Are you sure?
This action might not be possible to undo. Are you sure you want to continue?
South Harbors Secrets
Ratings:
183 pages2 hours
Summary
South Harbors Secrets, A Journey From The Caspian Sea To Panbeh City In Mississippi
In 1950s, tiny Neek was living in a small, serene, but poor village by the Caspian Sea. He was blessed to have the love and blessing of his four angels: mom, grandma, and two aunties. He loved stories more than anything else. The unique and intact landscape of the North fueled his imagination and nurtured his eager for discoveries and adventures. His imagination took off when he read, for the very first time, the novels about the life and adventures of Oliver Twist, Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn. He could recite their stories by heart.
He was unaware that the ups and downs of his life could qualify as true adventures in their own right. He moved from his small village to the capital city of Tehran. He beat the odds and graduated from the medical school. He then moved to the United States and became a cancer specialist. He finally settled down in Panbeh City in the state of Mississippi. He pioneered a quiz show that offered tens of college scholarships to the talented but disadvantaged African-American students in this part of the South.
Quite accidentally, he was entangled with the family of Darius, the first champion of the game show. The scholarship was instrumental for Darius to become a prominent lawyer in Washington, D.C. and Virginia. It turned out that Darius's family harbored deep and painful secrets from the past. The way those secrets unraveled were quite traumatic, taunting, agonizing, and deadly.
Meanwhile, two mothers, worlds apart, had an uncanny resemblance in their struggles and sacrifices to make a better future for their son. The parallel life of Soraya and South is a testimony that human spirit transcends all the artificial barriers like race, nationality, and religion.
Publisher: Ali LangroodiReleased: Apr 19, 2019ISBN: 9781386881551Format: book
Book Preview
South Harbors Secrets - Ali Langroodi
Mohammad
CHAPTER 1: LIVING IN GOL ABAD BY THE CASPIAN SEA
MEET NEEK-Tiny Neek was enjoying the last days of the summer of 1961 until his father placed package containing the sixth-grade books and stationery in front of him. It was an ominous sign that school season was approaching. He dreaded grade school and preferred to read on his own, at his own pace. On the other hand, the end of summer and early fall were a joyful time for Neek. He liked to tag along with his uncles, aunts, and cousins for harvesting rice, vegetables, and fruits. Everyone was expected to gear up and be prepared for dawn-to-dusk work at the harvest season. Everyone except Neek. Because of his small stature, he was treated like a sidekick. His relatives enjoyed his company. He never ran out of enthusiasm and curiosity. He had an insatiable appetite for fruits and could munch on them all day long. His favorites were figs, pomegranates, wild berries, pears, quinces, and the heavenly sweet lemons.
Neek’s mother, Soraya, was painfully aware that his mood would sour at the sight of the colorless and lifeless school books. The only thing she could do was cheer him on. His grade school was a one-classroom schoolhouse, a stone’s throw from their home. At the school, he went by his full name, Neek Yaad. His father’s name was Mr. Yeki Yaad. Mr. Yaad was the principal, the only teacher, and the administrator of the school, all rolled in one.
Neek was a small boy for his age; sweet, obedient, and never a trouble maker. If his mom and grandma were busy with their chores, then he engaged himself with outdoor activities. He particularly enjoyed strolling along the creek, running through his grandma’s property. The creek was his favorite spot and his main hideout. It was secluded and the heavy growth of plants and shrubs along the creek made it a perfect refuge for him. The creek offered a lot of fun activities such as wading, bathing, playing, watching small fish, turtles, frogs, and birds as well as chasing butterflies and dragonflies.
After finishing third grade, he began venturing outside of the home more frequently and enjoyed fishing and boating in the nearby main river. He learned to swim in the Caspian Sea under the watchful eyes of his mother. As he improved, he swam on his own when the storms had passed and the currents were calm. He also developed a taste for exploring the heavily wooded lands beyond his grandma’s rice farm, which marked the edge of the North Forest. Another enjoyable pastime for him was playing hole-in-one with his cousins, using green walnuts picked fresh from the trees.
He was always available and willing to pick up fruits and vegetables and gather eggs for his mom and grandma. He seemed to have all the energy in the world to do those chores, but he appeared unmotivated and flat about school. Mr. Yaad was baffled, especially in the light of seeing such contrast in his son. He was disenchanted, to say the least, with Neek’s modest progress in the school.
