12.
Ramadan came in the fall that year, 1974.
For the first time in her life, Mariam saw how the sighting of the new crescent moon could transform an entire city, alter its rhythm and mood.
She noticed a drowsy hush overtaking Kabul. Traffic became languid, scant, even quiet.
Shops emptied. Restaurants turned off their lights, closed their doors.
Mariam saw no smokers on the streets, no cups of tea steaming from window ledges.
And at iftar, when the sun dipped in the west and the cannon fired from the Shir Darwaza mountain,
the city broke its fast, and so did Mariam, with bread and a date,
tasting for the first time in her fifteen years the sweetness of sharing in a communal experience.
Except for a handful of days, Rasheed didn't observe the fast.
The few times he did, he came home in a sour mood. Hunger made him curt, irritable, impatient.
One night, Mariam was a few minutes late with dinner, and he started eating bread with radishes.
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