In Chap­ter Four­teen, Par­vana finds her­self drawn to a soft­ly cry­ing woman in a dark­ened area. She ner­vous­ly calls out and after strik­ing sev­er­al match­es, she locates the woman hud­dled against the wall. Par­vana intro­duces her­self, reveal­ing that she’s pre­tend­ing to be a boy named Kaseem to earn mon­ey. The woman’s silence and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty prompt Par­vana to invite her back to her home for safe­ty, high­light­ing the dan­ger the woman faces for being out­side with­out a burqa.

While Par­vana con­sid­ers the wom­an’s predica­ment, she forms a plan to bor­row a burqa from Mrs. Weera to help her friend blend in and stay safe. Par­vana offers the woman a bag of dried fruit and nuts to eat while they wait for night­fall, and togeth­er they strate­gize their escape into the dark­ness of Kab­ul. Par­vana reflects on how much the city has changed since her par­ents spoke of its vibrant past before the Taliban’s rule.

As they nav­i­gate the near­ly desert­ed, per­ilous streets, Par­vana stays alert to the dan­gers of the Tal­iban patrolling the area. They encounter a truck filled with sol­diers, which height­ens Par­vana’s anx­i­ety. Even­tu­al­ly, they reach Par­vana’s street, where Mrs. Weera greets them warm­ly amidst her con­cern for the woman’s lack of prop­er attire. Par­vana explains the night’s events, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of pro­tect­ing and sup­port­ing the new arrival, Homa.

After a day spent recu­per­at­ing, Homa reveals her har­row­ing escape from Mazar-e-Sharif and the trau­mat­ic loss of her fam­i­ly at the hands of the Tal­iban. Her nar­ra­tive leaves Par­vana in a state of despair, visu­al­iz­ing her own loved ones in sim­i­lar per­il. Despite Mrs. Weer­a’s attempts to instill hope, Par­vana feels crushed and retreats into a state of sad­ness for two days.

Dur­ing her low­est point, her friend Shauzia arrives, encour­ag­ing Par­vana to re-engage with life. This moti­vates Par­vana to step out again into the world, resum­ing her respon­si­bil­i­ties and form­ing a bond with Homa. In a sur­pris­ing turn, she returns home one after­noon to find her father alive, sig­nal­ing a turn­ing point in what feels like an unend­ing night­mare .