i want to give up my bearings, slip out of who i am, shed everything, the way a snake discards old skin.

Никога нямаше да остави такава следа в сърцето на мами, каквато бяха оставили нейните братята, защото то беше като белезникав крайбрежен пясък, от който неспирно връхлитащите вълни на печал щяха да отмият стъпките на Лайла.

Thirteen days. Almost two weeks. And, just five days in, she had learned a fundamental truth about time: Like the accordion on which sometimes played old Pashto songs were played, time stretched and contracted depending on his absence or presence.

Thirteen days. Almost two weeks. And, just five days in, she had learned a fundamental truth about time: Like the accordion on which old Pashto songs were sometimes played, time stretched and contracted depending on his absence or presence.

She remembered all too well how time had dragged without him, how she had shuffled about feeling waylaid, out of balance. How she could ever cope with his permanent absence?