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by Khaled Hosseini. Pages 241 - 260. Go to the Beginning (Brought to you by jat impatientreader.com) Amir realizes that the three children weren't looking at his watch; they were looking at his bowls of food. He leaves the next morning, but not before putting money under the mattress like he did with Hassan many years ago. Farid and Amir drive from Jalalabad to Kabul. Farid tells him not to expect it to look in any way like he left it, but Amir is unprepared for the reality. The entire city seems turned to rubble, and there are beggars everywhere, many much younger than he is. Amir asks him to let him off for a minute, and Amir walks around stunned at what has happened. Suddenly a vehicle comes by, there are Taliban searching for men without beards. They move off, but Farid tells Amir never to look the Taliban in the eyes. That advice is reinforced by a beggar who tells him the same thing. It then turns out that the beggar taught at the same school that Amir's mother taught in. Amir asks him if he remembers anything about her, and he does. He tells Amir a story about her, and Amir drinks in the details. He tells Amir he'll try to remember more if he'll come back and see him, but Amir can't find his way back to him. Farid and Amir find the orphanage in a war-torn part of Kabul. The man inside the building, named Zaman, takes one look at the picture Amir presents and says he is not there and closes the door. Amir and Farid insist though, and soon the man lets them in. The orphanage has far too many children in it, Zaman says as he leads them towards his office. He asks Amir how much he wants to find his nephew, and Amir says that he must find him. It turns out that Zaman has been trading children to the Taliban in place of money for him to continue buying food for the rest of the orphanage. Farid attacks him, saying he's been selling children, and wants to kill him. Amir stops him just in time, and Zaman says that they took Sohrab a month ago. He tells Farid and Amir to go to the stadium tomorrow, and look for the man in dark sunglasses. They leave the orphanage and go towards where Amir used to live. They see a dead body hanging from a gallows, and a man trying to sell his artificial leg. Farid says that Amir's old neighborhood is where the Taliban and other high officials now live. Characters introduced: Dr. Rasul (beggar in Kabul, knew Amir's mother) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Amir and Farid go to Baba's old house in Kabul. Amir remembers finding a turtle in the field behind the house. He goes and looks all over the yard where he and Hassan used to play, and notices how most of it has fallen into disrepair. He then goes up the hill behind Baba's house, where he and Hassan under the pomegranate tree, and finds the carving they had put there years ago. Farid finally gets him to leave, and they go into town to stay for the night. Amir rents a hotel room there, and he and Farid talk and tell old Afghan jokes to each other. Farid asks him again why he's here, and Amir says it's about the boy. Farid asks why he'd come all the way from America for a Shi'a, and Amir wonders if Afghanistan will ever change. The next day, Amir and Farid go to the stadium to see if they can find the man with dark sunglasses. A soccer game takes place, but during halftime a pickup truck comes out with several people blindfolded in the back. The people are placed into holes on the field so that only their upper bodies are exposed. A cleric comes out and tells everyone how the sinners will be punished. Then, a man with dark sunglasses steps out of one of the pickups and starts hurling stones at the prisoners. It isn't long until both are dead. Regardless of what they've just witnessed, Farid sets up a meeting with the man for that afternoon. Amir and Farid drive to the man's house that afternoon. Farid says he'll stay in the car while Amir goes in, and Amir understands that he doesn't want to involve himself in whatever is to come. Amir knocks on the door and two Taliban soon let him in. They take him into a sitting room. It isn't long before the man in sunglasses shows up. They sit in silence for a while, but suddenly the man gestures and one of the guards rips off Amir's fake beard. The man tells him how he went around in 1998 and massacred the Hazara in Mazar-i-Sharif. He then asks Amir why he's there, and Amir tells him he there to get Sohrab. The man brings him in, and makes him dance in front of Amir. Characters introduced: man in sunglasses (Taliban enforcer who takes the children from the orphanage) |
