The Butterfly’s
Cage
By
Shahnaz Kahri
Smashwords Edition Copyright © 2011 by Shahnaz Kahri
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Memoirs.
ISBN 978-1-908223-14-2
Published in Great Britain by Memoirs
Top Floor, 25 Market Place, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 2NX
Tel: 01285 640485, Fax: 01285 640487
Email: info@memoirsbooks.co.uk,
Web: http://www.memoirsbooks.co.uk
Original Copyright © Shahnaz Kahri, June 2011
First published in England, June 2011
Book jacket design Ray Lipscombe
Contents
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my niece Sami for helping me with this book, my younger brother Bilal, who was there for my daughter when I could not be, and Chris and Tony at Memoirs Books for their help in editing and publishing my story.
With love to my daughter, and may God always be with her.
Shahnaz
June 2011
CHAPTER 1
It was a beautiful day and the flowers in the garden were looking astonishing. I was in my dream world as usual, gazing out of the window, when I heard my mother’s voice.
“Shahnaz!” she called. “What are you doing up there?” “Nothing, Mum” I shouted. “I’m coming.”
I ran down the stairs and into the kitchen, where my two sisters were chatting and doing the cooking. I knew what my mother wanted me for. I stood at the sink and started to wash the dishes.
“You’d better wash them properly,” yelled my older sister Sheana. I carried on washing and they carried on talking. I wasn’t included in the conversation. I just went back to my dreaming as I washed up.
My sisters and mother were always talked about their weddings. Sheana and Rehanna were in their teens and I was 12, so they were not so much older than me. But their lives were changing. Soon they would be getting married back home in Pakistan. They would go shopping with my mother, then run up to their rooms and look through all the things they had bought.