"Don't be so dramatic. It's a common thing and you know it. I have friends who have two,
three, four wives. Your own father had three. Besides, what I'm doing now most men I
know would have done long ago. You know it's true."
"I won't allow it."
At this, Rasheed smiled sadly.
"There is another option," he said, scratching the sole of one foot with the calloused heel
of the other. "She can leave. I won't stand in her way. But I suspect she won't get far. No
food, no water, not a rupiah in her pockets, bullets and rockets flying everywhere. How
many days do you suppose she'll last before she's abducted, raped, or tossed into some
roadside ditch with her throat slit? Or all three?"
He coughed and adjusted the pillow behind his back.
"The roads out there are unforgiving, Mariam, believe me. Bloodhounds and bandits at
every turn. I wouldn't like her chances, not at all. But let's say that by some miracle she gets
to Peshawar. What then? Do you have any idea what those camps are like?"
He gazed at her from behind a column of smoke.
"People living under scraps of cardboard. TB, dysentery, famine, crime. And that's before
winter. Then it's frostbite season. Pneumonia. People turning to icicles. Those camps
become frozen graveyards.
"Of course," he made a playful, twirling motion with his hand, "she could keep warm in
one of those Peshawar brothels. Business is booming there, I hear. A beauty like her ought
to bring in a small fortune, don't you think?"
He set the ashtray on the nightstand and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
"Look," he said, sounding more conciliatory now, as a victor could afford to. "I knew you
wouldn't take this well. I don't really blame you. But this is for the best. You'll see. Think of
it this way, Mariam. I'm giving you help around the house and her a sanctuary. A home and
a husband. These days, times being what they are, a woman needs a husband. Haven't you
noticed all the widows sleeping on the streets? They would kill for this chance. In fact, this
is. ... Well, I'd say this is downright charitable of me."
He smiled.
"The way I see it, I deserve a medal."
Later, in the dark, Mariam told the girl.
For a long time, the girl said nothing.
"He wants an answer by this morning," Mariam said.
"He can have it now," the girl said. "My answer is yes."