The Captive Sparrow

    we received this short story with thanks from Tmana Nazari, a resident of Yakawlang district, Bamiyan province

Tamana was living in a green village with his brother Firdaus. They like the singing of birds and their only wish was to capture a sparrow.

One day, early in the morning while their mother was cleaning the front yard, a sparrow interred into the room. Tamana saw the sparrow, she became happy and she asked Firdaus to capture the sparrow. The sparrow was trying to fly out of the room but it did not find the way. Firdaus captured the sparrow and gave it to Tamana. Tamana was afraid that if her mother comes, she might release the sparrow. Firdaus asked Tamana to put the sparrow under a bucket in the kitchen. Tamana put the sparrow under the bucket. Meanwhile, Tamana’s classmates, Husna and Gulalai knocked on the door and asked Tamana to go with them to the school. Tamana wants to find some feeds for the sparrow and she asked her classmates to wait for a few minutes but she couldn’t find anything.

Firdaus says that he had seen some wheat in the basement. Tamana and Firdaus went down to the basement but it was too dark and they were afraid there.

It was late and Tamana classmates went to school.

Tamana’s mother entered into the room and she thought that Tamana and Firdaus might be gone to the school. she took her child to the clinic and she locked all the doors including the basement’s door.

Firdaus found some wheat and he asked Tamana to leave the basement. When they try to open the door of the basement, they couldn’t open it and they thought that her mother might have locked the door. They were afraid in the dark and they shouted but no one could hear them.

It was near evening that Tamana’ mother was coming from the clinic. She saw Tamana’s classmates on the way to home and she asked them about Tamana. Husna said that Tamana was absent in the school.

When Tamana’s mother went home, she did not see Tamana and Firdaus at home. Suddenly she heard the shouting of Tamana and Firdaus from the basement. She opened the basement's door and found her children. Their mother asked them that what were they doing in the basement. As Tamana and Firdaus had seen the difficulties of the captivity, Tamana released the sparrow and Firdaus told the whole story to his mother.