Friends for many lives

Him and I, we have been friends for a long long time. Many lives actually.

This I always knew but became even more evident to me when we walked together one day along Vali Asr Ave., south of Meydooneh Vanak and reminisced about our past living on 18th St. as a family. We took a trip back to history, back to the days that he took me to FunFar across the street after he came back from work. And now, he showed me a brand new commercial building that sits right where FunFar was. Another "borj" built upon my childhood memories. It's like the movies, I tell you, the whole trip was like a movie.

That day, as we walked down the street together, we joked like two buddies, joked about the crazy traffic of Tehran's streets and the mad driving, and my favorite of all, the lack of proper public bathrooms, which would deter me from moving there permanently ever. (If I were to pick one reason not to ever move there...)

We kept walking as he smoked and spoke on his "mobile" very loudly. He would then stop for a minute or two and catch his breath. I would ask him to buy me Aab Taalebi, just like when I was still a little girl and he would do it happily.

Yet we are friends more than we are a parent-child unit.

What I wonder of course is why he chose to came through as my Dad in this life, or why I came as his daughter? Maybe so that I have a very close and continual example of how life is just a funny game and be reminded by him all the time not to take it so seriously. Being my father, he can be in my face every day reminding me of that...and he does.

Yet, we are friends and will always be so.