My Name Is Parvana

My Name Is Parvana — page 5 — Bread Some bread Cookies squares pies cakes Things like that Apple turnovers Certainly sir My favorite If you like I can ask my parents to send you some Thank you Corporal They will be stale by the time they get here but still pretty good I’ll bet So a small-town bakery with a little bit of everything And when you worked there you did a bit of everything baking calling suppliers dealing with customers Yes sir Ever get the feeling that someone is up to no good Sir Someone comes into your store and they don’t do anything bad and they don’t say anything bad but still you think There’s something off about this customer And so you watch them closely and you’re glad when they leave I suppose so sir It’s a small town but bad things happen everywhere The man tapped his pen against the edge of the desk He tapped for a while The girl in the blue chador knew she would have to work hard to keep it from annoying her

My Name Is Parvana — page 6 — Look at her the man said There was the sound of bodies shifting in seats She hasn’t spoken a word and she stood still and waited to be arrested he said What does that tell you I don’t know sir Perhaps she’s afraid Does she look afraid There was another pause No sir She doesn’t Perhaps though perhaps there is something wrong with her Maybe she isn’t smart enough to be afraid You were a baker Corporal I worked Security I’ve learned how to spot trouble And this girl is trouble What do we know about her Very little sir She was picked up in an abandoned ruin that used to be a school We suspect that it is now being used as a staging area for the Taliban to launch attacks against us and our intelligence gathering among the villagers seems to confirm that although no one will speak openly This girl was the only one there And she had a tattered bag over her shoulder In the bag were some papers that had the name Parvana on them That’s why we think that might be her name Let me see the bag Sir I believe the analysts have it

My Name Is Parvana — page 7 — Go get it I can’t wait for them to do their fine-tooth comb thing They’ll take as much time as they get Chase it down Bring it back here If they squawk tell them it’s an order Yes sir The girl in the chair saw the woman’s army boots cross the floor and leave the office As the door was opened more noises came in from the outside phones ringing people speaking filing cabinets opening and closing The girl kept her ears open and her eyes on the floor She knew the man at the desk was watching her She did her best to ignore him It was difficult She used an old trick she had used to keep herself going when she was scared in the wilderness She recited multiplication tables to herself Nineteen times seven is one hundred and thirty-three Nineteen times eight is one hundred and fifty-two Nineteen times nine is one hundred and seventy-one She made it all the way through the twenty-eight times table before the woman’s boots entered the office again She heard the sound of someone putting her father’s shoulder bag on the desk This looks like it has seen better days the man said Let’s see what we’ve got in here

My Name Is Parvana — page 8 — keep out That’s just what my own teenaged daughter would have written What language is it Dari But we don’t know that it is her notebook She He named each thing as he took it out of the bag One notebook What does this writing say Sir that says Property of Parvana Everyone else could have been scavenging or Pens the man said And a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird in English What would a girl like this be doing with an American classic But look It’s got pages torn out even looks like someone’s taken bites out of it Why are we even trying to civilize these people He threw it on the desk The girl in the blue chador had a very hard time not jumping out of her chair grabbing the book and hitting the man over the head with it She heard someone flipping through the notebook Who is this girl What is she up to the man asked Maybe she was as you say just scavenging That would fit Her clothes are covered in dust Her feet are filthy She looks as if she has been sleeping outside in the dirt Was there anything else of value in that building To these people everything is of value sir the

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