![]() "I won't bruise his precious ego."IN THE SUMMER of 1988, about six months before the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, I finished my first novel, a father-son story set in Kabul, written mostly with the typewriter the general had given me. ![]() "Don't worry," Soraya snapped, tossing her napkin on the plate. "If he ever hears you saying that, he will never speak to you again." Teaching may not pay much, but it's what I want to do! It's what I love, and it's a whole lot better than collecting welfare, by the way." "At least I'm not like him, sitting around while other people fight the Shorawi, waiting for when the dust settles so he can move in and reclaim his posh little government position. "Such nonsense you speak!" "Successful," Soraya hissed. Another medal for the general," Soraya said. "So he can boast about his attorney daughter to his friends. "Is there any more rice, Madar?" Soraya said.Īfter the general excused himself to meet some friends in Hayward, Khala Jamila tried to console Soraya. I could see Soraya holding back, her face tightening. They might even offer you a ministry position, given your family name." There would be a need for young talented Afghans like you. ![]() And, Inshallah, when Afghanistan is free, you could help write the new constitution. "An intelligent girl like you could become a lawyer, a political scientist. "Did you know, Amir jan, that she earned nothing but A's in high school?" He turned to her. "I don't know why you're wasting your talents like this," the general said one night over dinner. Soraya joined me at San Jose State the following year and enrolled, to her father's chagrin, in the teaching track. It was in the Pine-Sol-scented office of that furniture warehouse that I began my first novel.īest Yoga Poses to Improve Flexibility and Boost Immunity and shadows began to crawl between aisles of plastic-covered sofas piled to the ceiling, I took out my books and studied. The job was dreadfully boring, but its saving grace was a considerable one: When everyone left at 6 P.M. I took on a security job, swing shift at a furniture warehouse in Sunnyvale. I got my acceptance at San Jose State that summer and declared an English major. She ate her cereal dry, like a snack, and chased it with milk. She liked fluffy pillows, I liked the hard ones. She slept on the right side of the bed, I preferred the left. We shared toothbrushes and socks, passed each other the morning paper. Soraya and I settled into the routines-and minor wonders- of married life. I would drive to his gravesite every Friday, and, sometimes, I'd find a fresh bouquet of freesias by the headstone and know Soraya had been there too. General Iqbal TaheriI sold Baba's VW bus and, to this day, I have not gone back to the flea market. I hope you discover many tales on these keys.
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