Once the meal was properly organized, Jelveh offered to take Katie to her room. The men went outside to talk and catch up. They were thrilled to have Paul home. What Katie had seen so far was no different than any family scene in the States.

Shirin and Soudabeh led Katie upstairs, to a room on the second floor, near their own. It was a small cubicle with a narrow bed and a dresser for her things, and a small window high up on the wall that she couldn’t see out of, but it shed sunlight into the room. The room was sparsely decorated, and Katie saw as she walked by them that the two girls had similar rooms. Shirin commented that the boys had larger bedrooms, on the upper floor, and Soudabeh said that their parents’ bedroom was at the opposite side of the house, and their grandfather had a suite of rooms downstairs. He had come to live with them after Paul had left, and they said he had been sick.

Katie put her bag down in her room and left her passport in her backpack, with her credit card and traveler’s checks. She had the money in rials that she had exchanged in her pocket, with some dollars. She had been told not to bring her computer to Iran, when she got her visa. They had told her that there were Internet cafés everywhere where she could get Internet access. And she had a BlackBerry in her pocket.

As soon as she had put her things down, the girls beckoned her back down the stairs to the kitchen, where Jelveh and the girls put the lavish meal on platters, and the three servants helped take the food to the dining room.

The family was not fabulously rich, but it was obvious that this was a wealthy household. Jelveh was wearing a sober-looking black dress and a very nice diamond watch, and Kate noticed that the two girls were wearing gold bracelets, and the men in the family wore large gold watches, even Paul’s cousins.

And just as Jelveh was preparing the meal, Katie heard the adhan for the first time. It was the midday call to prayer, announced on loudspeakers all over the city, as the muezzin made the same haunting sound that they heard five times a day. And everything instantly stopped. There was no sound in the household as each member of the family listened to the seven verses in the call to prayer. Katie was mesmerized by the sound. Paul had told her she would hear it at dawn, midday, midafternoon, just after sunset, and for the last time two hours after sunset. It was the reminder to the faithful to stop and pray five times a day.

When the muezzin’s call ended, the house sprang to life again.

The food that Jelveh had prepared with the girls’ help was delicately scented with saffron, fruit, and cinnamon blended in. There were chicken and lamb and fish, and it all smelled delicious to Katie as the men came in from outside and Katie realized how hungry she was after the long trip, although she had eaten two meals on each flight. She had no idea what time it was in New York, but she felt as though it was in another world, on another planet, a million miles from here. She had only been in Tehran for two hours, but Paul’s family was making her feel completely at home.

Everyone took their places at the table, and Katie sat down between Shirin and Soudabeh, while the three serving girls passed the platters and the whole family chattered excitedly at once. Paul’s homecoming was a major celebration for them all. The men were speaking animatedly to each other in Farsi and laughed a lot. Paul seemed completely at ease with them, as though he had never left, and Shirin and Soudabeh were busy asking Katie questions about fashions in New York, just like girls their age anywhere in the world. And every now and then Paul smiled at Kate reassuringly, and she realized it was going to be a long two weeks without physical contact, or being affectionate with each other. But it was a small price to pay in exchange for the experience of coming to Tehran. She was glad that she had come.

“Are you all right?” Paul asked her across the table at one point, and she smiled at him and answered, “Fine.” He knew this was very different for her, especially not speaking the language, and he wanted her to feel at home. His aunt, uncle, and cousins had done a great job so far of welcoming her. And Katie loved the food as well. She helped herself from several platters and enjoyed the pungent food and delicate spices.

The boys talked to her about going to visit the university the next day, and Katie said she wanted to see it and the bazaar most of all. They promised to show her all the sights while she was there. And Katie couldn’t help thinking that they were making every effort to make her feel at ease with them. Paul’s grandfather spoke up then in Farsi, with a puzzled look. He asked Paul a question, to which Paul said no.

“What did he ask you?” Katie asked with interest. She had the feeling that his grandfather had asked about her, since he had glanced at her several times.

“He asked if you were my girlfriend,” Paul said quietly. “I said no.” It was the agreement Paul and Katie had made before they came, and Katie nodded. It was best if they didn’t know. If they did, it would only complicate things for Paul.

