1998

'I thought we shared these,' Aram murmured suddenly, as he caught sight of the two pieces of baklava in the box that sat on the short, wooden table in the back room of his bookstore. It was Samar's first day working there, and Shahin had just walked her to the door on his way to school. Samar had marched into the backroom to greet him with a completely content smile on her face, before setting the box on the table and turning to the pile of books just behind it that awaited her. Aram couldn't help but be taken by surprise when he happened to casually glance at the contents of the box. It seemed to have become tradition over the years that between the two of them, they shared a single piece of whatever she had baked... But right there, in the box, there were two separate pieces of the sweet, nut-filled pastry that he loved so much.

'It was always more difficult to fit a whole piece through the fence,' Samar said softly, glancing back at him in surprise. Her expression softened slightly, as she took in the way Aram's brow furrowed in contemplation. 'But I guess we could share one now before opening, and share the other one later after closing...' Aram looked up in a flash, his eyes crinkling as he met her gaze rather than staring at the box. He was being silly, he knew that. There was no reason they couldn't just each enjoy a whole piece of baklava.

Except for the fact that they had never really done that before... And it just felt odd to change that now.

Perhaps it was simple nostalgia for their youth, Aram wasn't sure.

Either way though, Samar seemed to understand exactly what was going through his mind, without him having really said much at all.

'I'll make some tea,' Aram said quickly, unable to hide the grin suddenly etching its way across his face. Samar shook her head with a hint of amusement as Aram ducked back out of the room and she heard the kettle begin to boil.

She remembered the day they first shared a rice flour cookie through the fence, all too well...

/*/*/*/*

1992

'Aram,' Samar's mother spoke softly from the kitchen, 'would you like some nan-e berenji?' Aram glanced up curiously from the table where he sat with Shahin, unsure really whether to accept or not. It was the first time he had ever been into their house without his parents to guide him in what to do or what to say, and that was only because Samar and Shahin's father Arash, had asked if he would tutor Shahin once a week and help him with his homework. Aram of course, was more than happy to lend a hand... But once he entered the house, saw Samar curled up in the corner of the room with her book trying –and failing- not to appear as though she too, was listening in on the lesson, and he had smelled the intense aroma of fresh baking that swirled through the air from the kitchen and practically filled every inch of remaining space in the house –including up his nostrils- Aram found it difficult to concentrate on the task at hand.

The fresh rice flour cookies that Samar had finished baking just before his arrival looked so good, and Aram wanted one so badly... But he didn't know what to say.

Thankfully, he didn't have to say anything. The look of longing on his face must have been enough, for Nasrin let out a soft smile and knew exactly what the silence meant. She pulled two plates from the cupboard and set a cookie on each one, before placing one in front of him on the table, and the other in front of Shahin.

Shahin of course, wasted no time in practically inhaling his own. He knew how good his sister's cooking was.

In the corner of the room, watching them over her book, Samar grinned happily at the sight of Aram taking his first tiny bite of the cookie, and his eyes going wide in delight before inhaling the rest of it himself.

She listened intently as Aram went on to go over Shahin's homework in detail, pointing out examples in his textbooks and then writing out his own on loose sheets of paper. She was eager for every piece of knowledge she could get, especially everything that could help her understand the few things in the textbooks that she too, struggled to grasp. She was careful to remember to occasionally turn the pages in her book however, as Aram scribbled notes in the corners of Shahin's. They all knew what she was doing –and they didn't mind either, for that matter- but Samar was painfully aware of the fact that she wasn't allowed to go to school like Shahin was, no matter what her parents thought or spoke out to the contrary... And she was determined to try and be as discreet as her parents always were, anytime she saw them breaking the rules. Not to mention, she wasn't supposed to be anywhere near as familiar and comfortable with Aram as she actually was.

From the table, Aram snuck cautious glances away from Shahin's frustration at his math problems, and over to where Samar sat across the room with her book. He watched as occasionally, her attempts to act as though she was reading, ended up with the words on the pages she was turning accidentally catching her eye and drawing her attention away from listening until she suddenly caught herself, and gave a tiny, frustrated shake of her head. It was almost as if, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't quite stop herself from reading her favourite books.

The tiniest ghost of a smile crossed Aram's face as he noticed that quick, frustrated shake of her head once again; he remembered that she had told him through the fence, perhaps a week and a half earlier or so, how she loved to read, but it was only now that he kept catching her eyes fall to the pages that he could really appreciate just how true that was.

/*/*/*/*

'What are you doing?' Samar's curious voice came quietly through the hole in the fence a few hours later, well after Shahin's tutoring had finished and Aram had returned home next door. On the other side, Aram stood there, seemingly studying the lower end of the loose plank with his brow furrowed in determination. He looked up as soon as Samar's voice reached his ears, the expression on his face changing instantly to a soft smile as he caught a glimpse of her dark curls and half her face through that tiny hole in the panel.
'You're here,' he murmured, almost relieved for a second... And then he glanced down shyly for a moment, shifting awkwardly back and forth on his feet. 'Uh, I wasn't sure if you would come, you seemed to be enjoying that book...' He trailed off.

