A Thousand Splendid Suns

"You be a good, strong boy, now," she said. "You treat your mother
well." She cupped his face. He pulled back but she held on. "I am so
sorry, Zalmai jo. Believe me that I'm so very sorry for all your pain and
sadness."
Laila held Zalmai's hand as they walked down the road together. Just
before they turned the corner, Laila looked
back and saw Mariam at the door. Mariam was wearing a white scarf
over her head, a dark blue sweater buttoned in the front, and white
cotton trousers. A crest of gray hair had fallen loose over her brow. Bars
of sunlight slashed across her face and shoulders. Mariam waved
amiably.
They turned the corner, and Laila never saw Mariam again.
47.
Madam
Back in a kolba, it seemed, after all these years.
The Walayat women's prison was a drab, square-shaped building in
Shar-e-Nau near Chicken Street. It sat in the center of a larger complex
that housed male inmates. A padlocked door separated Mariam and the
other women from the surrounding men. Mariam counted five working
cells. They were unfurnished rooms, with dirty, peeling walls, and small
windows that looked into the courtyard. The windows were barred, even
though the doors to the cells were unlocked and the women were free to
come and go to the courtyard as they pleased. The windows had no