Darius the Great Is Not Okay

Babou reemerges, and the family exchanges presents. As Darius is putting away the dress shirt and money he received from his grandparents and uncles, Sohrab tells him he has a present for Darius as well. Embarrassed that he has nothing to give in return, Darius tries to turn the gift down, but Sohrab insists: It turns out to be a soccer jersey with the logo of Iran’s national team. Darius pulls the jersey on, and Sohrab’s mother takes a picture of the two boys.

At sunset, everyone gathers for a feast. Darius, who doesn’t like cucumbers, is disheartened when his uncle Jamsheed says that that’s “not very Persian” (182). Later, while doing dishes with his father, Darius mentions this and complains about Soheil patting his stomach. Darius’s mother then interrupts, telling her husband and son to go relax while she finishes the washing; Stephen protests, and Darius wonders whether he also feels out of place amongst Shirin's family.

Back in the living room, Jamsheed’s children have pushed the furniture aside. At first, Darius and Sohrab stand to the side while the women and girls dance, but eventually everyone gets involved, forming a long chain. The experience is bittersweet for Darius, who reflects that the rest of the family gets to experience this together every year. Later, Darius finds his father playing a card game called Rook with Jamsheed, Soheil, and Babou. Feeling jealous of how well his father fits in, Darius goes outside.

Sohrab follows Darius out into the garden and asks what’s wrong. Darius explains how out of place he feels, and Sohrab tells him about a Farsi saying: “It translates ‘your place was empty.’ We say it when we miss somebody. […] Your place was empty before. But this is your family. You belong here” (190). As Sohrab listens, Darius goes on to talk about his fears that his father is disappointed in him, the bullying he endures at school, and his depression. Darius eventually asks about Sohrab’s own father, and Sohrab reveals that he has been in jail since the 2009 protests; although he hadn’t taken part in the demonstrations, he was swept up by the police on account of his religion.

When Darius and Sohrab go back inside, they overhear Babou and Darius’s father talking; Babou is trying to persuade his son-in-law that things will work out for Darius. Darius is deeply embarrassed that Sohrab overhears his father saying that Sohrab is Darius’s first real friend, but before leaving for the night, Sohrab says that he’s never had a good friend before either.  

Darius wakes up in the middle of the night and goes to the kitchen, where he finds his mother doing dishes; she can’t sleep either. Darius says he’s sorry about Babou, and she says she wishes she had brought him and Laleh to Iran sooner, so that they could have known their grandfather as he was. She reminisces about how once when she was a girl and had gone barefoot to the park, Babou carried her home so she wouldn’t have to walk across the hot pavement. She also apologizes for not teaching Darius Farsi; she’d wanted him to feel fully American, but acknowledges that it’s an obstacle to speaking with Babou.

The next morning, Darius makes Laleh breakfast and sits with her while she watches Iranian soap operas. They're later joined by Mamou, who tries some of the tea Darius brought and praises it. Afterwards, Mamou and Darius’s mother announce that they’re going to visit friends (as is tradition the day after Nowruz), and Darius decides to visit Sohrab.

Sohrab’s mother lets Darius in to their kitchen, where she’s busy cooking and baking. Darius notices some lettuce in the sink, and she asks him to take it to an outside table, saying that it’s Sohrab’s favorite food. Puzzled, Darius takes the lettuce out into a garden overflowing with herbs. Sohrab runs up and hugs Darius, then dashes back to get a jar of sekanjabin (mint syrup) from his mother. After Darius tries dipping a piece of lettuce in the syrup, Sohrab tells him it was made by Babou from mint Sohrab’s father had grown. The boys finish off all the lettuce. Sohrab then changes out of his pajamas before reemerging, eager to show Darius something.

As the boys walk, Sohrab points out where his school is; he says he has a few friends there, but none like Darius. Sohrab then asks why Darius doesn’t have a girlfriend, and Darius struggles to respond. Noticing this, Sohrab reassures him that he doesn’t have a girlfriend either; in fact, boys and girls have very limited interaction with one another in Iran. The boys arrive at a park, which Sohrab explains is his favorite; he picnics at it every year on Sizdeh Bedar (the thirteenth day after Nowruz). This year, Sizdeh Bedar falls on Darius’s birthday, and when Sohrab learns this, he announces that they’ll celebrate that too. He then convinces Darius to climb up a chain-link fence with him so they can clamber up onto the roof of a public bathroom. Once there, Sohrab points out the view, which includes the minarets of Masjid-e-Jameh, a famous mosque.

After sitting in silence for a while, Darius asks Sohrab what Babou was like before he became ill. Sohrab says that Babou helped his family greatly in the immediate aftermath of his father’s arrest. He also tells a story about a time when Babou sought his help setting his desktop image to a photo of Darius: “He talked so much about you. When you came here, I thought I already knew you. I knew we would be friends” (220). The call to prayer interrupts the boy’s conversation. Afterwards, Sohrab says that the sound makes him feel “connected” (221)—a sentiment Darius shares. However, when Sohrab asks Darius whether he believes in God, he admits that he doesn’t. Sohrab asks who he relies on for comfort, and Darius—realizing that Sohrab is thinking about his father—tells him that that’s what friends are for.