Words in the Dust Read Online Free Page B

joined me. “I wanted to know if you needed help, but it looks like you have it all taken care of.”
    “That’s okay.”
    “Isn’t it wonderful, Zulaikha? With Baba and Najib and everything?” she whispered. She spun around with her arms outstretched. “I feel like anything is possible.”
    “What do you mean?” I covered my smile. Zeynab’s happiness was always contagious.
    “You saw how happy Baba was? My someday husband will be that joyful when he comes home, just because he’ll be glad to see me.” Zeynab spun me around like we were dancing. “My husband will know everything about me, and he’ll love me even more for it.” She squeezed me. “He and I will have maybe three boys and three beautiful girls and he’ll be rich enough to hire servants so our kids won’t have to do all this cleaning.”
    I sighed. “It sounds perfect.”
    “Anyway, aren’t you going to tell me what they were like?”
    “The Americans?”
    “Of course! I hear they are very handsome.” She leaned close to me. “Maybe next time they are in town I will go out to see them. One good thing about the chadri is they’d never know I was looking at them.”
    I slapped her with the clothes and we giggled, our faces close together. Sometimes, I could hardly believe this girl was my sister. She could be so naughty. “The chadri is supposed to prevent strange men from looking at you,” I said, reaching around with my free hand to tickle her side. She jumped and pushed me away. “Not to help you make sexy eyes at dangerous soldiers.”
    Zeynab laughed. “Maybe I like dangerous —”
    She stopped. I turned to see what she was looking at. Malehkah stood with her hands on her hips, leaning back to support the weight of her unborn baby. I didn’t know how long she’d been there. “What’s dangerous is you talking dirty and risking a bad reputation,” she said. “You’ll make itimpossible for your father to find you a husband. Don’t think it’s that far away.”
    “Oh, I know , Madar.” Zeynab beamed. She squeezed my hand. I squeezed back. “We were just talking about how great it will be when Baba and Najib get their wonderful new jobs.”
    Malehkah stared at Zeynab. “Zulaikha.” She spoke my name like a curse word. “Go to the bazaar. We need rice. Get also a couple of oranges or a few bananas if you can find any that aren’t too rotten.”
    “I can go to the bazaar for you.” Zeynab offered.
    Malehkah smiled, but not kindly. “Tashakor, Zeynab, but it is not good for an attractive young unmarried woman to be running about town on her own. Zulaikha can go.”
    I squeezed my sister’s hand again and gave her the clean clothes. I wasn’t stupid. Malehkah had plenty of rice and I knew the oranges and bananas weren’t meant for our meal tonight. I reached for the small roll of Afghanis in her hand, but she just looked down at me, forcing a smile that made small wrinkles around her eyes.
    “Stay away from the soldiers, Zulaikha. They cannot be trusted. And while you are out, if you see Khalid, will you ask him to come home?”
    She phrased it as a question, but it was most certainly not a request.
    “Bale, Madar,” I said quietly. And for the second time that day, I left our compound.

An Daral was a large village, full of winding streets lined with walls of stacked rocks or mud brick. With so many walls, I had to always be walking around a compound or a garden to look for Khalid. The soccer field was an empty stretch of packed dust. Little whirlwinds of sand were all that played there. He was not swimming in any of the three popular deep spots in the river, though the crushing heat made me envious of those who were. And even though finding the Americans might have helped me find my brother, I was glad when there wasn’t a single soldier anywhere.
    By the time I reached the bazaar, several shop owners were lowering their shutters to close up until it cooled off a little. I was lucky to have made it before