In the chap­ter titled “Sev­en,” Par­vana embarks on a new ven­ture after break­fast, encour­aged by her moth­er to take her father’s writ­ing sup­plies to the mar­ket­place. The hope of earn­ing mon­ey excites her, allow­ing her to escape the con­fines of house­work. Par­vana dons her boy dis­guise again, feel­ing lib­er­at­ed from her hair and chador while walk­ing through the bustling mar­ket. She car­ries her father’s shoul­der bag con­tain­ing his writ­ing tools and an out­fit she intends to sell, along with a blan­ket for sit­ting.

Posi­tioned in a famil­iar spot that her father used, Par­vana sets up her mate­ri­als, recall­ing his strat­e­gy of build­ing a cus­tomer base through famil­iar­i­ty. When ques­tioned about her true iden­ti­ty, Moth­er has coached her well to say she is her father’s nephew, Kaseem, claim­ing he’s ill rather than impris­oned, as reveal­ing his sta­tus could expose them. Despite her appre­hen­sions about being a girl in a male-dom­i­nat­ed envi­ron­ment, Par­vana finds courage in her edu­ca­tion, which sur­pass­es that of many Afghans.

As she waits for cus­tomers, the first hour pass­es slow­ly with­out any suc­cess, cre­at­ing a grow­ing sense of anx­i­ety. When a Tal­iban sol­dier approach­es, she trem­bles in fear but ulti­mate­ly man­ages to con­firm her role as a let­ter read­er. He requests her assis­tance in read­ing an old let­ter addressed to his deceased wife, Fati­ma Azi­ma. Par­vana reads it aloud, deliv­er­ing heart­felt sen­ti­ments from the wom­an’s aunt who express­es lov­ing wish­es for her future. The sol­dier, vis­i­bly moved, requests a reply but ulti­mate­ly declines, leav­ing her with a pay­ment.

Par­vana reflects on her per­cep­tion of the Tal­iban, sur­prised to encounter one who express­es sor­row. This encounter prompts her to pon­der the com­plex­i­ty of human emo­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly among those she ini­tial­ly viewed with hos­til­i­ty.

As the day unfolds, she makes a sale of her shal­war kameez, show­cas­ing her devel­op­ing bar­gain­ing skills, despite the emo­tion­al weight of part­ing with her trea­sured gar­ment. After a few hours, need­ing to relieve her­self, she begins to clean up, feel­ing a strong long­ing for her father. Nev­er­the­less, buoyed by her mod­est achieve­ments, Par­vana runs home, proud of the mon­ey she earned and her abil­i­ty to nav­i­gate the mar­ket­place on her own.