Three Summers
In the late 1970's, Iran was modern and advanced. While other countries whose national resource was oil are setting embargos and collapsing the economy and the monarchy has a strained relationship with the theocracy with nationalism versus religious supremacy interfering with the calendar used, much of what the Western world would consider civil liberties remain very much intact. Women are not compelled to cover their hair, men are allowed to shave their facial hair and wear Westernized suits and neckties, many grade schools and high schools were co-educational and foreign language schools were allowed
Many forms of entertainment such as music, parties with alcohol, being able to play with a deck of cards, casinos and movie houses were allowed to continue. The predominant religion remained Muslim. However, answering a call to prayer five times a day was not mandatory: the particularly pious individuals in the population could do so if they wanted, but were not criminalized and did not carry a stigma for only observing one holy day per week. Middle Eastern folk superstitions and mythologies pre-dating or excluding Islam, were also a larger part of life before the Islamic Cultural Revolution. Teenagers still consulted fortune tellers and psychics for entertainment, children were raised with the story of Gordafarid (warrior princess daughter of Gazhdaham), the stories of Scheherazade and of genies. Clothing was very much westernized, cars were expensive to keep because of gas prices but many middle class families would have at least one. Television shows were not censored so strictly, grocery stores were well-stocked with a wide range of items. Iran was not yet, nor would it become, the desert wasteland envisioned by the rest of the world. However, the war with Iraq just around the corner would greatly deplete the basic resources of many people and the cultural revolution would severely restrain the quality of life.
In early July 1978, 18-year-old Zahra Jahandar is backpacking through Italy, Greece, and Egypt. She has always been a fan of Roman and Greek mythology and has saved up her allowance to take that trip on summer vacation before beginning at the university. In an Egyptian museum group tour, the curator who understands Persian but does not speak it well, shows off a tablet on which is written a love poem that compared the object of the poet's affections to a mythological Phoenix bird. Zahra Jahandar volunteers to read it aloud while the curator translates each line, to the applause of other tourists who do not understand Persian.
On the way out of the museum, Zahra is stopped by a strange man who says that she had read that poem beautifully and wonders when they might meet again. While captivated by the stranger, who she cannot recall as being part of the tour group, Zahra tells him that she is traveling. The stranger admits that he is also traveling alone, that he had been lost and had encountered many dangers—so, he is glad for a friendly face and a beautiful voice. He gives her the clipping of what appears to be a red peacock tail feather's “eye” and cryptically tells her to use it to contact him whenever she wants to have a new beginning.
When Zahra returns home to Abadan, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf, and far south of the Black sea, her father breaks the news to Zahra that while Zahra was away, her mother divorced him and moved back with Zahra's maternal grandparents in the capital city of Tehran. Zahra is as heartbroken as her father is. She goes out drinking and dancing with friends of hers to cheer her up. They urge her to talk about her trip instead. Zahra remembers the handsome stranger who left her a strange way to contact him. Her friends laugh at the novelty of a feather “calling card” and one of them wonders if his contact information was written in some sort of ink that only shows up when the light hits the feather just so—or by heat, like invisible ink.
The next day, as Zahra examines the feather in the noontime sun, it combusts and forms the same stranger that she saw in the museum. Zahra asks if he is a genie and he tells her that he is a phoenix and cannot grant Zahra's wish for the past to be undone such as for her parents to reconcile. However, he hopes to help in keeping the fire alive in her heart—a fire that the emotion of despair will often swallow. Zahra tells him that she already has friends and her father is a loving and kind man… but, she would take the Phoenix out to see a movie.
It's August 1987, and a terrorist attack is staged at the Abadan town cinema—not with bombs, but by simply setting the building on fire and shutting at least 400 people inside. The Phoenix uses his magic to protect Zahra from the fire, as well as teleport Zahra away, but when Zahra begs him to do the same for other people, the Phoenix tells her that there is an equally dark magic force repelling him. The Phoenix gets Zahra home safely to her father, who is as grateful to the Phoenix as he is suspicious. When Zahra introduces the Phoenix to her father as a Phoenix, her father believes her and tells the Phoenix that as long as he is in the form of a handsome teenaged boy, Zahra's father will treat him as a human boy who is dating his daughter. And, apparently, who will be living with them. The Phoenix assures Mr. Jahandar that he, the Phoenix, can disappear and not take up very much room—and that he does not feed on anything but sunlight. Mr. Jahandar considers the Phoenix a herald of good news because he brought Zahra back alive. Zahra's father names him Navid.
When the news reports reach the common people that the Abadan cinema fire was a terrorist attack, Mr. Jahandar is interested in the Phoenix's point of view with this occurrence. The Phoenix tells the Jahandar family that he, the Phoenix, senses very dark forces rising, and—without judgment—he senses a weakness in Mr. Jahandar's heart that might not be able to withstand it.
Later, Zahra asks the Phoenix Navid to take care of her father. She is going to live with her mother in Tehran and attend the university there. As much as Zahra pines after Navid, she resists calling for him in case he leaves her father at a time that her father will have a heart attack. When Zahra tells Mrs. Jahandar about the boyfriend back in Abadan who she misses so much, Mrs. Jahandar consoles Zahra during her loneliness.
That summer, Zahra returns to her father's house to a warm welcome with both Navid and Mr. Jahandar. Mr. Jahandar warns the young couple that as if it becomes forbidden for Zahra to go out in public with her hair uncovered then it might easily become forbidden for a man and a woman to meet in public together if they could not prove that they were related.
