The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

Author:Chris Bohjalian
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Literary, Sagas, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9781471110702
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 2012-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

AT THE AMERICAN COMPOUND, Hatoun sleeps soundly beside Nevart, and the woman wonders if the child is dreaming. Her breathing is slow and silent and deep. The night air feels a little moist and Nevart can see the stars from their bed, despite the gauzy mosquito netting.

Once more the girl was vague and uncommunicative about where she had been that afternoon. She was back by three-thirty this time, returning soon after Nevart. The child seemed more curious than contrite when she was subject to Nevart’s frustration and panic, and she was no more forthcoming than ever. Nevart had wanted to shake her, to scream at her. In her mind she heard herself yelling, Talk to me! Please, please, talk to me! Somehow she had restrained herself. She knows what the child has endured, what—worse—the child has seen. Nevart believes that she should discipline the girl, but she doesn’t know how, she doesn’t know where to begin. Besides, how could anyone punish a child who has survived what Hatoun has? Nevart couldn’t. She wouldn’t.

But Nevart fears also that other women—real mothers—would know precisely what to do and how to reach this strange girl, and she is sleepless with a nagging sense of failure and worthlessness. She tries to tell herself that tomorrow will be better. She won’t let the girl out of her sight. But she feels her eyes welling up, and she has a sickening feeling in her heart that she will indeed lose the child once more. Hatoun is a lithe animal. She will evaporate into the air like the dew on a palm frond. And someday she won’t return. It’s just that simple.

Suddenly she feels one of the girl’s tiny fingers on her face, wiping away the tears that are dribbling down her cheeks. Hatoun’s eyes are open, too; Nevart can see them in the dark. She pulls the girl against her and kisses her on her forehead. She asks her what she is doing awake, but the child burrows against her and says not a word.

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