at me just now. Do not you open your mouth to me young lady, their guns are loaded with live ammunition. Do not test me.

The girls' eyes nearly popped out of their heads in fear.

"Your father was put on this earth to teach you the will of Allah. What do you do in return? You laugh at him to his face. If it was not for the edict of our new president, your father should have taken your face in his hands and smacked it until it was raw. You are disrespectful in the extreme. That is 15 years in a religious prison.

Should I repeat what I said in relation to your mother, who should be your best friend in the entire world? She is here on this earth to protect you from all predators. Your father, but mainly your mother who has set down her life to protect you from any male that would take your chastity. What did you do to her, you disobeyed her continuously, and you laughed in her face. You are such a disobedient young woman; she should have thrown you out on the street to become a beggar. She just could not do it, because you were her daughter, and she loved you. For the life of me, I do not know why. That is another 15 years at a religious prison."

"Just in case you were not counting, so far you are up to 50 years in prison, and you are not yet 17 years old."

"Sergeant, do you and your wife wish to leave the room before I tell your daughter what we are going to do to her, before I send her to prison?"

"Sir, she brought this upon herself. My wife and I tried to guide her all our lives, and she ignored us. She ignored her grandparents who tried to guide her before us. What you are going to do to her now is just, and she deserves it."

"Hafsa, young lion, I am going to begin to tame you. I will go first and take all three of your virginities. If you are so stupid that you do not know what they are, they are your vaginal, anal, and oral virginities. If I am unhappy with any of your performances, I will force you to do them again, and again, until you get them right. When you do get them right, my 4 Privates will have their way with you, followed immediately by my four privates taking you in concert. You have three openings, and they will take them all simultaneously. We will impregnate you. We will give you drugs to increase the probability of you getting pregnant with multiple children. When we are through with you, we will turn you out into the street as a whore. We will brand you on your forehead to tell everyone what you have become. All your friends will know the depths of your depravity. Your mother could not throw you out, because of her motherly pride. I can do it, because I know your bitch. It is either that, or send you to jail. I would rather see you walking the streets, with a child on your hip, forced to take man after man to make a living, than living in the warmth of a home, having regular meals, with loving parents, or a jail, where you get fed two meals a day, and have a bed to sleep in.

Before these events had come to my attention, I was enthralled with your beauty. Every time I saw you with your parents, I wondered how they got so lucky to have two wonderful daughters. I was going to ask for your hand in marriage, from your father, until he told me what a bitch you were. When I learned what you were, I told him that I would take care of you in the worst possible way, and this is it. You will never live in his home again, and he will never have to support you.

They took Hafsa outside so she could cry alone, knowing her life was over. The guards played with their weapons as they looked at her, and she cowered in fear. What had she done to herself, yes, to herself. It was no one else's fault, she had done it.

"Fi, you are one year away from this sentence. You will either grow up properly, and obey your parents' instructions, and love them, or you will get your sisters treatment. It will be your choice. You could be standing here next year, before me, having me read these terms to you. Do you have anything to say?"

She did not dare say a word out loud. She looked at him with tears and fear in her eyes, and shook her head "no."

"That is a very wise decision. You will be watched, not only by your parents, but by my people also. When you come back here next year, you will tell me about your sister, and how many children she has. You will tell me how she is living, and how many men she must take on to support herself daily. If you lie to me, I will put you in prison on general principles. When you come out of prison, I will put you on a work detail, until your fingers fall off. Do you understand me?"

Fi nodded her head vigorously.

"Good, go with your parents, and do as they say for the next year, and more. Is that understood young woman"

Fi nodded her head again.

"Sergeant, come with me for a moment."

They left his living room, walked into his study, and closed the door.

"How badly did I damage them, Bassaeym?"

"Not as bad as they damaged me over the years, sir. I think my wife took it very hard, thinking what you were going to be doing to her daughters was for real, but I will assure her when we get home it was not. If I did not know that this was schemed up between us, I would have thought my daughters were going away for life."

"That was the object of this lesson, now let us go put the finishing touches on it."

