‘YOU HAVE A visitor.’
The guard gave Farrin a gentle nudge with her foot to wake her up.
‘A visitor?’
‘On your feet. Unless you don’t want to see anyone.’
Farrin stood up. ‘Who is visiting me? Is it one of my parents? Which one?’ Strangely, she hoped the visitor was her mother. Her father had been kinder to her all her life, but her mother was fierce. If anyone could get her out, it would be her mother.
Naturally there was no answer.
The guard took her to a room with a few tables and chairs. Farrin looked around for her parents. They were not there.
The only person in the room was a woman in a black chador. Her back was to the door. Then she turned around.
It was Principal Kobra.
Farrin blinked several times, trying to understand what she saw.
Farrin sat down uneasily across from her principal. It seemed as if years had passed since she was a student.
‘How are you?’ Principal Kobra asked.
‘I can’t believe you’re here.’
‘Why can’t you believe it?’ Principal Kobra asked. ‘I’ll tell you why. Because you have a closed mind. You put people into a certain category and then you never bother to investigate whether or not you have made a mistake.’
Farrin was confused. Had her principal come all this way just to lecture her? Did it mean that much to her to make Farrin feel worse?
‘How are you?’ the principal asked again.
‘I’m scared.’
‘I suppose you are.’
Principal Kobra seemed uncomfortable. You should be, Farrin thought. You are old and you are going to walk out of here and live your life. I am young and I will die horribly – all because of that government you are so fond of. But she said none of that. There seemed no point to arguing anymore.
‘Is there any news of my parents?’ she asked instead, not really expecting there would be.
‘Your parents have left the country,’ Principal Kobra said. ‘They bribed the guards and left without answering for their crimes.’
‘They left me behind?’
‘It would seem so.’
‘What about – what about Sadira?’
‘Sadira is also here.’
‘Will you be able to see her?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Principal Kobra. She seemed bewildered. ‘It was harder than I thought it would be to get permission to see you. Things here seem … chaotic.’
Farrin had no sympathy for the woman. ‘What did you expect it to be like?’
Principal Kobra shook her head. ‘There is that closed mind again. You see me as cold and severe, and that’s all you see. Unfortunately, you are not the first student I have visited here.’
‘Do you want me to thank you? Do you know that they are going to kill us?’
Principal Kobra slowly nodded.
‘Can you help us?’ Farrin asked. ‘Can you keep them from hanging us?’
Principal Kobra looked into Farrin’s eyes. ‘I have never lied to a student and I will not lie to you now. You must accept your fate. I came to tell you that you have a good mind and a good heart. In spite of everything, I am glad you were a student at my school. I came to tell you this, and to give you what comfort I could.’
Principal Kobra lifted a bag and placed it on the table.
‘I brought you a blanket,’ she said, opening the bag. ‘The guards said I could give it to you. I know those cells are cold.’
Farrin was about to thank her and reach for the blanket when she suddenly had a thought. She looked under the table. There was no other bag.
Principal Kobra had brought only one blanket.
‘Give it to Sadira,’ Farrin said.
‘Farrin, I don’t know if I will be able to see Sadira. It was hard enough to see you.’
‘I can’t be warm if I think she’s cold!’ Farrin exclaimed, her eyes filling with tears. ‘How could you think I would be warm if Sadira is cold?’
‘Farrin – ’
‘I love her,’ Farrin sobbed. ‘You don’t understand! We just want to be together. We don’t want to die!’
She put her head on her arms and wept.
Principal Kobra put a hand on Farrin’s head.
‘I am one hundred percent behind the revolution,’ she said. ‘I was there at the beginning of it and I will defend it all my life. But in my revolution, we do not execute children. I am sorry that this is happening to you.’
Farrin raised her head and wiped her tears on her sleeves. She pushed the blanket across the table.
‘While you are defending the revolution,’ she said, ‘take this blanket to Sadira.’
And then the guard stepped forward. Their time was up.
Principal Kobra embraced Farrin.
Farrin clung to the woman. It didn’t matter that she was still angry with her old principal. Farrin needed to be hugged, and there was no one else.
‘I will get the blanket to Sadira,’ the principal said. ‘I will tell her that it is from you, and that you want her to be warm.’
‘Thank you,’ whispered Farrin.
Principal Kobra tightened her embrace. ‘Rest easy, my child. When the hard part comes, think of the poems that have given you the greatest joy. Think of happy times and of those you love. Carry those good thoughts with you as you leave this world.’
‘If you can get word to my parents, will you tell them that I’m sorry?’
Principal Kobra looked into Farrin’s eyes. ‘Are you?’
Farrin thought of Sadira and how precious their time had been. ‘No,’ she admitted.
‘That’s my good student,’ Principal Kobra whispered to her. ‘Truth is always the most important thing, even when it leads us into dark places.’
The guard pulled Farrin away and took her back to her cell.
She did not know how much time she had left. She wrapped her arms around herself and thought about Sadira – wrapped in the blanket and feeling warm and loved.
For two more days she kept the vision in her head as she shivered in her cell.
On the third day, a guard came for her.
It was time to die.