Boy Overboard

As Jamal follows Bibi after the ball, carefully avoiding landmines, he marvels at the power of her kick. Luckily, an abandoned army tank stops the ball from going further afield. The tank’s gun barrel seems to move, but Jamal reassures himself that it’s the wind. Jamal gently scolds Bibi for leaving the house without telling their parents, as she can become violent when upset. Bibi says that she left a note for Mum and Dad saying that she went out to play soccer, which exasperates Jamal since this written confession could get their family in trouble. Their parents are already breaking the law by teaching girls in a school in their home.

As Jamal approaches the ball, he realizes that the army tank is not abandoned: There are soldiers inside, watching him. He tries to discern whether it’s an American, Russian, British, or Iranian tank but can’t remember which countries are allied with Afghanistan this year. Then, the tank’s gun swivels around to point at him. Shaking uncontrollably, he shouts to his sister to run. Bibi, however, stands her ground and throws rocks at the tank, yelling insults and demanding that it return their ball.

Jamal gets his sister to stop lobbing rocks and insults at the tank but hesitates to abandon his soccer ball, which he has kept hidden from the government for two years and patched up a “million times.” Seeing that his ball is now partly under the treads of the tank and may pop at any moment, he looks to his ancestors for strength. His mother’s forebears were valiant “desert warriors,” and his father’s ancestors were “hard-working bakers” (12). Jamal pleads aloud with the tank to back off his ball, explaining that he needs it for his future “career” in soccer. He unsuccessfully tries to pull the ball loose. He laments that Bibi inherited all the fighting spirit of their desert warrior ancestors, leaving him with only his father’s “baker” genes. Just then, a blast of radio static comes from the tank, and it slowly backs away. Trembling, Jamal retrieves his ball, but just as he is thanking his baker ancestors, he hears a “terrified scream.” Yusuf shouts to him that Bibi has stepped on a mine.

Picking his way through the wreckage beyond the football pitch, Jamal sees that the landmine has not yet exploded but may go off if Bibi moves her foot from the metal plate that acts as a trigger. Yusuf helps to prevent this by pushing on her foot with both his hands. Jamal joins him, noting angrily that the government was supposed to remove the mines seven years ago. He hesitates to go for help since Bibi, as a girl, may get in trouble for playing soccer outside. Nervously, Jamal slides his own foot onto the mine’s trigger to take her place, but Bibi refuses to take her foot off the mine, ignoring his reassurances that it is probably a “dud.” Staring grimly at Yusuf, who lost his leg to a mine, she works herself into a tantrum. Finally, the boys convince her to move away from the mine so that Yusuf can run to the village for help. With the mine’s spring trigger now under his own foot, Jamal calms, feeling that he saved his sister. Bibi runs back to him, shouting, “I don’t want to leave you” (21). To his horror, she hurls herself at him, and together, they fall off the mine—which turns out to be a dud. Jamal leads his sister back to the village.

As they sneak into the village, Bibi, who is disguised in a hat and jacket, throws a rock at a passing truck, griping that her friend Anisa’s father was taken away in a truck. She calls the country of Afghanistan a “bum boil,” shocking Jamal, who thinks that all children should love their country, especially their national team. Success in the World Cup, he thinks, might convince other countries to stop bombing Afghanistan. A block from their house, they are waylaid by their neighbor Mr. Nassir, the “angriest” man on their street, who grabs Jamal’s soccer ball. Accusing them of breaking his downstairs window with the ball, he seizes Bibi by the shoulder. Jamal and Yusuf tell him, truthfully, that they didn’t break his window, but Mr. Nassir, who has been crotchety ever since his wife’s death, refuses to listen. Jamal tries to exonerate himself by showing off his skill with the ball—which seems to work until he becomes distracted by Bibi, whose disguise is slipping. He gives the ball a clumsy kick, breaking Mr. Nassir’s other downstairs window. Calling them “vandals,” Mr. Nassir threatens to call the police, but Jamal’s father pulls up in his taxi. Appeasing Mr. Nassir with a promise to pay for both windows, he drags the three children to his taxi. He seems furious with them, which Jamal hopes is only for Mr. Nassir’s benefit. However, when he doesn’t wink at them, Jamal realizes that it’s not an act.

At home, Dad and Mum throw their arms around the children for a long hug, saying that they love them very much. Mum is in tears, and Jamal tells himself that she must be mourning all the relatives they’ve lost, which has left only the four of them. Dad tells them, “We’ve got to get out of the house. […] Tonight. And we can’t ever come back” (31). Mum has been illegally teaching girls, and the government found out. Though she and Dad always hid the girls in the car trunk when they brought them over for lessons, the government found out anyway. A trusted friend told them just an hour ago.

Bibi flies into a rage, and Mum has to hug her to stop her from kicking the walls. Mum says, “This will keep us safe” (35), grabbing her family heirloom, an ornate candlestick embedded with precious stones. Passed down from her ancestors for hundreds of years, the candlestick has brought the family protection in times of trouble, such as air raids. Mum tells Jamal to pack no more than he can carry on his back. He must leave his handmade toy tanks, his cardboard footballs, and a bleached bone he found in the desert. Jamal’s father bids goodbye to the brick oven that has been in the family for generations, which he’s used to bake countless loaves of bread to sell out of his taxi. In the cellar, Mum digs a hole to bury her blackboard, books, and paintbrushes. They bury a painting that Jamal made of himself as a soccer hero, scoring a goal in the World Cup. In it, he looks like a “desert warrior,” like his mother’s ancestors, not like a baker. Jamal becomes determined to find a way to stay.

While hiding at Yusuf’s house, Jamal and Bibi watch soccer on Yusuf’s grandfather’s illegal satellite TV hookup, which only gets the sports channel. Yusuf’s grandfather laughs at a Liverpool player’s personal foul, saying that he went “overboard.” Jamal wants to “go overboard” to get his family’s home back, but he is not sure how. He decides that if he gets very good at soccer, founds a national team, and earns the World Cup, perhaps the government will forgive his family for running an illegal school. Yusuf’s grandfather expresses doubt, reminding Jamal that their “people” have been discriminated against in Afghanistan for hundreds of years, long before the present government. Jamal clings to his plan, thinking that maybe if he succeeds, none of their people will ever be treated unfairly again.