Bedtime Story (2)

In another story, my baba bozorg paints flowers. He is little. His name Amir means shah, but the shah is Shah, so Shah makes all the little amirs and all the big amirs change their names. My baba bozorg becomes Farhad on 
government paper. On storybook paper, Farhad dies out of love for Shirin. In my family, Shirin dies out of my mama bozorg’s womb. Like petals, Mama Bozorg’s blood coagulates. Only the shah and his papers call my baba bozorg Farhad. Nobody else writes down Shirin’s name. Baba Bozorg paints flowers until his wife is more sugar than blood. In my childhood home, he writes amir under each petal he makes. We hang his name on the walls. The stories say when their next child emerged, all wet and wail, they left her nameless for months. A mehmooni guest picked my mama’s name out of a hat.