A Thousand Splendid Suns: Part III: Chapter 46 Summary & Analysis

Rasheed is lying over Laila, and she begins to see stars. As darkness falls, she vaguely makes out the faces of her children. But suddenly, the darkness starts to lift, and Mariam is shaking her, asking If she’s alright. It burns to breathe, but Laila continues to inhale, and then is coughing, gasping. She sits up and sees Rasheed lying on his back, unblinking. Then she sees the shovel, and lets out a deep groan. She starts trembling and stammering. Mariam, though, seems thoughtful. She tells Laila to sit down. They have to move him, she says—Zalmai can’t see him like this.

They wrap Rasheed in a bedsheet and carry him into the yard, though at one point Laila collapses and cries. They leave him in the toolshed, and Mariam says she needs to tend to Laila’s wounds. She tells Laila she needs the night to devise a plan. Mariam, still calm, says that she, Laila, Tariq, and the children will leave Kabul and go somewhere remote and safe. Mariam says they’ll go to a small village, maybe with a grass field or lake with trout, where they can lead peaceful, quiet lives. Laila is grateful that Mariam has taken charge, and trusts her that there is a way out.

Laila finds Zalmai waiting for Rasheed to say his prayers with them. He asks where his father is, and Laila tells him he’s gone away—the first of many times she’ll have to tell this lie. She is stricken with shame. Zalmai asks if Baba has left because of what he, Zalmai, said, about Laila and the man downstairs, but as she starts to reassure him she sees he’s asleep.

When Laila wakes up, the fog from the night before has lifted. She goes into Mariam’s room and says she knows what Mariam means to do. The story about the remote village, she sees now, was a lie meant to soothe. But Mariam says she meant it—for Laila. Laila starts stammering, pleading with Mariam. But Mariam tells her they’ll find them sooner or later, and she won’t have Laila and Tariq living like fugitives too, especially with their children. It isn’t fair, Laila says. But it is, Mariam responds—she’s killed their husband, so it isn’t right that she run. She can never face Zalmai’s grief.

Mariam says that there’s nothing more she wants than for Laila and her children to have a future. Laila and her children have made her happier than she ever could have imagined. But Laila can’t bring herself to agree—she rambles on with childish storybook fantasies about the new life they could make for themselves, until she finally buries herself against Mariam’s shoulder and cries.

Mariam packs a lunch for Aziza and Zalmai, and tells Laila to kiss Aziza for her. Laila says she wants to see Mariam before she testifies, and will explain to them that it wasn’t their fault. As Laila and Zalmai leave, Laila looks back to see Mariam, with her white scarf, blue sweater, and sunlight across her face. She’ll never see Mariam again.