Swallows of Kabul Chapter Seven

Atiq is out in the blazing hot sun and he sees some hundreds of sickly looking children. When he sees them he feels uneasy. Before Atiq saw these kids he regretted the fact that god never gave him and his wife children but now he sees all of these kids and considers himself lucky. As Atiq is walking down the street he passes Nazeesh's house. Nazeesh sees him and pretends to sleep while Atiq passes him. Atiq realizes and then comes and starts to talk to Nazeesh. While he is talking to him he apologizes for the hurtful words he had said the previous night. Then Nazeesh says that he should be the one apologizing because he interrupted him when he wanted to be alone. Nazeesh then asks Atiq if he thinks that what he said the other night was true and Atiq replies back in a rude way. Atiq then leaves Nazeesh and begins to walk and think about how it feels good for him to be mean like that to people. As Atiq is walking however Mirza Shah sees him talking to himself again and begins to talk to him and tell him that people are gonna think he is crazy if he keeps doing that. Then Atiq gets upset with Mirza's comments and leaves. As he leaves he runs into Zunaira and knocks over Mohsen. Mohsen then gets up and an officer from the taliban comes over and ask him if he thinks this is a circus. Mohsen starts talking to the officer and then officer hits him with the whip and Zunaira pulls him and tells him that they need to go. Then the officer yells at her for speaking. The officer then makes Mohsen go attend the prayer while Zunaira stays by the wall.