The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

Author:Deborah Ellis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV014000
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd.
Published: 2000-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

NINE

“Shauzia?” Parvana whispered.

“Call me Shafiq. And what do I call you?”

“Kaseem. What are you doing here?”

“The same as you, silly. Look, I have to get back to the tea shop. Will you be here for a while?” Parvana nodded. “Good, I’ll come back.”

Shauzia picked up her tea things and ran back to the shop. Parvana sat there stunned, watching her old classmate blend in with the other tea boys. It was only by looking at them very carefully that Parvana could distinguish her friend from the others. Then, realizing it wasn’t a good idea to stare in case someone asked what she was looking at, Parvana looked away. Shauzia melted back into the market.

Shauzia and Parvana had not been very close in school. They had different friends. Parvana thought Shauzia had been better at spelling, but she couldn’t remember for certain.

So there were other girls like her in Kabul! She tried to remember who was in Shauzia’s family, but didn’t think she knew. Her mind was not on the last two customers of the day, and she was glad when she finally saw Shauzia jogging over to her blanket.

“Where do you live?” Shauzia asked. Parvana pointed. “Let’s pack up and walk while we talk. Here, I brought you these.” She handed Parvana a small twist of paper holding several dried apricots, something she had not eaten in ages. She counted them. There was one for everyone in her household, and an extra one for her to eat now. She bit into it, and a wonderful sweetness flooded her mouth.

“Thanks!” She put the rest of the apricots in her pocket with the day’s wages and began to pack up. There was no little gift left on the blanket today. Parvana didn’t mind. Seeing Shauzia was quite enough excitement for one day!

“How long have you been doing this?” Shauzia asked as they walked out of the market.

“Almost a month. How about you?”

“Six months. My brother went to Iran to find work nearly a year ago, and we haven’t heard from him since. My father died of a bad heart. So I went to work.”

“My father was arrested.”

“Have you had any news?”

“No. We went to the prison, but they wouldn’t tell us anything. We haven’t heard anything at all.”

“You probably won’t. Most people who are arrested are never heard from again. They just disappear. I have an uncle who disappeared.”

Parvana grabbed Shauzia’s arm and forced her to stop walking. “My father’s coming back,” she said. “He is coming back!”

Shauzia nodded. “All right. Your father is different. How’s business?”

Parvana let go of Shauzia’s arm and started walking again. It was easier to talk about business than about her father. “Some days are good, some days are bad. Do you make much money as a tea boy?”

“Not much. There are a lot of us, so they don’t have to pay well. Hey, maybe if we work together, we can come up with a better way to make money.”

Parvana thought of the gifts left on the blanket.

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