Read Vanished Without A Trace Online
Authors: Nava Dijkstra
Vanished Without A Trace (34 page)
Sherry reached Esther to hug her, but Esther pushed her away. “It’ll be all right,” Sherry promised. “For the moment, our grandfather is very upset with our father, but you know that he will not let us live in a place like this. Perhaps he will find the person who stole his diamonds and everything would be like before. You know how much he loved us. It is just a matter of a few days.”
“Few days? I can’t stay here even for a minute!” Esther yelled, causing her mother to stop the housework and enter the room in a panic. “How will I be able to live through this for a few days? If I disappear, don’t look for me. More than anything else, I want to die. It’s not only that I’ve lost my friends because we moved to a new place, but I may not be able to invite anyone here because of my embarrassment. I will never have friends. If we don’t move within a few days, I will run away. I won’t ever want you to look for me.”
“Try to relax,” her mother said in a soft voice.
“Why should I calm down? How is it possible to relax here?"
Her father sat in bed quietly and looked at Sherry apologetically.
“Why are you asking Sherry to forgive you?” Esther detested. “It’s always about Sherry. You need to ask for my apologies. Sherry loves these conditions; they will influence her muses. She will paint you an amazing picture of emotions here. She does not care where we live. For her, the important thing is that she has papers and colors. I’m the one who needs an apology for not being able to be an actress. Who will hire an actress who lives in a musty warehouse like this?” Esther went out, slamming the closet door. This time it was submissive to the smash and let loose from its hinges.
“At least it won’t interfere with the entrance,” Sherry joked, trying to amuse her father a little bit.
“This is the first day. After a week, it will be easier,” her father said.
Sherry thought that even after 10 years, it would not become easy.
At night, Sherry laid down on the double bed next to her two sisters, looking at the peaceful face of Esther with no traces of turmoil left. Her cheeks slightly blushed from the heat, and her lips were reddish, even as she was sleeping. ‘It’s a miracle,’ Sherry thought, that Esther actually fell asleep quickly, as she turned from side to side in bed, unable to find a comfortable position. Or perhaps it was not the inconvenience that bothered her, but rather her brain, that a while ago accepted the new reality. Now, she found the ability and the time to segregate in sequence one reflection after the other to an intensity that she could carry.
Sherry kissed Esther, taking advantage of her sleep. There was no way her sister would let her or anyone else kiss her, for the risk of saliva remnants on her smooth cheeks was too worrisome. Across the door there were whispers. But her parents’ words sounded clearly. “How did they enter into the room without anyone seeing them? You were home all day. Even if someone came in, how did he know where the key was?” Her father asked.
“Maybe you didn’t notice then, and someone saw you?”
“I never hide the key to the safe before locking myself into the room. Aside from us, nobody knew where the key was hidden. It has to be someone who knew that from the previous week. We bought diamonds with all the money we had; someone who knew that we were going to run away to America.”
“Your brothers knew that we were going to run away. They also knew that you bought diamonds.”
“No, not even my uncles who are working with us. It’s true that no one besides my brothers could enter the house without a problem, but there is no way that they stole the diamonds. If they stole them, they would have returned them right away. They wouldn’t have watched my father throw me out of the house like a dog. They couldn’t watch my father suffer. They are not the thieves… no way. I can still build my life once again, but my father is not young anymore.” He sighed loudly. “The first thing I’ll do tomorrow morning is get us away from this place. I’ll ask for a loan from my brothers, leave Iran, and open a small business in the U.S. I’m familiar with this market; I can handle it faster. I’ll go to Itzhak. I do not have the courage to go to Shmuel. It would be like an admission that what happened is a punishment for taking you away from him. I will try to go to Itzhak first; I’m sure he’ll give me money. But, if he refuses, I will not be ashamed to ask Shmuel.”
“Do not humiliate yourself. Don’t you dare ask for money from your brothers. If they want, they will come by themselves and offer you help. Wait for a few more days and we’ll know what to do. We’ll find a way to survive.”
“I can’t wait until they offer to help me. I will not let you and my daughters live in a place like this. You deserve to live in a better place. You have no idea how hard it is for me to think that you have to clean the house of Nazir and work for hours in the kitchen in exchange for living here. I’m so sorry and so ashamed that I turned you from a divine painter and talented jewelry designer to a maid and cook.”
“I’m still talented. I can find a new job.”
“You’re so good in jewelry designing. Even the six necklaces that you designed for our daughters and the three nice bracelet sets are so beautiful. The way you put the diamonds in plastic chains...”
“Dental implant, the simplest,” she interrupted. “It was the job that I least enjoyed doing. My hands were trembling. The thought that we were escaping Iran with the girls wearing necklaces and bracelets set with diamonds, never stopped bothering me. But, I knew that the plastic chains were the safest way to smuggle the jewels without arousing suspicions that those were real diamonds.”
There was silence.
Sherry got up and opened the window. A light flow of wind dashed over her, trying to mend the people who were sleeping in the small and suffocating room. The lucid night air of far off places brought an aroma to the five human beings who met the first agony of their lives. Sherry enjoyed the caress of the wind. The sky was radiated with the light of the stars—dots of light in a dark wilderness. One star fell, and she closed her eyes and asked a silent night wish: that Esther would find peace in this place. She had so much to wish for, but she found herself asking for peace for Esther.
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