The Little Sugar Beet Vendor & Talkhun

"I very fearfully went closer to him and was just about to go through the door when he grabbed my wrist, threw me into the workshop
courtyard and fell upon me, hitting and kicking. Finally I struggled loose and ran to pick up the weaver's knife from the table.
He had beat on me so much that my body was aching and bruised. I screamed, 'You dirty pimp, now I'll show you who you're
dealing with ... They call me Son of Asgar Aqa the Smuggler ...'"
Tarvardi took a fresh breath and went on again, "Sir, I was about to kill him right then and there. The workers gathered around
and carried me home by force. I was crying in anger and throwing myself on the ground and swearing. Blood poured from the
spot on my face where Haji had hit me ... At last I grew quiet.
"We had a goat. My sister and I had bought it for two hundred rials. We sold it and got through the next month or two on the bit
of money we had saved. Finally, my sister went to work for the woman who bakes bread, and I did whatever work was available
..."
I said, "Tarvardi, why doesn't your sister get married?"
"The son of the bread baking woman is her fiancé," he replied. "My sister and I are preparing a dowry so they can get married."
This summer I visited the same village again. I saw Tarvardi out on the barren hillsides with forty or fifty goats and sheep. I asked
him, "Tarvardi, did your sister's dowry turn out all right?"
He said, "Yes. She got married, too…Now I'm saving money for my own marriage. After all, since my sister moved to her husband's
house, my mother has been without help. She needs someone to give her a hand and talk to her ... But I'm being impolite
with all this chatter ... Forgive me, Sir."
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