‘I had an aunt,’ she said. ‘My mother’s sister.’ Aarya’s face had stiffened, and Ben realized that this was an effort for her. ‘She met a man, very religious. We are all practising Muslims, but some people would like things to be as they were hundreds of years ago. He was one of those people. They married. This was when I was still very small, but I remember her well. She was a kind lady.’ Aarya smiled. ‘She used to bring me sweets and play games with me whenever I wanted. But she did not stay in the village. In Afghanistan, the Taliban were in power. My aunt’s new husband insisted that they move there. To Kabul, the capital. He wanted to live in that very strict place.’
Ben was listening carefully. He felt as though all the sounds of the street had disappeared into the background. ‘What do you mean, strict?’ he asked. Aarya appeared not to hear him.
‘I remember the day she went,’ the girl continued. Her eyes were lost in thought. ‘I wept. I begged her not to go. I said to her: If he loves you, he would not make you. She just held me and promised that she would visit often. I wept for a week after she left and every day after that I asked my mother when she would come back to see us. Mother could never give me an answer, so soon I learned to stop asking.’
‘Why didn’t she come?’ Ben asked.
Aarya shrugged. They walked round a rickshaw that was parked by the side of the road. ‘In Afghanistan,’ she said darkly, ‘under the Taliban, women were not free to do as they wished. My aunt sometimes sent letters, but they told us nothing. My father says this is because her husband would have read everything first.’
Ben continued to listen in silence.
‘About a year after she left,’ Aarya continued, ‘we received word that she was going to have a baby. My mother was very excited. And so was I. In Pakistan, Ben, families are big. Everyone has cousins. But not me. I was looking forward to it.’
Her voice was quieter now. Ben didn’t know how, but he could tell she was about to reveal something terrible. ‘What happened?’ he asked.
‘The baby was born. A little boy. But my aunt—’ Aarya drew a deep breath, as if she was summoning the strength to continue. ‘She died. Under the Taliban, women were not allowed to receive proper medical care. My aunt was banned from seeing a doctor. She was banned from having medicine. She died a painful death.’
There were tears in Aarya’s eyes now.
‘We have never heard from her husband and we have never seen the child. We were happy when the Taliban were removed from power in Afghanistan, but even now my mother will not have their name mentioned in our house.’
Ben found himself blushing again at the memory of his insensitive question the previous night.
‘I didn’t realize the Taliban were as bad as that,’ he said.
‘They were worse,’ Aarya replied hotly. ‘You would not believe the things they did. Women were not allowed to go to school. They were not allowed to speak in public. They would be beaten with sticks by the religious police if they broke the rules, or even stoned in the street. To death, sometimes. People were executed in public in horrible ways, or had parts of their bodies cut off as punishment. Hands, ears… The Americans and the British did a good thing, removing them from power.’
Aarya was walking quickly now, as if the thought of it had filled her with angry energy.
‘Only they’re still there, aren’t they?’ Ben said, thinking of his mother. ‘In places, I mean.’
Aarya nodded. ‘There are people,’ she said, ‘even in this country, who still support them.’
‘Why?’
A frown creased Aarya’s forehead. She looked like this was a question that had troubled her too.
‘For different reasons, I think. Some people really believe that the Taliban were right; other people are just’ — she searched for the word — ‘just thugs. They try to force us to agree with them, but my family and I will not be bullied, even if it means trouble for us.’
‘Why would it mean trouble for you?’
‘There are families in this village—’ she started to say. But then she thought better of it. ‘God willing, the Taliban will be defeated in Afghanistan. Maybe then they will fade away from this part of Pakistan too.’
She gestured ahead. They were in front of a concrete building, blocky and ugly. Ben had been listening so hard to what Aarya said that he hadn’t noticed their surroundings. Now, though, he recognized the building from a photo the charity had sent him before he left. ‘School,’ the girl said proudly, raising one arm like a tour guide presenting a wonder of the world. ‘We are here.’
Ben was the last of the English people to arrive at the schooclass="underline" the others were all waiting for him out the front. Even though it was hot, the three girls wore long sleeves, which they had been told was the custom.
‘Morning, Ben,’ Mr Knight said as he approached. ‘Probably the earliest you’ve been up since Christmas Day, eh?’ Mr Knight was the kind of teacher who liked saying things that weren’t very funny. ‘All right, everyone,’ he continued when he realized he wasn’t going to get a laugh, ‘we’re going to sit in on an English lesson this morning. Best behaviour from you all. That includes you, Ed.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Ed replied sarcastically, but he fell quiet when Mr Knight gave him a dangerous look.
They spent the morning in classes full of sixty or seventy young Pakistani students, all crowded into basic rooms far too small for that number of people. They’d been warned that it would be very different to back home. ‘It’s the only school in Kampur,’ Miss Messenger had explained to them all. ‘That’s why it’s so crowded, and there’s not enough money to make it bigger.’ The English students were clearly a novelty — Ben was not the only one who drew curious looks and the occasional giggle. He supposed that would die away once they’d been around for a bit.
By the time midday arrived and they were all dismissed to return to their families, Ben was exhausted. He was hot too. The sun beat down as he walked back out of the concrete building to the front of the school where he had arranged to meet Aarya. Crowds of children spilled out, the air filled with their chattering voices — mostly in the Pakistani language of Urdu, of course, which Ben could not understand — while he scanned the area trying to find his new friend.
There she was, about thirty metres away against a low wall. And something was wrong. She was surrounded by several boys and Ben could tell they weren’t trying to chat her up. Her chin was jutting out, but even from this distance he could tell she was scared.
Just then he heard a voice. His heart sank. Ed.
He was alone, without his exchange student. ‘What’s the matter, Ben?’ he taunted. ‘Your girlfriend in trouble or something?’
‘Shut up, Ed,’ Ben replied.
Ed snorted with laughter, then turned away. Ben kept his attention on Aarya.
He hesitated. He was a stranger here. It wasn’t his place to get involved in schoolyard fights that he didn’t understand. Maybe he should hold back. See how things panned out. Aarya was pretty feisty, wasn’t she? She could take care of things…
But as these thoughts went through his head, he knew he couldn’t stand by and watch his new friend being bullied. Aarya was all by herself and the boys were closing on her.
Ben shut his eyes.
He cursed under his breath.
And then he ran towards her.
Chapter Four
There were four of them. Ben counted them while he ran. And as he approached, it became clear that they were all broad-shouldered and quite a bit bigger than him. He stopped just a few metres behind them. ‘What’s going on?’ he demanded.
Aarya looked at him. Her eyes widened and she shook her head. ‘Please, Ben. Don’t…’