Lifelong Friendship

The lifelong friendship is a story about a ball bought by some friends in a poor area of Tehran in winter. It had been supposed that one of the friends would take the ball home every week through a lottery. It is the story of the lives of several children, which the ball narrates in his own words. This fascinating and exciting story takes you into the lives of people who live in poverty. Let’s read a part of the story together.

Long-lasting friendship

They said that she had pneumonia, and her lungs began to bleed. Rahim and Marjan collected money for their mother’s treatment. Haj Fethullah had also promised to marry Marjan and said: “if he marries Marjan, he will settle all the hospital expenses and debts.” Rahim was upset; he didn’t like Marjan to marry Haj Fethullah. On the same night when he discharged his mother from the hospital, he said that he would not let Haji marry her sister, he decided to work and pay the debts himself. It didn’t take long before he started to work in Mr. Kazemy’s shop on glass. He was working well, but a disease had come, they called it Covid, it was said that everyone should stay at home and not leave the house. Everyone who got Corona. It was possible that he would die! Therefore, he couldn’t go to work, the owner of the shop himself didn’t come to the shop, he had entrusted the shop to Rahim.

Rahim would also go, but his salary wasn’t enough. So he decided to throw stones to break the windows of the shop and run away. Rahim’s neighborhood was next to the road, where the rich had big shops such as a wood shop and a furniture store in that neighborhood. The shop owners usually went to eat lunch or pray at the mosque at noon. Rahim also used the opportunity and went to the shops whose doors were locked and broke their windows with stones. This forced the shopkeepers to order new glass for the door of the shop, and this made Rahim earn much money. Haj Kazem was also happy that he got rich, but when the coronavirus spread, few shops were opened, and Rahim’s work was damaged. When he saw the rich, he sometimes cursed their children and the earth and time, and said, “What kind of justice does God have among his servants? What kind of justice does God have between his servants?” He was talking to himself, sometimes he vented his greed on me.

Fathullah had also gone and filed a complaint and demanded the debt. It was spring, and the frozen snow on the streets was melting. It was early spring, and the weather was cold. They said it was Nowruz, and they were right. I had heard from my friends what Nowruz was like. At Rahim’s house, there was also a small wide cloth. There were some boxes of candies, a fish tank with two red fishes playing in it, a dish of grown sprouts, two colorful eggs, Somāq, a cup of vinegar, some coins, an apple, some garlic, a mirror at the top of cloths, and a volume of the Quran. It was a very beautiful cloth. Its name was Seven Sin (سین) in the Persian alphabet or (S) in the English alphabet.

Sabzeh (سبزه) – wheat, barley, mung bean, or lentil sprouts growing in a dish – symbolizing rebirth Samanu (سمنو) – sweet pudding made from wheat germ – symbolizing affluence Senjed (سنجد) – dried oleaster Wild Olive fruit – symbolizing love Seer (سیر) – garlic – symbolizing medicine and health Seeb (سیب) – apple –

Symbolizing beauty:
Somāq (سماق) – sumac fruit – symbolizing (the color of) sunrise.
Serkeh (سرکه) – vinegar – symbolizing old age and patience.
He even bought some clothes for Marjan and his mother. He said, this year, everyone was afraid to go outside. But he sold red fish on the side of the road to passengers and passersby. Shopkeepers also bought from him. They also gave him tips. Rahim was a suffering boy; he had a good voice. When he sang, the same shopkeepers gave him money. He couldn’t study; he had no choice. If he studied, he couldn’t save his sister from the clutches of Haj Fethullah. His only entertainment was me; sometimes he would kick me a few times and shoot me in the same 30-meter house, and he kicked me hard a few times on my head.

He beat me against the wall.

I was happy because he was happy. Rahim’s friends had also canceled the game because of Corona and left me to Rahim, and they were waiting for summer to play.