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Pages 139 - 175 Go to the beginning Chapter 22: (Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) It's January 1989, and Laila is eleven years old. She and her parents watch the last of the Soviet troops leaving Kabul. Laila and Tariq go to the movies. They watch a wedding scene, and he declares he's never getting married. She's hurt by this because she's always wanted to marry him. But she joins in, and soon they're both insisting that they'll never marry. Chapter 23: Three years pass and a series of strokes ruins the health of Tariq's father. One of Laila's girl friends Hasina gets married off. Laila's family follows in the news the disintegration of the former Soviet Union. The latest Communist president of Afghanistan Najibullah surrenders and takes refuge with the UN. The Mujahedeen comes home to take over, and Laila's mother Fariba feels overjoyed and vindicated. For the first time in years, Fariba pulls herself together and takes back control of her household from Laila. She invites all their friends and neighbors over for a celebratory party. She forces a lot of advice on Laila about not running around with Tariq like they're still little kids: with them both teenagers now (Laila is fourteen), it's unseemly and could ruin Laila's reputation. Laila resents this advice because she doesn't feel her uncaring mother has earned the right to tell her what to do. Fariba has her party. Everyone shows up. Laila thinks to herself that she's completely infatuated with Tariq now. Laila's other girl friend Giti is obsessed with a handsome soccer player who meets her secretly at a tea shop; he wants to marry her. Laila walks off with Tariq and they both flirt, each afraid to admit an infatuation with the other. They return to the party to see two of the male guests, a Pashtun and a Tajik, rolling on the ground and fighting. It's a foreshadowing of what is about to happen in Afghanistan as a nation. Soon the leadership council of the Mujahedeen dissolves as all the ethnic groups start pointing fingers at each other. Soon the ethnic groups erupt into battle and Kabul becomes a war zone, plagued with anarchy and snipers and rockets raining down on the population. Chapter 24: The anarchy and fighting grow worse. Hakim pulls Laila out of school and begins teaching her himself. Fariba retreats to the bedroom. Tariq buys a gun for protection. He and Laila sneak off whenever they can to kiss and fondle each other – behavior that they never would have done in less desperate times. Hakim and Fariba fight every night as he tries to persuade her to leave Afghanistan. Then one day, Laila's little friend Giti gets blown up by a rocket, leaving the neighborhood hysterical with grief. Chapter 25: Tariq tells Laila that his father's health can't stand the stress of living in a war zone: he and his family will leave Afghanistan the next day and attempt to cross into Pakistan. Laila is wild with grief. He begs her to come with him, but she can't leave her own father and her father won't leave her mother. Swept up in their emotions, Laila and Tariq have sex. Again, he begs her to marry him and leave Afghanistan with him, but she knows she can't abandon her own family. She makes him leave without saying goodbye. Chapter 26: Seventeen days later, Fariba finally agrees to leave Afghanistan. Laila and her parents rush around packing their stuff. Then a rocket flies out of nowhere and destroys Laila's house. Her parents are killed and she's badly injured. Her neighbors Mariam and Rasheed dig her out of the rubble and take her home with them. End of Part Two. |
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