FIFTEEN
Lovers in stories crossed the seven seas, climbed mountains and towering walls, and risked their lives merely to win a smile or approving glance from their beloved. So how could you be miserly about money – especially over an amount which you possessed several times over – when it came to buying a gift for the woman you loved? Especially when she needed something like this gramophone more than any other woman in the world.
Thuraya sat all day long at home without work to do, without a husband and without children. All she had was a sick father in the constant care of her mother, and a younger brother who spent all day long in his father’s shop. There wasn’thing for a lonely woman trapped within four walls to do except endure boredom and depression.
The gramophone would be the ma