Zahra is overly optimistic about the success that women protestors would have over what the government threatens to impose. Navid accompanies Zahra to her room and whisks her away to a spirit world for a while where everything is made out of golden sunshine. Zahra cannot remain there because she isn't a Phoenix, but she is able to glimpse Navid's world and returns for her second year at her university, filled with vigor and inspiration.
In the third summer, Navid has taken Mr. Jahandar to the hospital for cardiac arrest. Meanwhile, Iraqi forces move against Iran in conquest. The town of Abadan is right on the border between Iraq and Iran, and is the first to be attacked. Mr. Jahandar passes away. In desperation, Zahra urges Navid to return to his world and stay safe there. She uses the red peacock feather to banish Navid, and faces the invading troops and bombs.
CHAPTERS:
Chapter one: Zahra Jahandar is an Iranian teenager on summer vacation and backpacking through Greece and Italy, finishing up her trip in Egypt. At an Egyptian museum, she volunteers from the group to read aloud a poem displayed in Persian, her native language—although, an archaic version of it. The poem describes love as a bird made out of fire. After reading the poem, Zahra continues to wander the museum and then encounters a strange man with amber yellow eyes and red hair. They talk for a while and the strange man gives Zahra a feather.
Chapter two: When Zahra returns home to her parents' house in Abadan, Iran, her father tells her the terrible news that her mother divorced him and returned to live with her parents in Tehran. Zahra is surprised. Even though her parents have been constantly disagreeing she had thought that the love was still there. As it turns out, her mother saw no reason to stay with Zahra's father if Zahra would end the summer going to university in Tehran (where Zahra's maternal grandparents live anyway). Zahra's mother would continue to support Zahra's education financially, but not emotionally by staying in Abadan with Zahra's father. Zahra goes out to drink alcohol and dance at nightclubs with her friends, who encourage her to take her mind off her parents' divorce with telling them about how she spent her summer vacation. Zahra remembers the feather that the stranger gave her and wonders how it works.
Chapter three: At the balcony of her father's house the next day, Zahra examines the feather until noon. When the noon sun's rays hit it, it combusts and a strange man appears— the same strange man who complimented Zahra on her poetry reading at the museum in Egypt. He introduces himself as a Phoenix and Zahra invites him on a movie date.
Chapter four: It's the 20th of August, 1978. Zahra and the Phoenix go to the movie theater, which is set on fire by political activists who also bar the doors. The Phoenix uses his power to protect Zahra from the fire and bring them out safely, but he cannot do the same for the others trapped inside because the magic of the Phoenix, which was born of love, cannot contest fire with ill intent.
Chapter five: Zahra and the Phoenix return to the Jahandar residence. Zahra is very much shaken, although her father is less frazzled by both the fact that his daughter escaped death and is apparently dating a being from mythological antiquity. Zahra's father names the Phoenix Navid. Navid foretells Zahra's father's ill health from heartbreak.
Chapter six: Zahra asks the Phoenix Navid to take care of her father. She is going to live with her mother in Tehran and attend university there. In Tehran, Mrs. Jahandar consoles Zahra during her loneliness, saying that following the one you love is the most important thing—despite Zahra informing her mother that the one she loves is not human. Zahra's mother is no stranger to bucking social conventions, as Zahra herself has a stepfather. Zahra determines to be more self-sacrificing that her mother, as much as she loves her mother, and refuses to call on Navid before the school year is over.
Chapter seven: During the summer of 1979, Zahra returns to Abadan. It becomes common knowledge that the cinema fire was an act of terrorism. Zahra meets up with her friends at her father's house, and they complain that the government shut down many of the clubs. Zahra is supportive and optimistic at their protests against mandatory wearing of the headscarf. However, Zahra's father is less optimistic and warns Zahra that she might not be able to be seen with Navid in public anymore in the future if the laws continue as they will. Not because Navid has supernatural amber eyes, inhuman feathery red hair and magic powers, but because Navid is a man who is not related to Zahra. Navid consoles Zahra with a vision of Navid's own world, where Zahra cannot stay, but she can glimpse in a dream. Navid calls it “Heliopolis”, a city in the sun.
Chapter eight: Zahra returns to university full of vigor and inspiration. She is getting along better with her stepfather when she sees him and her mother and continues to live with her grandparents and get praise from her professors. However, before the school year is over, in the spring of 1980, Zahra receives a phone call from her house in Abadan. Navid tells her that her father is in the hospital because he had a heart attack. Zahra contacts her mother, who refuses to return to Abadan with her and discourages Zahra from taking an early leave from her university. Zahra goes against her mother's wishes and returns to Abadan.
Chapter nine: Zahra tearfully reunites with her ill father, who she stays by until Iraqi forces begin to invade Iran, beginning with Abadan, which is on the border of Iran and Iraq. The stress of the bombings proves to be too much for Mr. Jahandarand he passes away. Navid tells Zahra that she should never have returned, which Zahra disagrees with. She ssays it was well worth it to see her loved ones and be there for them one last time—but, she will not allow the Phoenix Navid to suffer the same fate that she will. Despite Navid saying that he loves her and wouldn't leave her to enemy troops, Zahra uses Navid's feather to banish him back to Heliopolis. She awaits the invading army.
CHARACTERS:
Zahra Jahandar
Age: 18 (at the beginning) to 20 (at the end) Height: 5'9” Hair: straight, black Eyes: dark brown
The Phoenix / Navid
Age: ? (appears to be in his early twenties) Height: 6'0” Hair: red and blond (in stripes or streaks) Eyes: amber yellow