The general led the way into the living room, looked at Fi and said to her, "Do not move."

He looked at the two privates and said, "I need 15 feet of cord, with a lanyard on the end. Now would be fine, 15 minutes ago would be better."

The privates were out the door, double time.

When he returned to his desk, he said, "Sargeant, I believe you may go where ever you wish with your wife. You may take your younger daughter with you. I believe her attitude will be completely changed. Your elder daughter will entertain me for the remainder of the week. Then I will let the boys have her. After that, I will have her branded, and thrown out in the street as what she will become in the future, a whore. There will be many military men to keep her company, in the short term, but she will have to find her way with other men as she gets great with child. What a waste of such a magnificent beauty. She would not listen to either of you. If I did that to my parents, they would have cut my hands off. How did you two, such perfect role models, survive? Only Allah knows his plan for us, and he must have a wonderful plan for both of you.

Hafsa will be in my company. I think I will toy with her. I am going to bend her to my will. When I get her to the point that she is about to break, I will ask her to marry me, or break instead. I believe she will choose to marrying me. When she realizes what I have done to her, after a month or so, she will retaliate against me, and I will hear words I have not heard since college. It will be such fun."

"Sir, I hope you do not mind me saying so, but I think you are out of your fucking mind."

"Sometimes, love will do that to you."

"Sir, do you want to see a psychiatrist first?"

"My father is a psychiatrist. I stay away from him as much as possible. The stuff comes out of his mouth could confuse all of heaven, and most of hell."

"Fi, if you say one word of what you heard in this room to your sister, I will cut your tits off right now. Is that understood?"

"Can I call you a sneaky, rotten, bastard, instead?"

"As long as you remember, young lady, I can still send you to prison. You will treat your parents with respect, always! If I get one word back from them, there is a prison outside Qom that you will be visiting for a very long time."

"Can I get out for my sister's wedding?"

"NO!"

"Meany!"

"Bitch."

Her mother said to her, "Be careful Fi, he knows you already, and he can send you to prison for real."

"Yes mother."

Her mother fell to the floor.

Fi shouted at the top of her voice, "MOM!" and rushed over to her.

She looked at her mother's smiling face and asked her, "What happened?"

Her mother responded, "You should know, you did it to me."

"What did I do?"

Abraham asked her if she wanted him to tell her.

Fi said, "Yes please."

"Fi, it was very simple, you said 'Yes Mother' to your mother."

"So, what, I do it all the time."

"No, you do not. You stopped doing it when you turned 11 years old. That is when you broke your parents' hearts."

Fi sat down on the floor and thought for a moment. If this was all it took to make her mother smile, she had to be a terrible person, and Hafsa was worse. She cried her eyes out and she could not stop.

Her mother smacked her on the back of her head hard. "If I knew all I had to do was act like I had a heart attack to get you to think about your behavior I would have done that five years ago. I would have saved your father and I so much heart ache and desperation over your behavior, we would have had at least one daughter we did not believe would go to the devil. What am I going to do to you Fi? How is your father going to behave around you, without taking you apart, piece by piece?"

"I have come up with the answer, mother, and it is what I deserve. Please put me in jail. Anyone who walks around with an attitude like mine, believing the world owes her a living, in a society like ours, should be put under guard every day of her life. She should have no freedom. She should have to take orders that she cannot ignore. I do not know how I became like I am, but I just realized, I do not like me at all. I wanted to be like Hafsa, and apparently, I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. I do not want Abraham to marry her. She does not deserve him. I want him to do to her what he laid out before her, so she realizes what she did to you and father. I do not know how you put up with us. You must have been amazing parents."

"Fi, all we were, were parents who love their children. Beyond that, we could not hurt them because our religion told us not to. We tried everything. We sought counseling. We talked to other parents who were having the same problems we were. They took the easy way out, and disowned their children. You see them walking the streets in rags, begging for anything so they can eat at night. It does get very cold at night in the desert, and I think your sister is about to find that out."

"I wish I could watch. It would teach me a lesson."