ON a quiet street in the city of Tehran lived a little girl called Shiraz Shiraz’s mother had died when Shiraz was born and soon afterwards her father married again His new wife had a daughter of her own the same age as Shiraz Her name was Monir and the two girls grew up like sisters At first all went well The family lived happily together and Shiraz’s stepmother treated her kindly Then Shiraz’s father died Everything changed overnight Without your father
bringing home money every week we cannot afford a maid said the stepmother We need to save money Shiraz from now on I’d like you to do the housework Shiraz no longer had time to see her friends or play outside Instead she spent her days cooking and cleaning washing and ironing She missed her father terribly but she knew she could not bring him back
This story starts one autumn day when Shiraz had finished all her chores she had cleaned the house and washed and ironed the clothes Whenever she had a little time to herself Shiraz liked to go and sit on the balcony at the top of the house On her knees lay a ball of wool she had found among the few things that her mother had left her She settled down to knit herself a winter sweater when all of a sudden a gust of wind blew the ball of wool off her lap and tossed it far beyond the balcony
