Reshmina: Moving Forward — Chapter 24 Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Chapter 24 opens with Reshmina crouched in a poppy field, certain she's been spotted. The young Afghan guard shouts that he sees her, but when Reshmina peeks through the flowers, she realizes he's bluffing—trying to trick her into revealing herself. She stays low and studies him. He's a teenager, gangly and thin, with only a wisp of beard. Reshmina recognizes him as a boy-man, the same kind of young soldier she's seen among the ANA troops in her village. She reasons that the field can't be his; he's guarding it for someone else, possibly the Taliban. She thinks about how this could be the kind of work Pasoon might soon be doing.

The guard calls out again, and this time Reshmina hears fear in his voice. She almost feels sorry for him—he's not a villain, just a boy who needs a job. But he has a gun, and his job is to shoot her if he catches her.

Reshmina's mind turns to regret. She wishes she could go back in time ten minutes and make a different decision. But she wonders how far back she'd need to go: to the moment she wrestled her brother for the rifle? To following him from home? All the way back to bringing the American soldier into her house? She begins to fear that every path she's chosen has been the wrong one.

The guard moves closer, forcing Reshmina to act. She picks up a rock and throws it across the canyon. The clatter draws the guard's attention, and he fires his rifle—the echo is explosive and overwhelming. Reshmina covers her ears and runs in a crouch through the poppies, flattening them as she goes. She reaches the edge of the field, where a thin path runs along the canyon wall, and throws herself to the ground.

The guard doesn't come. Reshmina realizes the path leads two ways: back where she started, or toward where the guard had been standing. She moves toward the guard's post, peeks over the poppies, and sees him on the far side of the canyon, rifle at the ready, sweat on his forehead. He notices the path she cut through the poppies and moves to investigate. Reshmina doesn't wait—she slips around the rock and follows the path out of the canyon.

Once out of sight, she runs harder than she's ever run before, up ridges and down into dips, slipping and cutting herself on rocks and scrub. She doesn't stop until she reaches a gap in the peaks, where she collapses against a rock, exhausted and shaking.

There, Reshmina cries. She cries from fear and exhaustion, for her family who don't know the danger coming their way, and for Pasoon, who is lost to her. The worst part, she thinks, is that everything—every cut, every bruise, every loss—is her fault. It all happened because she tried to give refuge to a man who asked for help.

She wipes her eyes and looks out at the landscape. To the north and east are the white-capped mountains of Pakistan; to the west lies the river valley of her village, houses climbing the hills like stairs. She's traveled so far in a day yet gone almost nowhere. She wonders why she should keep trying when every decision she makes seems wrong.

A pebble skitters down a nearby slope. Reshmina catches a flicker of movement—then sees it: a snow leopard, camouflaged against the rocks, staring right at her. The big cat is light gray and brown with black spots. Reshmina knows snow leopards don't attack people, though they sometimes take livestock. Still, her heart races. Seeing one is incredibly rare, almost magical.

The leopard holds its tail rigid and stares back with pale eyes. Reshmina feels a strange connection, as though she can feel the leopard's strength in herself—two creatures living outside the bounds of society. She breathes in rhythm with the cat's slow, powerful chest.

A distant explosion—a tiny echo—makes them both flinch. When Reshmina looks back, the leopard is already darting away around the mountain. She whispers a farewell and a blessing to it.

The leopard is gone, but its strength lingers. Reshmina's long black hair blows free in the wind, and she feels a power and purpose she's never felt before. She thinks back to that morning, when she and Pasoon laughed and played like children. She had wanted to capture that moment in amber, to preserve it like a fossil. But insects trapped in amber are dead, forever stuck in the past. And the Kochi—she had longed for their fairy-tale life, but they've lived the same unchanged lives for thousands of years, with no way up and no way out.

Reshmina realizes that moving forward is scary. Sometimes you make mistakes, sometimes you take the wrong path, and sometimes even the right path leads to trouble. But she wants—needs—to keep moving forward no matter what. She acknowledges it's her fault her family is in danger, her fault Pasoon chose today to leave and join the Taliban. If she had chosen revenge over refuge with Taz, they'd still be home living normal lives. But sometimes what's right and what's easy are two different things.

With renewed strength, Reshmina draws her scarf around her head and starts down the mountain toward her village.

