Characters  Rasheed  Mariam  Laila  Zalmai  Aziza  Tariq

Chapter 33  Rasheed is conscious with this girl “Laila”.  Rasheed was getting annoyed about the baby & the lack of attention that he was receiving from Laila  That night, Rasheed and the girl started arguing but generally, it ended after a few minutes but that night it continued and it came to the point where Rasheed was shouting.  The next day, Rasheed walked into Mariam’s room with a belt and accused her for teaching the girl to deny Rasheed. The girl walked in and she tries to stop it.  That night, Mariam was not able to sleep so she decided to go downstairs and saw the girl and the baby laying on the floor on top of a quilt. The baby saw Mariam and began to want Mariam and she stayed with the baby till the baby fell asleep.

Chapter 34  Rasheed was curious with the relationship Laila and Tariq had together and she told him that he was like her brother and friend.  Ever since Aziza was born, she began to take money out of Rasheed’s wallet while he was asleep, her mission was to run away the following spring to Peshawar.  Two days later, she found stacks of baby clothes folded neatly outside her bedroom door. That night she slipped into the kitchen where she found Mariam and they began to have a conversation with a cup of chai and no longer they were enemies.

Chapter 35  Laila and Mariam began to be great friends, they did chores together and Aziza becomes fond of Mariam. She became emotional because she felt like she has a connection with Laila and Aziza.  In 1994,chaos started happening in Kabul, people were getting murdered and rape and women would kill themselves out of fear of getting rape and women who got raped by the militia their men would kill their wives or daughters. Civilians were getting killed daily & they began to get young boys involved and forces the boys to join & they would drag them off the streets.  Laila told Mariam a secret and told her about her and Aziza leaving this spring and wants Mariam to come along.

Chapter 36  Mariam and Laila hurried to pack their things after Rasheed left to work. They took a taxi to the bus station and on the way there Laila felt like everywhere she looked she could see Rasheed.  At the Lahore Gate bus station, they saw a row of buses. They looked around to find a man suitable to pose with them as a family member. Laila found a man that was traveling with his wife and son and he agreed to go help them and they were going to pretend to be their cousins. When they were about to board the bus to Peshawar the man whispered into the militia soldier and told him that they weren’t his cousins.  At the police station, Mariam and Laila were interviewed.  The police car arrived at Rasheed’s house, that night he abused Laila and then came downstairs and abused Mariam and he locked Mariam into a toolshed.

Chapter 37  The Taliban are here  The four of them roam the streets, they got to where the crowd was, in front was a man who had a loudspeaker voice and he wore a black turban and beside him where two men hung from ropes tied from the traffic light posts.  All the citizens have to obey the laws that the Taliban have enforced.

Chapter 38  The Taliban are tearing apart the city. They destroy a university and a museum. By now the living conditions in the city are poor.  Laila freaks out and thinks about killing her baby so that it doesn’t have to suffer through this life, but she chickens out and doesn’t go through with it.

Chapter 39  Laila and Mariam go to the hospital  They are refused service because “ they don’t treat women” in a women’s hospital  Treatment takes forever. Doctors tell Laila that if they don’t act soon her baby will die.  Baby had complications, almost lost the baby. Emergency Delivery.

Chapter 40  Laila’s baby boy Zalmai is two years old.  He worships his father. He can be a rebel child.  Rasheed buys a t.v. for Zalmai and a VCR. The women wonder where he got the money from.  Televisions are banned by the Taliban and they eventually end up burying it in the backyard.

Chapter 41  Drought  Big store fire  Family had to sell everything.  Rasheed gets really violent  Laila actually fights for herself against Rasheed  Eventually the family runs out of money.

Chapter 42  Laila has to give Aziza to an orphanage (Karteh-Seh)because they can’t afford to take care of her anymore.  They visited her many times. Laila would get beaten by the Taliban on her way.  She would secretly teach Aziza to read and write.  Tariq shows up at the doorstep.

Chapter 43  Zalmai meets Tariq and decides he doesn’t like him.  Later, Mariam recognizes Tariq from a hotel a few years back and realizes that Rasheed paid off the man to tell Laila that he was dead.