Toil For Peace1

A Story of Eastern Flame

The village of Khanabad sat between two mountains that older men called "the shoulders of God." In winter, snow swallowed the roads whole. In summer, the sun pressed down like a hand on the back of a bowing woman. And in every season, women in Khanabad were expected to live quietly to fold themselves into the shape the world had carved for them. Soraya was born in the season of pomegranates. He…