Soraya knew that whenever Neek got excited about something new, he would act as if he was on steroids. He would speak at the speed of light and catch his breath only after saying several sentences. One summer day, he ran back home to his mother as if his hair were on fire, after a day of fishing in the sea with his cousins. He kept mumbling something unintelligible, rambling on and on. Soraya finally put two and two together and figured it out that Neek was trying to share a fish tale.
When he finally calmed down, he explained that his cousins caught a few sturgeons and he had participated in the extracting and packaging of the caviar for the very first time!
NEEK’S EXCITEMENT ABOUT STURGEONS AND CAVIAR WAS JUST THE BEGINNING OF A LIFE OF ADVENTURE.
––––––––
MEET NEEK’S FAMILY-Soraya had a very tough life. She grew up working on the family rice farm. She had horrible scars on her legs from the leeches and snakes in the infested waters of the rice paddy. She constantly complained of back pain from years of bending over all day long during the rice cultivation and harvest. Her family could hardly afford to send her to school, thus losing out on her labor, and so she remained illiterate. Despite all her hardships, she looked fondly upon her childhood memories. She liked to tell everyone about how much her father favored her because she resembled her mother. Her now deceased grandpa always got a kick out of repeating the story of his first encounter with Grandma.
Every night, before putting Neek to bed, Soraya recalled one or two events from her past. She narrated those tales in an elaborate and embellished fashion, filling Neek’s imagination with happy stories and wonder. Despite hearing the same stories many times over, Neek remained eager to hear them again and again. Soraya was genuinely kind and went out of her way not just to protect her son, but to introduce him to a world of never-ending fun and discovery.
––––––––
Sima, Soraya’s mother, was known to Neek as dear Grandma. Because of Neek, Soraya referred to her own mother as Grandma.
Similar to Soraya, Grandma had a very tough life. She lived in the same house where Soraya had been born. In fact, Grandma had delivered all of her children, and some of her grandchildren, including Neek, in that gloomy clay house. However, time was powerless to take away the warmth and kindness that had been bestowed upon that home. Throughout the years, the unbreakable bond between Soraya and Grandma grew stronger.
After Neek’s birth, Soraya and Mr. Yaad moved out to their rental house about half a mile away from Grandma’s home. Even under the worst circumstances, Soraya had made daily trips to Grandma’s home simply because Neek missed her and derived comfort from seeing her. At age six, Neek began visiting Grandma all by himself, several times a day. He never missed breakfast with her. Watching Neek get excited over a bowl of white rice mixed with warm milk and a peeled boiled egg on the side made it all worthwhile for dear Grandma. Soraya’s main concern about him going all alone to Grandma’s home was the danger of wild animals and the pesky gypsies who lurked around.
Grandma remained amazed at Neek’s unquenchable thirst for stories. All stories, short or long, invigorated him beyond imagination. Grandma told him horror stories about the town’s experiences when the Soviet Union soldiers invaded the coastal towns along the Caspian Sea. Those stories always brought tears to Grandma’s eyes, but Neek found it difficult to understand why she became so emotional. He then asked for more stories. Grandma liked sharing about her upbringing with the curious Neek; it was cathartic. Invariably, she reminisced about those bitter-sweet times. Bitter or sweet, Neek wanted to hear them many times over.
Neek knew that Grandma had lost count of how many babies she had given birth to. The number twenty-five had been kicked around often and the family members and neighbors seemed to agree on that number. Unfortunately, only a handful of the babies survived due to poor sanitation and a lack of vaccines. A large number of Grandma's family members resided in the village of Gol Abad, including ten of her children, and twelve siblings and their extended families. The remaining family members were obligated by marriage or occupation to move to nearby towns.
––––––––
Ozra, Grandma’s oldest sister was ten years older than her, give or take. Neek called her Auntie Ozra. She had also learned from experience that a bowl of rice soaked with milk and one boiled egg would turn Neek into a volcano of excitement. And that was okay with her. Moreover, she knew after such a treat he would become a ball of fire. He would gather all the eggs and pick the vegetables with a snap of his fingers. And then he’d quickly move to extracting water from the well, which was always on his list of chores.
When Auntie Ozra was around fifteen years old, she married a man with a light complexion. There was a large percentage of people with lighter complexion along the Caspian Sea compared to the rest of the country. Perhaps lighter skin color resulted from exposure to less light in such an overcast region. Regretfully, after only fathering four children he died. Only two of those children survived. Auntie Ozra never remarried and she dedicated her life to her children who grew up quite healthy. Auntie Ozra was blessed with several grownup grandchildren who all lived in Gol Abad.
