preet's+breadwinner+story

** Chapter 1- Market ** I am wondering how father and Parvana are doing, are they making money? Are they losing money? I am really hoping they are doing alright. I’m sitting here in my house; actually it’s not really a house. It’s a room, a tiny room. We are all prisoners under our own home, which is run by Talibans. The only furniture we have is a cupboard. The rest of the furniture we used to have, been bombed in our old house -the Taliban’s bombed it, in their war. There was a knock on the door and in came father and Parvana. We were in the middle of eating our food, me, Parvana, father, Ali, Nouria and Maryam. We were talking about how Parvana and father were getting on in their work. It seemed fine to me. ** Chapter 2- Taliban soldiers ** When we had finished, Parvana went to get some water from the local area tap. Parvana always has to do everything for us; she is very good. She has to do it though. When she came back, she was sweating and she had the water bucket in her hands. “Put it on the ground and please clear the table”, I said calmly. “Why can’t Nouria do it?” Parvana said. “I’m too good to clear the table”, said Nouria. ‘That’s quite enough, I said being the mother. We all sat down together on the rug in silence. There was a slight knock on the door, becoming harder and louder. The door flew open (all of us shocked) and there came in four Talibans. One said ”Get up on your feet, now”. (We all got up). The other three searched the house for antiques. Two Taliban’s grabbed father from his arms and led him to the door. One of them said to father ”Why’d you go to Germany, you should have stayed here”. “Let him go”, shouted Parvana. “Be quiet, little girl”, moaned the Taliban. All the Taliban’s went; slamming the door behind. Parvana got a beating. She Knew father was gone… ** Chapter 3- I’m in bed ** I don’t want to move, I don’t want to talk. I am lying here in my bed (on the floor) and I am horrified. I am frozen. I am scared of what is happening to father, is he getting beaten by the Taliban’s? Has he gone to jail? Is he dead? Questions keep running through my head like bees, I am worried. Someone shrugs me on the shoulder, I dare to look back. Thinking it’s the Taliban but I know it just isn’t. I hear Nouria saying to Maryam” stop it, mum’s asleep”. Then it stops. We starve for one day but no longer for the other. With no man in the house we can not go out. I call Parvana, and then tell her to go out remembering to take her burka and to get some naan. When she’d got the money, she went out gently closing the door behind. The others were sitting together a meter behind me, whispering to one another. It was good they didn’t make such a noise. I loved my family! ** Chapter 4- Mrs Weera ** After a while Parvana come back rushing though the door, clutching the naan bread in her arms. Followed by a good friend of mine… Mrs Weera! Finally, a bit of a smile appeared on my face.(I sat up). Everyone had a smile on their face, it was wonderful. “It’s been ages”, said Mrs Weera. “Yes, it has”, I said. Mrs Weera came over to me; and put her arm around my neck. She told Parvana to lay the plates out and quickly get water. Mrs Weera told Ali, Nouria and Maryam to come to her and sit down. They all did and she hugged them all. It felt like she was apart of our family. Not long, Parvana came with the water and straight away Mrs Weera got up and boiled the water. Ali quickly ran to the bucket and scooped water and was about to drink it when Parvana said “NO. It is dirty”. Ali quickly dropped the water back in the bucket and Said “But I’m hungry”. “I Know” said Parvana. When everyone had finished, we all went to bed including Mrs Weera. At last! I got some sleep. ** Chapter 5- Parvana changes ** I knew it was going to be a great day, especially when Mrs Weera is around. Everything got on fine. When Mrs Weera had her idea of changing Parvana’s identity… Into a boy. So she can go out side and work. Well, I thought it was quite good. But on the other hand I really didn’t want to do it to Parvana. I knew this was the right decision so I decided I should do it. At first, Parvana refused but later on she started to agree. “Shall I cut her hair”, gigged Nouria. “No”!, I said. There we were, Parvana and me in the corner of the room, where the mirror was. I had the scissors to cut her hair with, we were both ready. And first, I chopped a big chunk off then asked her “Do you want to keep it? I could tie it up