'You left some really detailed notes in Shahin's textbook,' Samar observed, noting that he still hadn't answered her original question.
'I wondered if you would see them...'
'You even left notes for some of the things he doesn't have any problems with.' For a second she held his gaze, allowing a knowing smile to cross her face before Aram's cheeks flushed slightly pink and he stared back down at his feet. Of course she saw the notes he had left for her in his scrawling handwriting, and of course she realised they were for her, rather than for Shahin. As Aram had watched her listening in to the lesson out of the corner of his eyes, he had noticed when her brow furrowed at a small handful of concepts, still thinking them over by the time Shahin was ready to move on to the next. And so, he had written notes in the margins of the book for those concepts, just as he had for the things Shahin had struggled with, so that when Samar inevitably took the book after Shahin was done with it -to learn from it herself- she would see the explanations and could understand too.

But of course, she also wasn't going to embarrass him further by making a fuss and outwardly saying she knew the notes were for her, when he had been trying so hard to be discreet too.

The knowing, grateful smile was enough for that.

'I wanted to leave this for you,' Aram quickly changed the subject back to the original question as he looked up again. He held up his hand for her to see through the fence, a book with a faded blue cover. 'I saw the books on your shelf, so I thought you might like to read this one too... But I wasn't sure where to leave it...' Aram grimaced in annoyance at his dilemma, but Samar's eyes stayed focused in amazed disbelief on the book in his hand. Tucked just inside that faded cover, and poking out the top, were sprigs of leaves with little white flowers.

Jasmine. So that if she saw the book, Samar would know it was for her.

'Would it fit through the gap in the planks if you push the loose one slightly?' She suggested quietly. She almost couldn't believe that he had even thought of her taste in books enough to share one with her, but she definitely couldn't believe how annoyed he seemed at the possibility that he might not be able to. Aram tilted his head, shrugging his shoulder in defeat.
'That's what I was trying to figure out.' He nodded quickly. 'But I don't think it quite fits,' he paused, glaring at the wobbly, lower end of the plank, and willing it to be able to stretch just that tiny bit further so that he could slip the book through, but it was no use. Aram let out a dejected sigh, then finally glanced back at her, tilting his head curiously. 'Do you want me to read it to you instead?' Samar simply beamed.
'Sure,' she said, bobbing her head in total enthusiasm for the idea. And then she too, paused, and stared curiously down at the plate in her own hand –the plate that bore another of those rice flour cookies that she had planned to eat while sitting out in the garden. 'Wait, hang on,' she added quickly. In a flash, she snapped the cookie in two, and held one half up to the hole in the fence between them.

Two years on, the hole that had been just big enough for Aram's eleven year old hand back then, was now just too small to reach through... But it was still big enough for half a cookie.

Plus, it was always nice to share.

'Oh...' Aram tried to shake his head no. 'But I've already had one today and you haven't yet...' He said softly, though still eyeing it with a hint of longing.
'I have a whole batch of them in the kitchen,' Samar chirped matter of factly in response. With a shy grin, Aram conceded, and he reached towards the fence to take the other half of the cookie.
'Ok then.' Aram sat down in the grass, crossing his legs and leaning sideways against the fence, just as Samar did exactly the same on her side. He opened up the book to the first page, taking care not to let those sprigs of jasmine fall out. He was still determined, some way or another he was going to get that book to her but for the moment, as he nibbled on the edge of his half of the cookie, he began to read.

On Samar's side of the fence, she closed her eyes and leaned the side of her head against that loose, wooden plank. She allowed each bite of the cookie to slowly melt in her mouth, savouring it, as Aram's gentle voice filled her ears with the story she had never heard before.

/*/*/*/*

1998

'Hey,' Aram's voice broke Samar's concentration sorting the last few books onto their shelves, now that the store was closed for the day. She glanced over her shoulder back at him, raising a quizzical eyebrow. Aram lifted a book up off the counter –the very book Samar had been eyeing off all day- with a knowing grin quickly crossing his face. 'You should try this one,' he suggested, 'I think you'd enjoy it.' Samar set the last of her pile of books on the shelf in front of her, then darted across the store towards the counter. Aram handed the book to her, smirking in gentle teasing; they had such an acute sense of each other's tastes now. 'There's no jasmine in the store though, unfortunately,' he added softly. Samar gave him a good-natured eyeroll; jasmine sprigs in book covers had over time, become as much of a tradition as sharing her baking, or even the books themselves. Eventually, in that time, Aram had found more and more creative ways to leave his books for her to borrow –with it even becoming a game after a while, for Samar to figure out where he would leave the next one, whether it be through the shorter front fence hidden behind the rosebushes, slipped in the mailbox before her parents checked it, or even odd places around the house while he was there tutoring Shahin. But no matter where Aram left a book, or where Samar found it, there was always jasmine in the cover, just for her.
'At least I have a better excuse for where I got this one, now,' she murmured, turning the book over in her hands and reading the words on the cover. Unlike the idea of no longer sharing her baking, this felt like a much nicer change from having to hide each book Aram lent her, in her room somewhere, and read it under the bed covers so that her parents would never know of their secret communication. She glanced up from the cover, letting out a wry smile as she met Aram's gaze once more; 'but I think you still owe me the jasmine, or how ever will I keep track of what page I'm up to?' Aram simply chuckled as he responded;
'Deal.'

Next up; 'The Wondering', and just a reminder that's the one that includes the violence.