Auntie’s bond with Neek was very special. She always felt he was unique, even during his early childhood. Moreover, Neek’s facial features were pleasing to her. He had dark hair with a perfectly round face, two big curious eyes, and a sweet and innocent voice.
Auntie Ozra had a habit of praying for people and asking for mercy and healing for her loved ones. Grandma had her own remedy to take away any kind of pain. She would stick her finger in a bottle of kerosene and rub it on the affected area. Inevitably, the pain magically disappeared. She used her trick on Neek several times, after he had tumbled down from a tree he’d been climbing, and it always worked.
––––––––
When taking short walks, Grandma had found comfort by hunching forward. She had no choice but to live her life and survive. She used a wooden stick to get around and made short trips to visit her neighbors, carrying a bag of goods on her back. Kobra, her nearest neighbor, was a woman her age. Kobra was unrelated to the family by blood, but Grandma and Auntie Ozra had considered her a sister since their childhood years. As an adult, she was known to the younger family members, including Neek, as Auntie Kobra. Grandma would offer a bag of goods to her as a token of appreciation and friendship, and Auntie Kobra always reciprocated by giving her back something like yogurt, cheese, or milk.
For Grandma, those visits provided an opportunity to see and chat with her friends. Although illiterate, Grandma, knew instinctively that human connection nurtures the souls and fends off fear and hate. She made those trips knowing that stray dogs, wild pigs, and jackals were roaming free in the area and could sneak out of bushes and attack at any time. It was quite obvious that her love for her family and friends was a powerful force that drove her to overcome those real dangers and her physical limitations.
Neek accompanied his Grandma many times during her visits to her siblings. He listened to their conversations intently. He felt Auntie Ozra and Auntie Kobra were like grandmothers to him, and he loved them dearly. He told his mom that he had four angels watching over him. Gradually, the habit of visiting Auntie Kobra for the sake of sweet treats turned to the necessity of helping her with daily chores. Naïvely, Neek wished that Auntie Ozra’s prayers could heal Grandma’s and Auntie Kobra’s pain.
It seemed that Neek measured up to his name, which means a good fellow.
All of Neek’s angels, except his mother, owned a cat. It was difficult to say whether the cats were domestic or stray because they would disappear into the woods for days and then reappear, picking up as if they had never left. Since Neek appeared in their lives, the cats stuck around more often; the love seemed mutual. The cats were accustomed to being hugged tightly and roughly by Neek. Sometimes he would catch his grandma talking to her cat as if it were a person.
––––––––
Neek’s father was a highly motivated and hardworking man, but a man of few words. He typically only joined a conversation if it was about science, mathematics, or literature. He had memorized many verses of iconic and historical Persian poets, scholars, and philosophers. For nearly any occasion, he seemed to have an apropos quote or paraphrase to offer, as if plucked from his hat. He was a serious teacher, by no means a softie. He had finished high school and had learned to read and write in French adequately. He was a teacher before his move to Gol Abad. As the only teacher and educator in town, he was highly respected by the villagers.
The way he met and married Soraya was curious. Quite by chance, he had a glimpse of Soraya on his way to work on the first day of school. He fell madly in love with her. After a few short weeks of hide and seek, he sent a matchmaker. After some negotiations, Grandma and late Grandpa both agreed to the offer. They hoped that perhaps Soraya could have a better life than they did. Despite remarkable age differences (he was twenty-eight, and she was sixteen) Mr. Yeki Yaad and Sorya Gol Par tied the knot. No words or interactions had been exchanged between the bride and the groom prior to the matrimony. For each of them, it was their first marriage, and Neek was their first and only child.
Early on, Soraya began to wonder about her husband’s past life. He brushed off any questions about his family. He denied having siblings or uncles or aunts. He had mentioned that his parents had been long deceased. Mr. Yaad never made trips to his hometown in the neighboring province and he showed no desire to take his family there to visit. Shortly after their marriage, Soraya saw an elderly woman talking to her husband outside of the school. Their interaction seemed quite comfortable, as if they knew each other well. The stranger had a unique manner of dress, and features that gave the impression to Soraya that she was a city dweller or foreigner. Soraya took a note that there was no physical resemblance between her husband and the elderly woman to suggest a familial relationship. Soraya never saw the woman again.
Soraya had also noticed that his name, Yeki, was uncommon. Soraya’s family had no resources to dig in and research their soon to be son-in-law, and looking back, they had agreed to the marriage offer hastily.
Despite the prestige of being a teacher, Mr. Yaad’s
You've reached the end of this preview. Sign up to read more!
Page 1 of 1