with some left over ribbon if you like”. “Well it doesn’t really matter now”, Said Parvana sadly. I was feeling very bad inside but I just kept cutting her hair. When it was over, we went back to the others and I stroked Parvana’s hair. It was lovely and soft. Parvana told me she liked it, I said that’s good. We decided we were getting hungry, so we sent Parvana to the shops. Just to see if changing her into a boy was the right thing. I was hoping nothing was going wrong. ** Chapter 6- Market ** Today Parvana is going out in the market taking over father’s job. She knows how to read; and she knows how to sell. Everything should be good. Unless the Talibans find out Parvana is a girl. (But I don’t think that’s going to happen). It was late in the morning and Mrs Weera decided to send Parvana out to work. So, Parvana got ready into her older brothers cloths (he got killed in the war). Then I handed her fathers writing things and her burka and shalwar kameez. “Don’t sell that”, said Parvana. “When are you going to wear that in your life?”, I said “Why can’t you sell Nouria’s clothes?” said Parvana, annoyed. “She needs them for when she gets married”, I said. Parvana took the things and slammed the door behind. I knew she was very sad. I was wondering how Parvana was doing. Mrs Weera and Nouria were talking about the days when Mrs Weera was leading her hockey team. I decided to join in. After a while, Parvana came back and she showed us all the money she had made. It was quite good for a first time. 37 Afghanis left! Very good. She had already bought the food. Then, Parvana went out quickly to get some water. When she came back, she set out the table. We sat down to eat; and Parvana was telling us how her work was going on. She told us about this Taliban who told her to read a letter for him. She said “When he had finished he gave me the money and said ‘good boy’.” Everything seemed all right. ** Chapter 7- Mrs Weera moves in. ** Last night Mrs Weera when to her own home to collect her things. Because she wanted to stay here for another month or so. But she slept at her house for that day. I am so happy she is staying, I guess we need it. She can get a little annoying at times. But she is a leader! It’s good because she cares. Finally, Mrs Weera came knocking on the door and just to say it was her, she said quietly ” It’s me, Mrs Weera open!” Ali rushed to the door and opened it just before I could tell him anything. Well, at least Mrs Weera came through the door with all her stuff. I was exited and I knew the kids were too. We were all smiling, even Mrs Weera! Later on that morning we sent Parvana to work. At least without the arguing and the slamming doors! ** Chapter 8- Parvana meets Sawzia… ** Everything was going good that evening, we made a place for Mrs Weera to sleep. (In the corner of the room). I really wanted to tell Parvana to get the water on the way. When suddenly I hard a knock on the door. I gave Nouria a little wink and she nodded. She went slowly towards the door when someone quietly said “Hurry up”. Nouria clutched the door handle and opened the door. In came Parvana, carrying the bucket of water. I was thinking mind reader! Today Parvana had 19 Afghanis; she said there were no much people. But she met her friend from her school, Sawzia. She was working as a tea boy. She spotted me first and we both walked home together. We talked about the time is school and about how we missed it so much. Chapter 9- bones… I slept well last night and I’m glad Mrs Weera did too. We all had a good sleep. It’s the late morning and Parvana is getting ready to go to work. Since Parvana had gone to work, Nouria, Ali and Maryam are bored. They end up talking to me or Mrs Weera or… Sitting quiet in the corner of the room. I don’t have much to do either, I just end up talking. It was late in the evening and I was looking at the door and something drew me attention. Someone was trying to post a letter to me from under the door. I got up and pulled the letter from under the door. I sat back down and everyone gathered me as I open the letter and tried to read it. (I couldn’t read). Nouria said “I learned how to read a bit in my school one day” I handed the paper to her and told her to read. She took a deep breath and said “I have been following who I think is your child and have been seeing what he has been doing. He went to the graveyard and dug up some bones with is friend so they can sell it for money.”
 * __ The Bread Winner __**