Chapter Fifteen
Roya’s entire family goes to Tehran for a cousin’s wedding. One day while the family is napping, she slips out leaving a note she is going shopping. She meets Mrs. Payan and her cousin Mrs. Arfa. They get a taxi to the prison. They arrive at the prison and go through 4 checkpoints before making it inside. They are told to wait in the waiting area, a big yard outside, and Mrs. Payan warns Roya that they will search all of them with a metal detector for anything dangerous. They know people smuggle in food, but they’re looking for weapons. She explains they will then be moved into a visiting cabin where the only separation is iron bars. When their name is called they tell Roya she can’t go, her permit has been cancelled. She tells Roya to take a taxi home. Roya doesn't listen and sits in the outdoor waiting area. When they come out, Mrs. Arfa is crying. Mrs. Payan says each time she sees Shireen she has crawled deeper into her own shell. Shireen was surprised to learn Roya had come and asked her mother to tell her she was one sky crazy. She learns that a bail has been set for Shireen, but it is a ridiculous amount, more than the Payans could ever have. Shireen has made her mother promise that she will not borrow money she can not pay back. Roya stops at a convenience store to buy some gum and a magazine and notices a man in a brown suit with a scar on his face watching her. She hurriedly heads home, but does not see him again. Everyone is still asleep when she arrives.
Roya arrives back in Mashad to find three letters from Kyan. The first two are very casual. The third is accompanied by his university scarf saying “some of the boys here give their university scarf to the ones they love.” She writes back saying she loves the scarf and that she has done nothing of note to report.
