A Thousand Splendid Suns

Tariq said his mother tried to visit him after his arrest.
"Three times she came. But I never got to see her," he said.
He wrote her a letter, and a few more after that, even though he
doubted that she would receive them.
"And I wrote you."
"You did?"
"Oh, volumes," he said. "Your friend Rumi would have envied my
production." Then he laughed again, uproariously this time, as though he
was both startled at his own boldness and embarrassed by what he had
let on.
Zalmai began bawling upstairs.
* * *
"Just like old times, then," Rasheed said. "The two of you. I suppose
you let him see your face."
"She did," said Zalmai. Then, to Laila, "You did, Mammy. I saw you."
* * *
"Your son doesn't care for me much," Tariq said when Laila returned
downstairs.
"I'm sorry," she said. "It's not that. He just…Don't mind him." Then
quickly she changed the subject because it made her feel perverse and