- Here's the plan: "They are going to dig up bones" (10.1).
- Parvana isn't thrilled with the idea and has kept it a secret from Mother.
- Heading to the cemetery, which has been destroyed by bombs, the girls can smell the stench. (That would be dead body stench, in case you were wondering.)
- The girls see boys already digging to give the "bone broker"—the person who weighs the bones and buys them—the goods (10.7).
- Parvana has a really good question: what if they dig up a body that hasn't fully decayed?
- And Shauzia has a really good answer: "We'll find one with a bone sticking out of it" (10.13). She's got a real can-do attitude, this Shauzia does.
- Parvana pulls out her trusty blanket for them to use to gather bones, though Parvana wishes the blanket were back at the marketplace with her secret friend.
- Shauzia bravely pulls the first bone from the soil. It isn't so bad really, and kind of like pulling a carrot out of a garden… Except, you know, way grosser.
- Parvana cleans the soil off of the bone, wondering if its owner will mind.
- Parvana finds a skull that's grinning, so they prop him up, name him Mr. Skull, and use him as their mascot. Is anyone else totally grossed out right now?
- Mr. Skull watches as they move between the graves and gather a blanket full of bones.
- And great news, Shmoopsters: Mr. Skull gets some friends. Phew, right? We know you were worried he might get lonely. But the girls find four more skulls to add to their collection and keep Mr. Skull company.
- Nature calls and Parvana has to find a place to go to the bathroom, but Shauzia reminds her to watch out for the land mines. Shoot, that's right—Parvana remembers her father saying that Kabul is filled with land mines, just like the one that killed her brother.
- Father knows just what to say, doesn't he?
- Parvana remembers when a United Nations representative talked to her class about land mines; apparently some target children and are disguised as toys.
- Now Parvana worries that there is a bomb in the building where the bathroom is located.
- She decides to chance it, though, since she can't hold it in any longer and she doesn't want to go outside at the risk of revealing her identity.
- Phew. No bomb.
- Afterward, the girls collect more bones and the bone collector weighs them.
- They earn a lot of money, which inspires them to keep digging. No lunch with Mother today for Parvana.
- Later on, sunshine breaks out from behind the clouds and Parvana says, "We have to remember this" (10.56); she also says that later in life they should remember what they had to do to feed their families.
- Shauzia jokes that perhaps they'll talk about their grave-digging exploits over tea when they are rich and old.
- At the end of the day, the girls decide to hold back most of the money from their families—they'll just spend it, and the girls need money to buy their trays.
- So Parvana tucks the money safely in her bag, next to her Father's writing papers; then she rinses herself off under the running tap water.
- When she closes her eyes that night, all she sees is Mr. Skull and his four friends staring at her.