Listening to them, I realized how much of who I was, what I was, had been defined by Baba and the marks he had left on people’s lives. My whole life, I had been “Baba’s son.” Now he was gone. Baba couldn’t show me the way anymore; I’d have to find it on my own. The thought of it terrified me.
This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.
A sadness came over me. Returning to Kabul was like running into an old, forgotten friend and seeing that life hadn’t been good to him, that he’d become homeless and destitute.
What I have in ample supply here is children who’ve lost their childhood. But the tragedy is that these are the lucky ones.
Maybe this was my punishment, and perhaps justly so. ‘It wasn’t meant to be’, Khala Jamila had said. Or, maybe, it was meant not to be.
So it would begin. The obligatory questions, the perfunctory answers. Both pretending. Unenthusiastic partners, the two of them, in this tired old dance.
I laughed. Clutched him in a hug and planted a kiss on his cheek. “What was that for?” he said; startled, blushing. I gave him a friendly hug, smiled. “You’re a prince, Hassan. You’re a prince and I love you.
I lay on the side of the dirt road next to a rocky trench, looked up to the gray morning sky, thankful for air, thankful for light, thankful to be alive.
If I’ve learned anything in Kabul, it is that human behavior is messy and unpredictable and unconcerned with convenient symmetries.
But I’ll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting.
He was also one of those boys so bursting with energy that he drained others of theirs.
Kalau kau membunuh seorang pria kau mencuri kehidupannya. Kau mencuri seorang suami dari istrinya, merampok seorang ayah dari anak-anaknya. Kalau kau menipu, kau mencuri hak seseorang untuk mendapatkan kebenaran. Kalau kau berbuat curang, kau mencuri hak seseorang untuk mendapatkan keadilan.
He thought about his long life and gave thanks for all the bounty and joy that he had been given. To want more, to wish for yet more, he knew, would be petty. He sighed happily, and listened to the wind sweeping down from the mountains, to the chirping of night birds.
He’s a doctor,” Timur says. “Ah? It must be shocking for you, then. This hospital.
How glorious it was to know that her love for it already dwarfed anything she had ever felt as a human being.
I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far. Someplace with no ghosts, no memories, and no sins.
Sebenarnya aku berusaha menjadi pengecut karena pilihan lainnya, alasan sebenarnya aku melarikan diri, adalah karena Assef mengatakan kebenaran: Tak ada yang gratis di dunia ini.
Mungkin ini tidak adil, tapi sesuatu yang terjadi dalam beberapa hari, kadang-kadang bahkan dalam sehari, bisa mengubah keseluruhan jalan hidup seseorang.
Katakan padanya, biar seribu peluru menembus tubuhku, aku tetap tidak akan membiarkan perilaku tidak senonohnya.
I lay there drifting, wondering, imagining...