The Afghan Queen: A True Story of an American Woman in Afghanistan Read Free Page A

to make plans. This was frightening for Paul. A woman alone in a tribal Muslim country seemed self-destructive; however, Paul knew that Lela was far more adventurous and enterprising than he.
    Lela was a bookkeeper and accountant with a Gypsy temperament. She grew up on the Red Hook waterfront in Brooklyn. She was a Red Hook tough. v Her uncles were union organizers, providing Lela with part-time accounting jobs with that other Family .

    Lela and Afghan friends with kilems and brass (in background)
    Lela carried a switchblade, even during 41 years of marriage. Yet, to those she cared about, and cared about her, Lela was a beautiful, graceful, soft spoken, gentle, kind, and brilliant woman.
    Lela and Paul were constantly talking about Gypsies. From the point of view of Paul’s economic specialty, Economics of Tribe, Clan, Family and Household, Gypsies held a fascination for both of them.
    Paul could not figure out exactly what it was, but he believed Gypsy tribes provided a bridge between ancient and modern households. Gypsy clans were living anthropology, he theorized. Gypsy migration was a survival skill maintained over thousands of years. Perhaps constant migration had become a genetic trait contributing to human survival, or so Paul speculated.
    Lela usually found Paul’s theories entertaining, but she had a more romantic notion of Gypsies.
    They each read everything they could find about Gypsies. They found a book about a twelve year-old Dutch boy, who with his parent’s consent, spent four years traveling with a German Gypsy clan in the 1940s. The boy related Gypsy customs, observing that the clan passed easily through European borders in the Soviet bloc. He believed the Gypsies were couriers to and from border guards throughout Europe.
    The boy noted Gypsies received money from border guards for the packets they delivered. Perhaps their role as underground messengers provided income. The boy wrote down all his observations and experiences in a diary, which was the only condition his parents made before he departed with the Gypsies.
    Lela’s interest in Gypsies ended abruptly on a Saturday night in New York City. She and Paul had gone to a Broadway film premier with a couple of high school friends from Red Hook. After the film, walking with the theatre crowds on Broadway, a woman too well dressed to be a hippie or street person, approached them.
    Lela knew that pickpockets tended to be well dressed and this woman wore a beautiful new tan leather long skirt, matching leather pumps and long open leather jacket. Peeking out of the open jacket, Lela saw a lovely Russian peasant blouse. With her well-developed skills at observation, Lela also noted that the woman had no handbag. A well-dressed woman always carried a handbag; a pickpocket would not.
    When the woman took out a pair of scissors to cut Paul’s back pocket to take his wallet, Lela reacted. Paul was not aware of what was happening until he saw Lela’s high heel on the pickpocket’s neck. With her switchblade, Lela cut off one of the woman’s pigtails, then grabbed the woman’s scissors, pulled her up, jabbed her lightly in the rear end with her own scissor, and shoved her into the gutter. The woman ran away as fast as she could, howling.
    Paul was awestruck as Lela’s friends, Gin and Bob, laughed and patted her on the back. None of the Broadway crowd took any notice as Lela then led them into a café. The Red Hook friends explained that this was nothing compared to the things that happened growing up on the Brooklyn waterfront. Paul’s background growing up in the South was genteel compared with Lela’s early years.
    Thinking about this experience, Paul realized that Lela was better equipped for Afghanistan than he imagined, but were the Afghans ready for her? This was a woman who still insisted on wearing her red satin Red Sharks gang jacket years after high school.
    When they got home that night, Paul had other questions to ask Lela about their