A Thousand Splendid Suns

hammering- She wrapped a shawl around her and went out into the
snowblown yard. The heavy snowfall of the previous night had stopped.
Now only a scattering of light, swirling flakes tickled her cheeks. The air
was windless and smelled like burning coal. Kabul was eerily silent,
quilted in white, tendrils of smoke snaking up here and there.
She found Rasheed in the toolshed, pounding nails into a plank of
wood. When he saw her, he removed a nail from the corner of his
mouth.
"It was going to be a surprise. He'll need a crib. You weren't supposed
to see until it was done."
Mariam wished he wouldn't do that, hitch his hopes to its being a boy.
As happy as she was about this pregnancy, his expectation weighed on
her. Yesterday, Rasheed had gone out and come home with a suede
winter coat for a boy, lined inside with soft sheepskin, the sleeves
embroidered with fine red and yellow silk thread.
Rasheed lifted a long, narrow board. As he began to saw it in half, he
said the stairs worried him. "Something will have to be done about them
later, when he's old enough to climb." The stove worried him too, he
said. The knives and forks would have to be stowed somewhere out of
reach. "You can't be too careful Boys are reckless creatures."
Mariam pulled the shawl around her against the chill.
* * *
The next morning, Rasheed said he wanted to invite his friends for