He was one of the owners of The Times . Very powerful, influential… and wealthy. Not a bad family to be born into, my boy. You’ve done well.”
Chapter 3
For Ollie, the next several weeks are a tumultuous blur of English elocution sessions, shopping trips to acquire the proper apparel for an English school boy, lessons in etiquette and money counting, evening dinner parties, and tours of London and environs. A series of newspaper articles catapults the story of Anne and Oliver into the public’s consciousness.
In The Times , drawings of mother, son and rescuer accompany a long article under the headline: ENGLISH HAREM GIRL AND SON RESCUED BY MISSIONARY FROM ENSLAVEMENT IN PERSIA . The Manchester Guardian and British Volunteer writes: LONDON PUBLISHING HEIRESS FOUND ALIVE IN PERSIAN HAREM. And The Observer announces to its Sunday readership: ENGLISH SLAVE GIRL BROUGHT HOME FROM PERSIA.
Anne and Oliver are the talk of society.
Except for the parties, at which he and Anne are usually the evening’s curiosity, Ollie finds himself cut off from his mother. She, too, has been caught up in a whirlwind of activities: interviews with newspapermen, endless speaking engagements at churches and libraries, fund-raising events for the Evangelicals. Despite her tightly packed schedule, Anne seems to thrive on the attention.
Gordon has received a handsome advance from a London publishing house, George C. Boothby & Sons, to submit a manuscript detailing his Persian adventures and the rescue of Anne Chadwick. And he has announced plans to marry Anne.
Ollie is defended from the ferocity of public intrusion by his great-grandmother who personally attends to the boy when he is at home. He finds himself basted with her love and basking in her luxurious favor. The hollow space in Ollie’s soul once occupied by his mother has been generously filled by Mrs. Chadwick. At her urging he has begun to call her Mum , an endearment he is fond of because it is so much easier for his Farsi tongue than great-grandmother . In his mouth the word Mum becomes a hymn of praise, a mantra, a plea, a gossamer thread that binds him to this knobby, wrinkled old woman who makes him feel so warm and happy. The word embodies a power, like the word Qa’im , which penetrates vast mysteries and reveals unfolding layers of meaning. Mum! The sound of it makes him feel at home and brings a smile to the parched lips of Mrs. Chadwick.
In Ollie’s evolving notion of spiritual truth, the two deities of God and Allah both demand worship and prayer. Ollie has solved this dilemma by viewing the five daily prayers of Islam as five individual opportunities for prayer. And so at dawn, when the mu’a dhdh in of habit awakens him, he prostrates himself for his well-practiced conversation with Allah. The next three prayers are offered to God in the posture of Christianity, on his knees with hands folded. The evening prayer is once again presented to Allah in the attitude of complete submission.
On one particular damp night, Mrs. Chadwick enters Ollie’s room to find him prostrate on the floor chanting undecipherable words. She gasps, and the intake of air startles Ollie. He arches his back and looks under one arm, seeing Mrs. Chadwick upside down in the doorway. Hurriedly, he chants the rest of his prayer to himself and then rolls over and sits up.
Mrs. Chadwick still has one hand over her mouth in astonishment. “Ollie, what are you doing?”
Ollie is quite sure that Mum will not approve of his praying to Allah, but he cannot bring himself to lie about something so sacred. He decides to tell the truth, even if only part of it. “I was praying,” he says. Not at all untrue.
“Praying? But what words were you uttering? Certainly not English—or Latin.”
“I was praying in Farsi,” he says honestly. “Since I am more fluent in Farsi than English, perhaps my prayer will be better understood in that language.” A valid premise. Who is to say?
Mrs. Chadwick wags
Chapter 3
For Ollie, the next several weeks are a tumultuous blur of English elocution sessions, shopping trips to acquire the proper apparel for an English school boy, lessons in etiquette and money counting, evening dinner parties, and tours of London and environs. A series of newspaper articles catapults the story of Anne and Oliver into the public’s consciousness.
In The Times , drawings of mother, son and rescuer accompany a long article under the headline: ENGLISH HAREM GIRL AND SON RESCUED BY MISSIONARY FROM ENSLAVEMENT IN PERSIA . The Manchester Guardian and British Volunteer writes: LONDON PUBLISHING HEIRESS FOUND ALIVE IN PERSIAN HAREM. And The Observer announces to its Sunday readership: ENGLISH SLAVE GIRL BROUGHT HOME FROM PERSIA.
Anne and Oliver are the talk of society.
Except for the parties, at which he and Anne are usually the evening’s curiosity, Ollie finds himself cut off from his mother. She, too, has been caught up in a whirlwind of activities: interviews with newspapermen, endless speaking engagements at churches and libraries, fund-raising events for the Evangelicals. Despite her tightly packed schedule, Anne seems to thrive on the attention.
Gordon has received a handsome advance from a London publishing house, George C. Boothby & Sons, to submit a manuscript detailing his Persian adventures and the rescue of Anne Chadwick. And he has announced plans to marry Anne.
Ollie is defended from the ferocity of public intrusion by his great-grandmother who personally attends to the boy when he is at home. He finds himself basted with her love and basking in her luxurious favor. The hollow space in Ollie’s soul once occupied by his mother has been generously filled by Mrs. Chadwick. At her urging he has begun to call her Mum , an endearment he is fond of because it is so much easier for his Farsi tongue than great-grandmother . In his mouth the word Mum becomes a hymn of praise, a mantra, a plea, a gossamer thread that binds him to this knobby, wrinkled old woman who makes him feel so warm and happy. The word embodies a power, like the word Qa’im , which penetrates vast mysteries and reveals unfolding layers of meaning. Mum! The sound of it makes him feel at home and brings a smile to the parched lips of Mrs. Chadwick.
In Ollie’s evolving notion of spiritual truth, the two deities of God and Allah both demand worship and prayer. Ollie has solved this dilemma by viewing the five daily prayers of Islam as five individual opportunities for prayer. And so at dawn, when the mu’a dhdh in of habit awakens him, he prostrates himself for his well-practiced conversation with Allah. The next three prayers are offered to God in the posture of Christianity, on his knees with hands folded. The evening prayer is once again presented to Allah in the attitude of complete submission.
On one particular damp night, Mrs. Chadwick enters Ollie’s room to find him prostrate on the floor chanting undecipherable words. She gasps, and the intake of air startles Ollie. He arches his back and looks under one arm, seeing Mrs. Chadwick upside down in the doorway. Hurriedly, he chants the rest of his prayer to himself and then rolls over and sits up.
Mrs. Chadwick still has one hand over her mouth in astonishment. “Ollie, what are you doing?”
Ollie is quite sure that Mum will not approve of his praying to Allah, but he cannot bring himself to lie about something so sacred. He decides to tell the truth, even if only part of it. “I was praying,” he says. Not at all untrue.
“Praying? But what words were you uttering? Certainly not English—or Latin.”
“I was praying in Farsi,” he says honestly. “Since I am more fluent in Farsi than English, perhaps my prayer will be better understood in that language.” A valid premise. Who is to say?
Mrs. Chadwick wags
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