Free The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

she was as a big sister! Still, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Nooria excited about something, so she kept quiet.
    Almost every day, Parvana and Shauzia would see each other in the market. Parvana waited for her friend to come to her. She was still too shy to run among the pack of tea boys, looking for Shauzia. They talked about some day having enough money to buy trays and things to sell from them, but so far neither could come up with a way to make it happen.
    One afternoon, when she was between customers, something landed on Parvana’s head. She quickly snatched it off. After checking to make sure no one was watching, she took a look at the latest present from the Window Woman. It was a lovely white handkerchief with red embroidery around the edges.
    Parvana was about to look up and smile her thanks at the window, in case the WindowWoman was watching, when Shauzia ran up to the blanket.
    â€œWhat do you have there?”
    Parvana jumped and stuffed the handkerchief in her pocket. “Nothing. How was your day?”
    â€œThe usual, but I’ve got some news. A couple of tea boys heard of a way to make money. Lots of money.”
    â€œHow?”
    â€œYou’re not going to like it. Actually, neither do I, but it will pay better than what we’ve been doing.”
    â€œWhat is it?”
    Shauzia told her. Parvana’s mouth dropped open.
    Shauzia was right. She didn’t like it.

TEN
    Bones. They were going to dig up bones.
    â€œI’m not sure this is a good idea,” Parvana said to Shauzia the next morning. She had her blanket and her father’s writing things with her. She hadn’t been able to tell her mother about going bone-digging, so she didn’t have a reason to leave her usual work things behind.
    â€œI’m glad you brought the blanket. We can use it to haul away the bones.” Shauzia ignored Parvana’s objections. “Come on. We’d better hurry or we’ll get left behind.”
    Getting left behind did not sound so terrible to Parvana, but with a quick look across the market to the painted-in window with her secret friend, she obediently fell in behind Shauzia as they ran to catch up with the group.
    The sky was dark with clouds. They walked for almost an hour, down streets Parvana didn’t recognize, until they came to one of the areas of Kabul most heavily destroyed by rockets. Therewasn’t a single intact building in the whole area, just piles of bricks, dust and rubble.
    Bombs had fallen on the cemetery, too. The explosions had shaken up the graves in the ground. Here and there, white bones of the long-dead stuck up out of the rusty-brown earth. Flocks of large black and gray crows cawed and pecked at the ground around the ruined graves of the newer section of the graveyard. The slight breeze carried a rotting stench to where Parvana and Shauzia were standing, on the edge of the cemetery’s older section. They watched the boys fan out across the graveyard and start digging.
    Parvana noticed a man setting up a large weigh scale next to the partially destroyed wall of a building. “Who’s that?”
    â€œThat’s the bone broker. He buys the bones from us.”
    â€œWhat does he do with them?”
    â€œHe sells them to someone else.”
    â€œWhy would anyone want to buy bones?”
    â€œWhat do we care, as long as we get paid.” Shauzia handed Parvana one of the rough boards she’d brought along to use as a shovel. “Come on, let’s get busy.”
    They walked over to the nearest grave. “What if...what if there’s still a body there?” Parvana began. “I mean, what if it’s not bones yet?”
    â€œWe’ll find one with a bone sticking out of it.”
    They walked around for a moment, looking. It didn’t take long.
    â€œSpread out the blanket,” Shauzia directed. “We’ll pile the bones onto it, then make a bundle out of