The meaning of happiness

The girl was only sixteen who fell in love with a boy. The boy was tall, had a low voice and always the top student of the class. She was not shy, but did not want to express her love for the boy. She felt lucky keeping this secret in her heart and seeing the boy from a distance. At the time, even a Hello turned the girl on. She who had learned how to make a paper sky, every day wrote one sentence for the boy and folded the paper like a pretty sky and put in a big bottle. Whenever she saw the physique of the boy, said a boy like him would love a girl whose hair is long and eyes big. The girl had very black hair, but short ; and whenever she smiled; her eyes were as thin as a line. At 19, she entered a mediocre university, and the boy was admitted into a prestigious university at the capital with a high rank. One night, while all the girls of the dormitory were writing a letter for their boy friends or talking to them on the phone, she looked at the long-time memorized number of the boy in silence. That night, she felt the real meaning of missing for the first time. The days were passing, and she was spending the colorful days of university regardless. During these four years, she was just thinking how she can be admitted into the university the boy will enter for M.A. Within this period, she never once got haircut. She was 22 that as a top student entered the boy’s college, but the boy graduated that year and got a job in school. The girl’s life went on like the past, and the number of her bottles had become six. She graduated from the university at the age of 25, and found a job where the boy lived. Through the contact by her friends, she could realize the boy has opened a company and set up in big business. A couple of months later, the girl received the boy’s wedding invitation card. In the wedding ceremony, the girl was only staring at the happy and lucky faces of broom and bride and intoxicated without drinking any alcohol. A couple of years elapsed; the girl was no longer young. She married one of her colleagues when she was 27. The night before wedding party, she wrote again on a piece of paper: I’ll marry tomorrow, but my heart is all for you…and folded the paper like a beautiful star. Ten years later, she happened to figure out the boy’s company is approaching serious problems and is being bankrupt. His wife has drifted apart and creditors are pestering him. She got upset and went in search of him. One night, she found the boy drunk at a wine bar. She did not say a lot, just gave him her credit card in which all her savings were stored. The boy held the girl’s hand tightly, but she rejected and said: you are drunk, take care of yourself. She turned to 55, broke up with her husband, and lived alone. During these years, he could save his business by her money. One day he found her and wanted to pay back double amount of his debt along with 20 percent of his company’s stock; but she refused to accept and said: we’re friends, aren’t we? The boy looked at her for along time and then smiled. Several months later, the boy married again. The girl sent him a nice letter of congratulation, but didn’t make his wedding party.  After awhile, she became ill severely; on her final days, she used to make a nice star every day in the hospital. At the last moment, she recognized the boy among her friends and relatives and said: in my room, I‘ve got 36 bottles; could you take care of them for me? The boy’s answer was so, and then she passed away with the smile of relaxation. The 77-year-old-man was resting in his yard that suddenly his grandson handed him a beautiful star and said: what does the writing on it say, grandpa? He got astounded by reading the words on the opened star and asked: where did you find it? He said: I found it in the bottle on your bookshelf. Grandpa, what’s been written on it? What are you crying for? The paper dropped. He read out the words, the meaning of happiness is that there is one in the world loving you with no regard to its consequences

Translated by: Majid Ja'fari.