After lunch Jelveh suggested that all three girls go upstairs and rest. Katie followed them to the floor above, and both of Paul’s girl cousins joined her in her room, where she unpacked her bags, and they admired her clothes. Shirin held all of it up in front of her and would have loved to try it on, but didn’t dare ask, as Katie put her belongings in the chest and closet and rapidly unpacked.

She then decided to put her money and BlackBerry away-it seemed silly to carry them in the house. She reached in to tuck them in the pocket of her backpack, with her passport, but as soon as she unzipped the pocket, she saw that her credit card, traveler’s checks, and passport were gone. The pocket was empty. Someone had removed them during lunch, since she had checked her backpack just before. Katie felt a wave of panic rush over her. It was a strange feeling being without them. She wondered if maybe Paul or one of his cousins was playing a trick on her and hoped that was the case.

But when Paul showed up a few minutes later and she mentioned it to him in an undervoice with a look of concern, he looked surprised too. He went to tell his uncle about it immediately. All he said in response was that Kate did not need any of it during her stay with them, and he thought it was safer to keep them locked up. They didn’t intend to let her pay for anything so she didn’t need her credit card or traveler’s checks, and he pointed out that Katie didn’t need her passport until she left. Paul had no idea who had gone through the backpack and didn’t want to ask. His uncle was the authority here, and when he explained it to Katie a short time later, she still looked upset. Paul had gone to check his own room by then and found that both of his passports and money were gone too. Kate was grateful that she’d had her money and phone on her at lunch when Paul told her what his uncle had said about her passport and credit card being safer if locked up.

“Can you ask him to give them back? I’d feel better hanging on to them myself,” Kate asked Paul as they conferred about it in whispers in the upstairs hall. “I’m really not comfortable without my passport.” And she was glad she had made Xerox copies of his and her own, which were still in the bottom of the backpack.

“Neither am I,” he assured her. It was the first hiccup of the trip. “I’ll talk to my uncle about it again.” But when he did, his uncle told him that neither of them needed to have their passports. Paul didn’t want to argue with him and be disrespectful, and his uncle was very firm about keeping them in his possession for safekeeping. Kate looked like she was going to cry when Paul told her.

“That really makes me nervous,” she said, wishing she could hug him then. She needed the reassurance. Losing control of her passport was frightening for her. It made Kate feel completely helpless. She realized then that she hadn’t texted Annie when they arrived, and she wasn’t sure if it would work here. She decided to try, and sent a short text that said only, “Safely arrived. I love you,” and then she decided to turn it off to save her battery, in case they wouldn’t let her have that either.

She was sure they meant well in keeping her passport, but it still made her uncomfortable to have lost possession of it. She put the BlackBerry in a sock and hid it far under her mattress, where she knew it was safe. It was her only means of communication with the outside world, and she didn’t want it running down, or taken. She didn’t like being without her passport at all, nor the traveler’s checks and credit card, all of which were tangible signs of her freedom and independence. It was a shock to have them taken away, however benevolent their motives. It made her feel like a child instead of an adult. And Paul was unhappy as well. His uncle had pointed out to him that only his Iranian passport mattered here, and his American one was useless to him in Tehran anyway. But Paul didn’t want to lose possession of his passports, and Katie only had one. But there was nothing they could do about it. Paul’s uncle was the head of the family, and he made the decisions for all of them, even for Katie while she stayed with them.

After that, Paul and his male cousins went out to drive around old familiar places. The women stayed home, and Shirin and Soudabeh played cards with Kate. She would have liked to go out with Paul and the boys too, and see more of the city, but she didn’t want to be rude to the girls, who were so excited to have her there.

The boys came back three hours later in high spirits. Paul said he had seen his old school and visited one of his boyhood friends. He had been surprised to discover that his friend was the man betrothed to Soudabeh and would be marrying her that summer. It felt strange to think of his own friends getting married, but he knew that people got married younger here. As much as he loved Katie, he didn’t feel ready for that himself. He loved being back in Tehran, seeing family and friends and all the familiar sights and places, and enjoying the sounds and smells that he had missed for so long.