Marjane's Frame 3: The Soup

Frame 3: The Soup It was November 1984, Marjane now stayed in Austria and beginning her new life. Before she came, Marjane had the idea of leaving a religious country, Iran in the Middle East, to be free. She imagined herself to be loved and accepted by her mother’s best friend, Zozo as if she was her own daughter. She had a family of her own, Shirin, their daughter and Houshang, her husband. But found out that Zozo did not want her after all, she often complained that her home was too small for all of them. So she decided to find a new home for Marjane, Zozo left her at a boarding house run by nuns. Marjane had only been in Vienna for eleven days. When she arrived at the airport, Zozo and her daughter, Shirin. She had known Shirin
from her childhood. On their way home, Marjane mentioned the veil to Shirin and she looked very confused. So she changed the subject about trivial things that Shirin had with her, Marjane got offended because while people are dying in her country, Shirin was worried about unimportant things so she accused Shirin as a traitor. Marjane had only been with this family for ten days and there were daily fights. One day it was Zozo and Houshang wedding anniversary day; Zozo yelled at him for buy her flowers for that day. She thought by buying her flowers, he is throwing away money. It was different from where they had lived before and now. In Tehran, Zozo was her husband secretary and Houshang was a CEO in Iran, they were the big deal. But in Vienna, Zozo became a hairdresser and Houshang was nothing. He had lost everything because he had a gambling issue and hung out with the wrong crowd. They would bicker all night and day about money, Marjane was ashamed because her parents never did this. When Marjane was living with them, Zozo cut off her long hair. After the tenth day living there, Zozo told Marjane that she had spoken to her mother and they had decided to place her in a boarding house near Rathaus that was ran by nuns. She told her to pack her bags and they will leave right away. When she finished packing her belongings, Marjane wanted to say her goodbyes to everyone before she leaves. The only person that she was really going to miss was Houshang, what she saw in him as a protector and what he saw in her as an ally. Zozo dropped her dropped off, one of the sisters immediately told her the rules and showed her around the house.
Her room was small and she shared it with a girl name Lucia, she didn’t know what she looks like but only knew her name. The only place that she was allowed to go shopping is at Aldi, which is a supermarket, Sister also told Marjane the directions to get there. Marjane went to her bedroom and thought about life, how she is now a real independent woman and had to do her own things without depending on anyone else doing it for her. So she heading straight to the supermarket to buy groceries like one. It has been four years since she had seen a well stock store. Marjane went to the scented detergents aisle, in Iran, they didn’t sell these in the country anymore. So she decided to fill her cart will all kinds and bought two boxes of pasta, then she headed back to the house. While lying in bed, Lucia had finally shown up. They both sat down and got to know each other for a bit, shared some snacks after that, Lucia taught Marjane some German. Lucia asked Marjane if she wants to go to the TV room in German, so that’s what they did. Everyone was watching a movie but Marjane didn’t understand anything, so she left. Before leaving, she whispers to Lucia that she was leaving but she was into the movie that Lucia didn’t hear
her.