she'd told Tariq what she thought had happened to him and his parents, and he had shaken his head.
So now she asked him how they were doing, his parents.
But she regretted the question when Tariq looked down and said, a bit distractedly, “Passed on.”
“I'm so sorry.” “Well. Yes. Me too. Here.” He fished a small paper bag from his pocket and passed it to her.
“Compliments of Alyona.” Inside was a block of cheese in plastic wrap.
“Alyona. It's a pretty name.” Laila tried to say this next without wavering. “Your wife?”
“My goat.” He was smiling at her expectantly, as though waiting for her to retrieve a memory.
Then Laila remembered. The Soviet film. Alyona had been the captain's daughter, the girl in love with the first mate.
That was the day that she, Tariq, and Hasina had watched Soviet tanks and jeeps leave Kabul, the day Tariq had worn that ridiculous Russian fur hat.
“I had to tie her to a stake in the ground,” Tariq was saying. “And build a fence. Because of the wolves.”
“In the foothills where I live, there's a wooded area nearby, maybe a quarter of a mile away, pine trees mostly, some fir, deodars.”
“They mostly stick to the woods, the wolves do, but a bleating goat,
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