"I'm half Persian," Nina told me as I admiringly
touched the long curly dark locks escaping from the beret she wore.
Dressed more for Hollywood Blvd where both the famous and
infamous strut their stuff, Nina was alone when I met her at Uncle Robert's --
where flip flops are more de rigueur than haute couture.
I turned my back on my
companions who were singing to a ukulele player and drinking beer and honey
whiskey as I focused intently on the tantalizing creature before me.
I asked her to speak "how are you" in Farsi, which she did at the same fast speed and flawless way she spoke English, although
of course, she could have been "speaking in tongues" for all I knew.
Her uncontrolled head
movements first attracted me to 20-year old Nina She jerked her head a lot from
side to side, even while talking non-stop.
At first I thought that she was on some kind of drug. Who after
all can think and talk at that incredible speed. But my suspicions waned each
time Nina lucidly answered my questions. And as I probed further, intrigued by
this creature, Nina was consistent in what she told me about herself.
I gathered that she came from a respectable family and was
biding her time until she can resume her schooling as a college sophomore.
Nina's attention wandered even while she continued talking
about almost any topic under the sun. But my efforts to get her to focus on my
questions and comments ultimately paid off. I found her to be very
extraordinarily bright and profound. I wondered about her IQ level.
Later I learned from a psychologist-friend, who was with me,
that there was no doubt, Nina suffers from ADHD (attention-deficit hyper
activity disorder).
I wondered who, if any, was looking out for young lovely Nina and others like her -- alone, psychologically challenged, and seemingly
lost in the backwaters of Hawaii
Photo of Nina published with permission
-- Ariel Murphy
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