Week 5 Story: The Tale of a Sorority Girl

Kay walked through the front door of her sorority house and into the living room to find one of her roommates sitting on the couch reading a textbook.

“It’s ten o’clock don’t you usually do that in bed?” Kay asked.

“Yeah but Trish is getting ready to go out…” Melanie trailed off as she gave her roomie a look that had been passed between the two of them many times before.

“To go see Chad?” Kay asked even though she already knew the answer. Melanie just nodded in response while rolling her eyes, so Kay plopped down onto the other couch in the room. The two of them had been finding themselves in this position more and more over the course of the semester. They were waiting to intercept their third roommate, Trish, and stop her from going out. They didn’t mind that Trish went out to parties, and they would even be going with her, if it wasn’t for Chad.

Chad was Trish’s latest hook up and he was by far the worst. Every time Trish went out and saw him, the next morning she would stumble back into their room swearing she was never going to see him again and made her two best friends promise they would stop her. The first time Kay and Melanie tried to stop her, they failed miserably. Of course, they would be the first to admit they messed up by simply telling Trish not to go see Chad because Trish does what she wants, especially when she’s told no.

The two quickly learned that to get Trish to stop seeing Chad they needed to make her think it was her own idea. They did this by telling her a story that either took so long that it was too late to go out by the time they finished it, or convinced her to go to a different frat party.

After about fifteen minutes of waiting, Kay and Melanie heard Trish laughing with a group of girls coming down the stairs. They didn’t even need to discuss what they were going to say because the same series of events happened every time Trish was going to see Chad. She began by telling Kay and Melanie she was going out and that they shouldn’t wait up for her with a wink. One of them would ask if it was to see Chad and Trish would act all coy and then reveal some problem she was worried about with him. The girls would assure her everything would be fine and not at all like insert person they all know who has a story that is relevant to your situation. Then she would demand to know the nature of this story and they would gladly tell it to her.

“I’m going out tonight ladies! Don’t wait up for me!” Trish called from the living room entrance, giving her roommates her trademark wink at the end.

“You going to see Chaaaaaad?” Kay asked.

“Maybe… I’ll see if I can fit him into my busy schedule.” There was the coy response, which would be followed up with an issue, “He’s been really distant lately. He hasn’t been snapping me back right away and he almost let our streak die.”

“I’m sure everything will be fine and you’ll smooth things over.” Melanie chimed in, “Just don’t be like Courtney and Derek and you’ll be good.”

“Courtney and Derek?! What happened with Courtney and Derek?! Tell. Me. Everything.” Trish exclaimed as she ran over and sat on the ground in front of them. Her shrieks about the senior power couple of their sorority drew the girls who were waiting in the front hall in to the living room too.

“Okay well…”  Kay began.

The two told the group the story of Courtney and Derek and once they were finished it caused someone else in the group to tell a story and then someone else and so on. They did this until Kay looked at her phone to check the time.

“Oh my gosh, Trish! We’ve been talking forever! You need to go see Chad!”

Trish would get up, intending to go to him, but then the first of the walk of shame girls would come through the front door and the sun would peak through the windows, and her visit would be put off.

(Personal Photo of my roommates and I,

who may or may not have inspired this story, from April 2016)

Author’s Note: This story was a retelling of Tales of a Parrot, where a parrot tells his mistress a story every night to keep her from visiting her lover. As I mentioned in my reading notes, this immediately reminded me of a friend I have who we would have to convince not to go out and see this guy because he was just not good for her. It’s also super common when living in a sorority house to be getting a snack or just needing to borrow a pencil from someone and then being drawn into a 2-hour long discussion about the difference between snappy casual and business casual. I tried to use some of the phrases that were in every chapter of this story and made you want to scream every time you saw them (if you read this story this week you know what I mean) because you felt like you were living in some kind of groundhog’s day situation.

Bibliography. The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi, links to the reading here

Reading Notes: Tales of a Parrot, Part B

Okay so by this point I've discovered that nothing makes sense! All the stories directly contradict each other, the parrot is reverse psychology-ing to the point where any reasonable person would have figured out what he is doing, and Khojisteh should just go see the lover and accept the shame of it because she is too stupid to figure out she is being tricked by a BIRD!

A King Falls in Love and the End of Khojisteh

I read this entire convoluted, mess of a story for that ending?! It didn't even make sense! Either I missed something or there are just too many plot holes for anyone to follow this story! When did Khojisteh ever meet the suitor so that she could kill him? Did she really kill him or did the parrot make that up? Why did the parrot go through all that trouble of telling a story every night just to have her killed in the end? Why is the parrot such a little sociopath? I have so many questions that were left unanswered because the ending was so rushed! I thought everything was going to tie together nicely in the end but it didn't and I'm so confused! What was the point of the story then? The messages I learned were all about how to be a worse person and screw people over.......... omigosh I get it. The bird was doing that all along. He was setting her up the entire time to be killed. He was telling her all of these terrible stories about getting away with bad deeds and in the other stories goodness rarely prevailed. They would do terrible things, confess, and still get killed or shamed or something equally terrible. I figured it out! Omigosh!

(Gif from Giphy)

Bibliography. The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi, links to the reading here

Reading Notes: Tales of a Parrot, Part A

As soon as I read the description for this book, I knew I had found my reading for the week! The parrot telling a story a night to prevent his mistress from visiting her lover immediately sparked the idea of setting this story in a sorority house and having girls tell different stories to prevent someone from going out. My friends and I used to do this all the time for one of our friends who always wanted to go out, meet the same guy, and go home with him, even though she would tell us every time to never let her do that again. We realized we couldn't tell her no because she would just do it anyways, so we used some great reverse psychology (like the parrot) and would basically make her think that it was her idea in the first place not to go out. Worked every time.

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Miemun and Khojisteh/ Khojisteh and the Parrot

I combined the first two stories in my notes because to me they both acted as the prologue and set the scene for how everything was going to go down. I'm so glad this story had a sort of prologue to explain everything. I thought that Khojisteh was single and the parrot just really cared about her well-being or thought her lover was bad for her. It's nice to know that she has a husband and now wants to have an affair because he is gone and that the parrot is telling her stories to protect his own skin because she killed the bird that protested to her leaving the house. I don't know how I feel about Khojisteh yet. If she and her husband love each other so much that she sunk into a depression when he left, then why is she trying to run into the arms of the first man she's seen since her husband left? Does she love her husband or does she just not like being lonely? These are the real questions! 

The Old Lion and the Cat

The entire time I was reading these stories I was wondering if Khojisteh really wanted to go to her lover. She keeps asking the parrot for permission (which is weird in it's own right) and the bird keeps saying "yes but I hope you lover isn't like this guy" and then she wants to know the story which takes all night to tell! Are these just the longest stories ever or the shortest nights?! Anyways, I liked this story because the parrot brings up the fact that Khojiteh keeps listening to her stories and not going. Again this makes me wonder if she is just lonely because now that the parrot is telling her stories and keeping her company she doesn't seem to mind missing her suitor every night. Also ,is this guy just the most understanding guy ever or the worst guy ever?! Khojisteh is standing him up every night and he hasn't sent a note asking what's up! 

Bibliography. The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi, links to the reading here