Parvana's Journey

After four days of walking, Parvana, Asif, and Hassan are weak from hunger and thirst. Parvana tries to ask Asif about his family, but he refuses to give her any information. In her next letter to Shauzia, Parvana writes that she has lost her ability to believe in fairytales and stories. She is losing hope and doesn’t know what to do. As they continue walking, Asif offers to carry Hassan, and they soon come to a village. Desperate for food and water, they find a man who offers food if they will clean out his chicken coop. Asif cannot work because of his leg, so he watches Hassan while Parvana, pretending to be a boy, completes the nasty job. She feels tempted to steal a few eggs that she finds in the straw, but she knows her father would not want her to steal, so she leaves the eggs. However, the man brings only one small bowl of rice as payment for her work. Parvana asks for more food, since there are three of them, but the man refuses. The children return later that night and steal the eggs as well as a chicken. As they leave the village and continue their journey, they feel bolstered by the thought of food and feel justified in taking it since the man cheated them. 

The children enjoy the chicken and eggs, but a week passes, and they find no other food. One night, Parvana can’t sleep, so she sits up and starts to hum a song under the stars. Asif joins her, and they both sing together until they can fall asleep again.

All three children get sick to their stomach, and Parvana realizes why: they have been drinking water from a nearby stream where they’ve rested for a few days, but they haven’t been boiling the water. Her father taught her to boil water before drinking, but she forgot. She wishes she had someone else to be in charge of remembering these things rather than her. The children keep moving; their bellies remain empty, and their energy wanes.

This time when Parvana writes a letter to Shauzia, she imagines the place where she wishes she could live, and she calls it Green Valley. Parvana shares her dreamland with Asif, but he only belittles her in response. Angrily, she balls up the letter and throws it, which leads to a rock-throwing contest between she and Asif. After a few throws each, Parvana heaves a large rock as hard as she can, and the ground where it lands explodes. They are in a minefield. Asif explodes in fear and anger, calling Parvana stupid for leading them here, subconsciously clutching at his missing leg. Parvana responds by putting her arms around him and Hassan, and the three children cling to each other, crying.