Chap­ter 12 begins with Par­vana seek­ing refuge in the com­fort of her fam­i­ly after days of unset­tling tur­moil out­side. She spent her time at home, only ven­tur­ing out for water and occa­sion­al moments of sun­shine with her sis­ters. Dur­ing this time, she con­fid­ed in her moth­er about the over­whelm­ing stress she felt and her long­ing for a break from the harsh world around them. The fright­en­ing mem­o­ries of the sta­di­um scenes con­tin­ued to haunt her, leav­ing her anx­ious about her father’s fate. Though she felt deep fear, she kept her wor­ries to her­self, unable to express the fear that con­sumed her. As she stayed home, Par­vana took on impor­tant tasks, teach­ing her younger sis­ter Maryam and learn­ing how to mend cloth­ing from Noo­ria. Her life was, for a time, soft­ened by the com­fort­ing sto­ries Mrs. Weera shared, pro­vid­ing some emo­tion­al respite amidst the chaos.

Despite the brief moments of calm, the real­i­ty of their sit­u­a­tion soon pushed Par­vana to return to the mar­ket­place when the fam­i­ly ran out of bread. There, she reunit­ed with her friend Shauzia, who expressed her frus­tra­tions about the ongo­ing ten­sions in her own house­hold. The two friends con­fid­ed in one anoth­er, with Shauzia reveal­ing her deep desire to escape Afghanistan, hop­ing to make her way to France, using covert tac­tics to avoid detec­tion. Shauzia also shared her resolve to keep her iden­ti­ty as a girl hid­den, believ­ing that embrac­ing her true self would only bring her back into con­fine­ment at home. Par­vana, while strug­gling with the idea of leav­ing her fam­i­ly behind, couldn’t help but yearn for the sim­ple, care­free life of a child, one filled with school and com­fort that she had been deprived of for so long. Their con­ver­sa­tion illus­trat­ed the bur­den of want­i­ng more in life while being stuck in a sit­u­a­tion that offered no way out.

As Kab­ul entered the sum­mer months, the city seemed to glow with an unusu­al vibran­cy, though it remained over­shad­owed by the con­stant back­drop of con­flict. Par­vana couldn’t help but notice the shift in the mar­ket­place atmosphere—it was no longer a place filled with jokes and bustling ener­gy but one taint­ed by the wide­spread hunger and suf­fer­ing that gripped the city. The mar­ket had trans­formed from a live­ly hub to a grim reminder of the hard real­i­ty sur­round­ing them. Despite the grow­ing ten­sion, sum­mer brought Par­vana some joy, as it allowed her to bring home fresh treats for her fam­i­ly. In the mar­ket, she over­heard tales of dis­tant lands and far-off places, and it was through a hid­den women’s group that a secret school was estab­lished. Noo­ria, her sis­ter, became the teacher, find­ing small moments in the midst of per­il to teach the women. Even with the risks of being caught, they sought solace in knowl­edge, using it as a form of resis­tance in their con­strained lives.

Through­out this time, Parvana’s bond with the Win­dow Woman con­tin­ued, find­ing small tokens that kept a flick­er of hope alive with­in her. How­ev­er, the ever-present dan­ger of their sit­u­a­tion loomed larg­er. An argu­ment above her in the mar­ket­place, com­bined with a mys­te­ri­ous man’s warn­ing about men’s busi­ness, hint­ed at grow­ing risks that sur­round­ed their every move. Just as Par­vana was about to share her wor­ries with her moth­er, she was con­front­ed with unex­pect­ed news that shook her world. Noo­ria, her old­er sis­ter, was to be mar­ried. This rev­e­la­tion added yet anoth­er lay­er of com­plex­i­ty to their already trou­bled lives, bring­ing about a mix­ture of con­fu­sion, con­cern, and emo­tion­al unrest. The grow­ing uncer­tain­ty about their future weighed heav­i­ly on Par­vana, who now had to rec­on­cile the evolv­ing real­i­ties of her family’s life with the harsh envi­ron­ment in which they had to sur­vive.