Chap­ter 14 of The Bread­win­ner begins with Par­vana encoun­ter­ing a woman in dis­tress, weep­ing in a dark and iso­lat­ed space. Ini­tial­ly tak­en aback, Par­vana quick­ly shifts into a car­ing mode and intro­duces her­self to the woman, reveal­ing her secret: she is pre­tend­ing to be a boy named Kaseem to earn mon­ey in Kab­ul. The woman remains silent, her sor­row over­whelm­ing her, prompt­ing Par­vana to offer her sup­port. In an attempt to com­fort the woman, Par­vana sug­gests they leave togeth­er and head to her home, where her friend Mrs. Weera could pro­vide help. How­ev­er, the woman reveals that she is with­out a burqa, a sit­u­a­tion that could eas­i­ly draw unwant­ed atten­tion and trou­ble, espe­cial­ly in the dan­ger­ous cli­mate of Kab­ul. Par­vana, under­stand­ing the woman’s fear, offers to go retrieve a burqa for her, but the woman, vis­i­bly scared, clutch­es her arm tight­ly, too afraid to allow Par­vana to leave her side.

In a moment of deep com­pas­sion, Par­vana shares some of the food she has with the woman, reas­sur­ing her that they can wait until it gets dark before head­ing out, which will help avoid draw­ing any atten­tion from passers­by. They find a qui­et spot near the door to stay out of sight, patient­ly wait­ing for the cov­er of dark­ness. As they sit there in the qui­et, Par­vana reflects on the dra­mat­ic changes Kab­ul has under­gone over the years. Once a city full of life, ener­gy, and vibrant streets, it is now a place over­shad­owed by the rav­ages of war. The beau­ty of the city is now cloud­ed by fear, cur­fews, and a per­va­sive dark­ness that seems to define the lives of its inhab­i­tants. Par­vana remem­bers the Kab­ul of her child­hood with nos­tal­gia, con­trast­ing it with the somber and oppres­sive atmos­phere that now sur­rounds her. The streets that once echoed with laugh­ter and joy are now silent, punc­tu­at­ed only by the whis­pers of dan­ger and the end­less uncer­tain­ty caused by the ongo­ing con­flict.

When the night final­ly falls, Par­vana assures the woman that they are close to her home, and togeth­er they ven­ture out cau­tious­ly into the streets of Kab­ul. With every step, they are mind­ful of the Tal­iban patrols that could appear at any moment. The dan­ger is con­stant, and they nav­i­gate the dark, treach­er­ous streets with great care, avoid­ing the very real threat of being caught. After what seems like an eter­ni­ty, they final­ly reach Parvana’s home, where Mrs. Weera greets them with a warm, wel­com­ing embrace. She offers them food and com­fort, imme­di­ate­ly notic­ing how young the woman is, whose name, Par­vana learns, is Homa. Homa reveals the deeply painful rea­son for her flight from Mazar-e-Sharif: she escaped the bru­tal Tal­iban inva­sion, which result­ed in the death of her fam­i­ly and the destruc­tion of her home. Homa’s sto­ry of loss and vio­lence shakes Par­vana to her core, and she is left in stunned silence by the hor­rif­ic real­i­ties Homa has lived through.

The weight of Homa’s sto­ry press­es heav­i­ly on Par­vana, and she is struck by the chill­ing thought that her own fam­i­ly might be endur­ing sim­i­lar suf­fer­ing. Rather than seek­ing com­fort, Par­vana is engulfed by despair. She retreats to her toshak, bury­ing her­self in her sor­row and with­draw­ing from the world around her. For two days, she remains in a state of inac­tiv­i­ty, trapped in the dark­ness of her own mind, unable to move beyond the grief and fear that con­sume her. Just when Par­vana feels the weight of the world is too much to bear, Shauzia sur­pris­es her with a vis­it. Shauzia shares the lat­est news from the mar­ket, encour­ag­ing Par­vana to join her in return­ing to work. Their friend­ship becomes a life­line for Par­vana, and with Shauzia’s gen­tle encour­age­ment, she finds the strength to rise from her sor­row and reen­ter the world that has become so alien to her. With a renewed sense of pur­pose, Par­vana returns to the mar­ket, though the expe­ri­ence feels sur­re­al and dis­ori­ent­ing amidst the ongo­ing chaos of Kab­ul.

The chap­ter con­cludes with a poignant moment as Par­vana comes home to find that her father has final­ly returned. His return marks the end of one chap­ter of trau­ma, but it also sig­ni­fies the begin­ning of anoth­er strug­gle, as Par­vana now faces the ongo­ing chal­lenges of liv­ing in a war-torn city. Despite her father’s return, the loom­ing uncer­tain­ty of the future remains, leav­ing Par­vana with a sense of both relief and appre­hen­sion. The reunion with her father brings some com­fort, but the real­i­ty of the war and its impact on their lives con­tin­ues to shape Parvana’s world. This chap­ter under­scores the resilience required to sur­vive in Kab­ul, where every day is filled with both hope and despair, and where the future remains uncer­tain for those caught in the cycle of war. Parvana’s strength and her abil­i­ty to push for­ward in the face of such adver­si­ty become a cen­tral theme in her jour­ney, as she learns to nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of life in a war-rav­aged city.