A Thousand Splendid Suns

"How do you like Kabul?"
"I've been to Herat. I have a cousin there"
"Do you want a boy or a girl first?"
"The minarets! Oh, what beauty! What a gorgeous city!"
"Boy is better, Mariam jan, they carry the family name-"
"Bah! Boys get married and run off. Girls stay behind and take care of
you when you're old"
"We heard you were coming."
"Have twins. One of each! Then everyone's happy."
Mariam backed away. She was hyperventilating. Her ears buzzed, her
pulse fluttered, her eyes darted from one face to another. She backed
away again, but there was nowhere to go to-she was in the center of a
circle. She spotted Fariba, who was frowning, who saw that she was in
distress.
"Let her be!" Fariba was saying. "Move aside, let her be! You're
frightening her!"
Mariam clutched the dough close to her chest and pushed through the
crowd around her.
"Where are you going, hamshira? ”
She pushed until somehow she was in the clear and then she ran up the
street. It wasn't until she'd reached the intersection that she realized
she'd run the wrong way. She turned around and ran back in the other
direction, head down, tripping once and scraping her knee badly, then up