Sofia hated seeing Behnaz in such pain but knew from experience that if she tried to help her hand would be swatted away. Despite the inevitable rebuke, Sofia couldn’t help reaching out, and to her utter amazement her hand was accepted.
‘You know, I can give you something to ease the pain, Behnaz,’ she said.
Safely on her feet, Behnaz waved off Sofia’s hand. ‘Give your medicines to Babur,’ she said as she dusted down the front of her black dress where she’d been kneeling in the dirt.
‘It’s not like there isn’t enough to go around. There’s enough for you and Babur and everyone in Kabul. There’s enough for the whole world,’ Sofia said. ‘That’s what pharmaceutical companies do: they make enough medicine for everyone.’
‘Humph!’ Behnaz threw her hand in the air. ‘Enough poison for everyone, you mean! I don’t want their poison.’ She looked Sofia up and down. ‘Are you going out today?’
‘Just to work and Dr Jabril’s house for a meeting at lunchtime. Is that okay?’
‘I think it’s good that you’re staying in the square. Dr Jabril’s is okay, but I wasn’t happy with you going to Kandahar with that rude woman and that man.’
Sofia raised her eyebrows at Behnaz’s comment about Clementine. She was still trying to come to terms with her conflicting feelings about her. ‘Why didn’t you like the woman?’
‘She didn’t greet you. She just sat in the car and talked on the phone. It’s rude.’
Sofia considered this, nodding, before she asked, ‘And the man? What’s the problem with him?’
‘You went to Kandahar with someone you don’t know.’
‘Actually, I do know him.’ Sofia felt a little buzz of satisfaction at Behnaz’s reaction.
‘No, you don’t,’ she said, planting her hands on her hips in defiance.
‘Yes, I do. I met him five years ago.’
Behnaz thought about this for a while before deciding it changed nothing. ‘Your mother wouldn’t like him.’
Sofia wondered whether her mother would like Daniel and was saddened by the fact that she’d never know. She was also a little taken aback by the idea that Behnaz had a direct line to her dead mother.
‘She wouldn’t like it if I didn’t watch out for you.’ Finished with the conversation, Behnaz headed back to the front door, picked up the canary cage and carried it out to hang it on the lowest branch of the pomegranate tree.
‘Okay, I’m off,’ Sofia said, opening the gate to find Rashid outside waiting for her. After greeting him she called back to Behnaz. ‘You’ll be happy to know there’s no Dr Daniel in sight, or that rude woman, and Rashid’s here to escort me across the square.’ She turned back to Rashid. ‘And I’m pretty sure he’ll escort me to Dr Jabril’s for lunch.’ Rashid nodded. ‘So you don’t need to worry about me today.’
‘I worry about you every day,’ Behnaz muttered loud enough for Sofia and Rashid to hear as she closed the gate behind Sofia.
As she crossed the square, Sofia wondered whether Daniel’s friend would be able to find where the boys had been taken again. She also wished Daniel had told her what he wanted to talk to her and Jabril about.
* * *
OMAR, WHO HAD been waiting for an opportunity to speak with Behnaz, watched Dr Sofia crossing the square before making his way over to Behnaz’s gate.
‘Behnaz,’ he called through the gate, not game to cross over the threshold into a courtyard he was no longer invited to enter. ‘There’s something of a delicate nature I wish to discuss with you.’
The gate flew open. Behnaz gave him her death stare. ‘What do you want?’
Omar backed away a little. ‘I don’t want anything. I need to tell you something.’
‘Since when have you had anything interesting to say to me?’
As usual, Behnaz was making Omar nervous. It had not always been like that, especially when they had been young, but it was what he had come to expect now. ‘It’s about the shabnamah you received.’
Behnaz stiffened. ‘What are you talking about? I’ve never received shabnamah.’
Things were not going very well, but probably as well as Omar had expected. ‘A letter then. I … I think I saw you take a letter off your gate yesterday morning.’
‘I didn’t see any shabnamah on my gate yesterday morning. You’re talking nonsense, you old fool.’ Behnaz slammed the gate shut. Stepping up to the gate, Omar listened. He could tell she was still standing on the other side of the gate.
‘I saw you take it,’ he said.
The gate flew open and Omar stepped back again. ‘You saw nothing. I took nothing off my gate. Do you understand? There was no shabnamah.’
‘Is Dr Sofia in danger?’
Behnaz stiffened, drawing herself up. ‘What do you know about Dr Sofia?’
Omar could feel the sweat breaking out on his back and under his arms. For a few seconds he thought Behnaz might strike him. ‘Why is Rashid walking Dr Sofia across the square again, and why didn’t you want her to go to Kandahar with the man from the UN?’
‘What do you know?’
Omar took another step back. ‘I don’t know anything.’ It had been a mistake to think he could speak civilly with Behnaz. ‘I don’t know anything,’ he repeated, turning and shuffling away. There was no way he could ever tell her about the night letter he had stolen.
‘You’re a troublemaker, Omar,’ she called out after him. ‘Stop spreading rumours and causing trouble.’
He turned back. ‘I’m not causing trouble. I only want to –’ Behnaz slammed the gate shut.
Back in his chair, Omar sat unaware of the people passing, or of Babur calling out a greeting, or of the sun that had moved on, leaving him in shade. As he contemplated the
