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by Khaled Hosseini. Pages 81 - 100. Go to the Beginning (Brought to you by jat impatientreader.com) After the events on the day of the kite flying tournament, Amir finds that Hassan has been avoiding him. Hassan's father Ali asks if everything is ok, but Amir snaps at him and says everything is fine as far as he knows. Amir asks Baba if they can go to Jalalabad, and his father says yes and asks if they should bring Hassan along. Amir says he thinks Hassan is sick. They end up going to Jalalabad in the company of Baba's extended family. Amir ends up getting sick on the way there. When they get to Jalalabad, there's a huge dinner but Amir doesn't feel like eating. He's finally got his father's attention, but it all seems empty now. He doesn't see Hassan till the following week, when he invites Amir to climb up the hill with him. Amir does so reluctantly, but then leaves when Hassan asks him to read to him. He thinks some more about how Baba and he are finally close, but he almost can't stand to be in the house with Hassan. He finally yells at Hassan to stop trying to be friends with him. One day, when he's gardening with Baba, he asks if they can get another servant. Baba becomes very angry with him and says that Hassan and Ali are there to stay. Amir is very happy when school starts, but he can't keep his mind off of Hassan. One day, Amir asks him to go up the hill with him. Once they are there, he taunts Hassan by throwing a pomegranate at him, trying to make Hassan hit him to make up for the guilt he's feeling. But Hassan refuses to do it. Amir also knows that he and Baba have gone back to the way they were before the kite flying tournament. But before then, there's a huge birthday party for Amir at Baba's house. Assef comes with his parents, and Amir almost cannot stand to look at him. Assef makes a show of giving a gift to Amir, Baba makes him take it and say thank you even though Amir almost can't bring himself to do it. He runs off and opens Assef's gift in a field; it's a biography of Hitler. Amir throws it away. Rahim Kahn finds him and tells him he was almost married, but when he told his family it was to a Hazara, they make sure the girl's family is sent away forever. He tells Amir he can tell him anything he wants, but Amir doesn't say anything. Rahim gives Amir a present, a leather-bound notebook. Suddenly, fireworks start going off, and in the crowd he can see Hassan serving drinks to Assef and Wali. Characters introduced: Homayoun (Baba's second cousin) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Amir opens the presents he received at the party the previous night but just throws them in a pile in his room. Baba gives him a new bike and a watch. Amir thinks that the only way he's going to be able to get away from his guilt is if either him or Hassan leave. He rides his bike out to the backyard and greets Ali where he's cleaning up from the party. Ali gives him a copy of the Shahnamah. Amir then goes home and asks Baba if he's seen the new watch. The next day, Amir waits until Ali and Hassan are gone, and places the watch and several envelopes of money he received as gifts under Hassan's bed. Amir then goes and tells Baba he thinks Hassan has stolen his watch. Later, Baba confronts Ali and Hassan. Baba asks Hassan if he had taken Amir's watch. To Amir's surprise, Hassan says yes. He figured that Hassan would say no. But then Amir realizes that Hassan knew that Amir had seen what had happened on the day of the kite-flying tournament. Still, he's hoping that Baba will dismiss them, but instead he forgives Hassan. But Ali says that they are leaving, and Amir realizes that Hassan has told him everything. Baba doesn't want them to go, but Ali insists. Baba takes them to the bus station and they leave. In the next chapter, we've moved forward to 1981, and Baba and Amir are leaving Kabul. They are riding in a truck with other refugees fleeing the Russian occupation to Pakistan. Karim is smuggling them over the border in an old truck. Amir thinks about the life they left behind, and about how they've had seven servants in the five years since Ali and Hassan left, and how bad the occupation was. Amir is sick, so they have to stop the truck. Later, they reach a checkpoint on the road and are stopped by a Russian soldier. The soldier looks in the truck and demands that a young woman go with him for half an hour. Baba gets up and challenges the soldier, telling him that he has no shame and that he is going to have to kill him to get to the girl. Amir tries to stop him, but Baba won't back down. The soldier is about to shoot him when his superior officer stops him at the last second. They reach Jalalabad, only to find out that there is no truck to take them to Pakistan, that Karim only was paid to get them to Jalalabad and no further. Baba threatens to kill him before the young woman in the truck that Baba saved asks him to stop. Baba and Amir and the rest of the refugees have to hide in the basement of a house with about 30 others. Two of them are Kamal and his father, but Kamal had been assaulted by Russian soldiers and will no longer speak. Characters introduced: Karim (smuggler) |
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