Summary

Parvana learned that Mrs. Weera and her granddaughter were moving in with them. Parvana was enlisted to help Mrs. Weera move her things. It was Parvana’s mother who told her that Mother and Mrs. Weera would be staring a magazine. As they walked down the street together, Mrs. Weera told Parvana she was quite sure that she could handle any Taliban who tried to mess with her as she’d been reducing teenaged boys to tears for years in her position as a physical education teacher. Parvana tried to tell Mrs. Weera she’d seen a Taliban soldier cry the day before, but her words were lost in street noise. As they were packing her things, Mrs. Weera showed Parvana a medal she’d won in an athletics competition for being the fastest female runner in Afghanistan.

That evening when Paravana went for...