The anxiety set in on Tuesday nights. Mariam would sleep poorly, fretting that some business entanglement would prevent her father from coming on Thursday, that she would have to wait whole other week to see him. On Wednesdays, she paced outside, tossed chicken feed absentmindedly into the coop. She went for aimless walks, picking petals from flowers and batting at the mosquitoes nibbling in her arms. Finally, on Thursdays, all she could do was sit against a wall, eyes glued to the stream and wait. If her father was running late , a terrible dread filled her bit by bit. Her knees would weaken and she would have to go somewhere and lie down.
Then her mother would call, "And there he is, your father, with all his glory."
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini.
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