Floral Lament

The shopkeeper approached Hakim with an enthusiastic greeting, "How can I help you, my friend?"

Hakim looked disinterested in the flowers, but he said, "I might like to buy flowers for a woman."

"You've come to the right place, my friend. I have flowers for all occasions. Is it her birthday? I have the finest birthday flowers that you've ever seen."

Hakim studied the flowers. He thought to himself, How can I make it up to her? Which of these flowers can express the sentiment that I'm sorry for my actions? Hakim tried to avoid eye-contact with the shopkeeper, "Could you show me a bouquet that will earn the trust back from a woman?"

"You've done a bad thing," the shopkeeper took on a solemn tone. "I have just the thing for you, over here."

They walked to the opposite side of the flower cart and the shopkeeper picked a luscious bouquet of roses, orchids, lilies, and iris flowers. They looked and smelled very beautiful and expensive to Hakim. In his heart he knew his wife was worth this price, but the cost would probably mean that he'd have to go without a new pair of warm shoes during the next winter. He grimaced at this realization, but brought out his wallet. "I can give you 1,000 Dinar."

"You must not have done anything that bad if that's what you're going to spend on this woman." He pulled a single rose from the bouquet, "I can sell you this one flower for 1,000. The whole bouquet is 30,000," quoted the shopkeeper.

Hakim shook his head. It was his most prized negotiating technique. He looked as if he had just taken a blow to his stomach, and this gave him some sympathy during the barter. "Maybe 2,000 Dinar, then?"

"I will I need to make some profit on these flowers and this particular bouquet is the most beautiful that I have. I could give them to you for 28,000 Dinar."

Hakim had always been a good negotiator. He'd be penniless if he couldn't get deals in the market because he was a wage-earner and not an owner. He looked the shopkeeper in his eyes for the first time, "5,000 Dinar is the most I can possibly agree to pay you. For this exchange, you'll gain the good feeling of helping a good man. Can we do this deal?"

"You must not really want these flowers." He picked up a much less desirable bouquet and showed it to Hakim. "For 5,000 Dinar you can walk away with this bunch of weeds. You'll have to do better if you want the best bouquet."

Hakim grinned, the shopkeeper had refused his offer without countering. It was time to apply a little pressure. "What it your offer, then?"

"20,000 Dinar is as low as I can possibly go."

I won't be able to eat meat every week next year, but if he goes down to 12,000 then we can have a deal, Hakim thought. "8,000 is all I can possibly pay."

"Listen, my friend. I don't know why you need to apologize to this woman, but if you can't afford a bouquet for 20,000 then maybe it's not worth trying to apologize."

"It's for my wife, and she's worth it." Hakim hated admitting this during the barter, but he loved her too much to hide his feelings while negotiated business. "But I do not have that much money for you. You need to check to see if you can do it for less."

Said the shopkeeper, "Listen, I like you so I think I can do 15,000 Dinar. I just sold not as nice a bouquet to a stupid tourist for this price, so I can write-off this loss with that gain."

"12,000, or I walk."

This shopkeeper exchanged the bouquet for the money. "Thank you. And I hope it's enough that she'll forgive you."

Hakim smiled, "It will be." But it hurt knowing the cost of hurting his wife and needing to make it up to her by spending his hard earned money to make her forgive him.

Original photograph by Spc. Chase L. Kincaid of the U.S. Army. Displayed on DefenseLink Multimedia for the search dora flowers. The image depicts Iraqis shopping for flowers in a marketplace in the Dora neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 25, 2009.

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