Sanam sat on a rooftop in a bed
draped with a white mosquito net, not wanting to go to sleep.
"Tell me just one more
story," she begged her grandmother. "Then I'll
go to sleep. I promise."
"Get under your covers,
then," her grandmother replied.
Sanam got under the covers while
her grandmother sat on the edge of the bed and closed the mosquito net tightly
behind her.
"When I was a young girl
like you," her grandmother recounted, "I loved being with my grandmother,
Naneh-joon, just as much as you love being with me.
"Naneh-joon was a very devout Muslim. She got up to
pray before the sun rose and went to bed after
her midnight prayer. Even in her old age and poor health, she went to the
mosque every day. She gave money to the poor
and was kind to all.
