A Thousand Splendid Suns

the conversation, as the women talked boisterously and drank tea and
complimented Mammy on her baking. Though there was never much for
her to say, Laila liked to sit and listen in because at these gatherings she
was treated to a rare pleasure: She got to hear Mammy speaking
affectionately about Babi.
"What a first-rate teacher he was," Mammy said. "His students loved
him. And not only because he wouldn't beat them with rulers, like other
teachers did. They respected him, you see, because he respected them.
He was marvelous."
Mammy loved to tell the story of how she'd proposed to him.
"I was sixteen, he was nineteen. Our families lived next door to each
other in Panjshir. Oh, I had the crush on him, hamshirasl I used to climb
the wall between our houses, and we'd play in his father's orchard.
Hakim was always scared that we'd get caught and that my father would
give him a slapping. 'Your father's going to give me a slapping,' he'd
always say. He was so cautious, so serious, even then. And then one day
I said to him, I said, 'Cousin, what will it be? Are you going to ask for my
hand or are you going to make me come khasiegari to you?' I said it just
like that. You should have seen the face on him!"
Mammy would slap her palms together as the women, and Laila,
laughed.
Listening to Mammy tell these stories, Laila knew that there had been a
time when Mammy always spoke this way about Babi. A time when her
parents did not sleep in separate rooms. Laila wished she hadn't missed
out on those times.
Inevitably, Mammy's proposal story led to matchmaking schemes.