Key Events

Reshmina evades a young Afghan guard who bluffs about seeing her in the poppy field
She distracts him with a rock, triggering a rifle shot, and escapes the canyon
She runs until she collapses at a gap in the peaks, where she breaks down crying and blames herself
A snow leopard appears, watches her, and is startled away by a distant explosion
Reshmina reflects on the past (amber, fossils, the Kochi) and decides to keep moving forward
She heads down the mountain toward her village

Character Development

Reshmina's arc in this chapter moves from paralysis to resolve. At the start, she's frozen by fear and regret, wishing she could rewind time and undo her decisions. She even wonders if every choice she's made has been wrong. But the encounter with the guard forces her to act decisively—she throws the rock, runs, and escapes. The snow leopard encounter deepens this: she feels a kinship with a creature that lives beyond society's rules, and that connection gives her strength. Her reflection on amber and the Kochi crystallizes her realization that staying still means being trapped in the past. By the end, she accepts responsibility for her choices—including the consequences of giving refuge to Taz—and chooses to move forward anyway, recognizing that what's right and what's easy are often different things.

The chapter also shows Reshmina's empathy. She sees the guard not as a villain but as a scared teenager doing a job, someone who could easily be Pasoon. This moment of recognition humanizes the enemy and deepens the novel's anti-war themes.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Moving forward vs. staying stuck: Reshmina's central conflict. She initially wants to preserve her childhood moment with Pasoon in amber, but realizes that amber and fossils are dead things. The Kochi's unchanging life, once romantic to her, now seems like a trap with no way up or out. Her decision to keep moving forward, despite mistakes, is the chapter's core resolution.
The snow leopard as symbol: The rare, camouflaged cat represents wildness, freedom, and strength. Reshmina feels a kinship with it—both are creatures living outside the bounds of society. The leopard's appearance gives her a moment of connection and purpose before it darts away, mirroring how fleeting moments of clarity can be.
Right vs. easy: Reshmina explicitly frames her choice to help Taz as choosing what's right over what's easy. The chapter argues that the right path can lead to hardship, but that doesn't make it the wrong choice.
Regret and self-blame: Reshmina's crying scene is rooted in self-blame—she believes everything is her fault, from her family's danger to Pasoon's departure. The chapter doesn't let her off the hook, but it reframes her guilt as something she must carry while moving forward.
Refuge and consequences: The chapter directly ties Reshmina's current suffering to her decision to give refuge to the American soldier. It explores the idea that acts of compassion can have dangerous, unintended consequences.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 24 is a turning point for Reshmina's emotional arc. It's the chapter where she moves from passive regret to active resolve. The poppy field escape demonstrates her resourcefulness and courage under pressure, while the snow leopard encounter provides a moment of symbolic clarity. Her reflection on amber, fossils, and the Kochi directly addresses the novel's broader themes of change, tradition, and the cost of staying still. The chapter also reinforces the human cost of the conflict—both Reshmina and the guard are children caught up in a war not of their making. By choosing to move forward despite her mistakes, Reshmina models the resilience the novel celebrates.

Study Questions

1. Why does Reshmina initially wish she could go back in time, and what does she realize about that wish?

Reshmina wishes she could rewind ten minutes to undo her current predicament, but quickly realizes she'd need to go back much further—to wrestling Pasoon for the rifle, following him from home, or even bringing Taz into her house. She fears every path she's chosen has been wrong. But by the end of the chapter, she reframes this: moving forward is scary, mistakes happen, and even right paths can go wrong. The wish to go back is really a wish to avoid change, which she comes to see as impossible and undesirable.

2. What does the snow leopard represent in this chapter, and how does its appearance affect Reshmina?

The snow leopard represents wildness, freedom, and strength—a creature living outside the bounds of society. Reshmina feels a rare, almost magical connection to it, as though she can feel its strength in herself. The leopard's appearance gives her a moment of clarity and purpose. When it darts away after the distant explosion, the strength lingers, fueling her decision to keep moving forward.

3. How does Reshmina's view of the Kochi change in this chapter?

Earlier, Reshmina romanticized the Kochi's nomadic life as a fairy tale. In this chapter, she reconsiders: the Kochi have lived the same unchanged lives for thousands of years, with no way up and no way out. She realizes that an unchanging life, however idyllic, is a kind of trap. This realization helps her accept that change—even scary, mistake-filled change—is necessary for growth.