Reader\'s Digest Canada - 04.2020

Cheetos at a sitting. “She’s had that bag

for three months.” They are friends

now, and will remain so, I think. It

makes me happy to come home to

them talking about brains or Trudeau

or whether crunchy or puffy is the best

Cheetos style.

That December, Sara invited Kelly

and me to celebrate Yalda, the winter

solstice. She prepared a spread of

sweets, nuts and pomegranate, served

with a silver spoon, and three kinds of

tea: sour orange blossom, gol gavz-

aban and camomile.

“My father would say I have done it all

wrong. The tea is not fresh enough, the

colour should be dark red, not black,

and so on. He is the master of this.”

Sara’s parents are still living in Iran.

They refuse to suffer the border inter-

rogations and indignities that travel-

ling to North America entails. In May

2017 they had met for a holiday in

Istanbul, Turkey being one of the few

countries to which Iranians can travel

without a visa.

Sara came home with two beauti-

fully wrapped teas, from her mother to

me. One to calm me down, and one

to bring me peace. Apparently these

are different, but I felt I needed both.

When I wrote Sara’s mother to thank

her, I told her what a privilege it was to

have Sara in my home.

Yasaman wrote back that she wished

she’d been in my kitchen to make the

tea for me. “I cried when I read the part

you wrote about Sara. She is my first

daughter and she has made all the

dreams I had for her come true. She

makes an effort to be the best in every

aspect of her life.”

Sara has made me better too, more

aware of the way I take my world—my

home, my dishes, my access to north-

ern lakes—for granted.

If there are actual dangers to taking in

boarders, I haven’t encountered them.

Instead, the world feels kinder, smaller

and more personal. Yasaman closed

her letter by inviting me to visit Iran. I

hope to take her up on the invitation,

and any more that might come by way

of my boarders.

© 2018, BY CATHRIN BRADBURY. FROM “AMID THE HOUS-

MINOGCKERY,” ( CRISIS, I TOTHE STAROK IN BO, OCTOARDERS. NBER 3, 2018). THEXT CAME THESTAR.COE PITILESS M.

Dental Dread

Invention idea: A dentist drill that sounds like a lovely,

melodious harp.

@RAINNWILSON

Going to the dentist is a great way to remind

yourself what a coward you are.

@JIMGAFFIGAN

reader’s digest

62 april 2020