A Thousand Splendid Suns

For a week, the fighting forced even Rasheed to stay home. He locked
the door to the yard, set booby traps, locked the front door too and
barricaded it with the couch. He paced the house, smoking, peering out
the window, cleaning his gun, loading and loading it again. Twice, he
fired his weapon into the street claiming he'd seen someone trying to
climb the wall.
"They're forcing young boys to join," he said. "TheMujahideenare. In
plain daylight, at gunpoint. They drag boys right off the streets. And
when soldiers from a rival militia capture these boys, they torture them.
I heard they electrocute them-it's what I heard-that they crush their balls
with pliers. They make the boys lead them to their homes. Then they
break in, kill their fathers, rape their sisters and mothers."
He waved his gun over his head. "Let's see them try to break into my
house. I'll crush their balls! I'll blow their heads off! Do you know how
lucky you two are to have a man who's not afraid of Shaitan himself?"
He looked down at the ground, noticed Aziza at his feet. "Get off my
heels!" he snapped, making a shooing motion with his gun. "Stop
following me! And you can stop twirling your wrists like that. I'm not
picking you up. Go on! Go on before you get stepped on."
Aziza flinched. She crawled back to Mariam, looking bruised and
confused. In Mariam's lap, she sucked her thumb cheerlessly and
watched Rasheed in a sullen, pensive way. Occasionally, she looked up,
Mariam imagined, with a look of wanting to be reassured.
But when it came to fathers, Mariam had no assurances to give.
* * *
Maeiam was relieved when the fighting subsided again, mostly because
they no longer had to be cooped up with Rasheed, with his sour temper
infecting the household. And he'd frightened her badly waving that