Vocabulary

elope . 私奔；

When two people elope, they go away secretly together to get married.

My girlfriend Lynn and I eloped.

-The signs of our elopement were subtle: My parents’ wedding picture was gone, as was the grainy photograph of my grandfather and King Nader Shah standing over the dead deer. A few items of clothing were missing from the closets. The leather-bound notebook Rahim Khan had given me five years earlier was gone.

ripple v. (植物等)如波浪起伏; 使呈波状起伏；

When the wind ripples plants or trees or when they ripple, they move in a wave-like motion. [V n] [V] [LITERARY 文]

A breeze stirs the grass and Hassan lets the spool roll. The kite spins, dips, steadies. Our twin shadows dance on the rippling grass.

staccato adj. (噪音)断断续续的，短促不连贯的；

A staccato noise consists of a series of short, sharp, separate sounds.

THE REST OF THAT RIDE is scattered bits and pieces of memory that come and go, most of it sounds and smells: MiGs roaring past overhead; staccatos of gunfire; a donkey braying nearby; the jingling of bells and mewling of sheep; gravel crushed under the truck’s tires; a baby wailing in the dark; the stench of gasoline, vomit, and shit.

summation n. 总结; 概要; 概括；

A summation is a summary of what someone has said or done.

-My eyes returned to our suitcases. They made me sad for Baba. After everything he’d built, planned, fought for, fretted over, dreamed of, this was the summation of his life: one disappointing son and two suitcases.

ashen adj. 尤指因为生病、震惊或受到惊吓脸色苍白的，面如死灰的；

Someone who is ashen looks very pale, especially because they are ill, shocked, or frightened.

-Kamal’s father was sitting cross-legged in the center of the circle, rocking back and forth, kissing his son’s ashen face.

Excerpt

(Baba’s braveness)

That was when Baba stood up. It was my turn to clamp a hand on his thigh, but Baba pried it loose, snatched his leg away. When he stood, he eclipsed the moonlight. “I want you to ask this man something,” Baba said. He said it to Karim, but looked directly at the Russian officer. “Ask him where his shame is.”

“Tell him he’s wrong. War doesn’t negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace.”

“Tell him I’ll take a thousand of his bullets before I let this indecency take place,” Baba said.

Baba slapped my hand away. “Haven’t I taught you anything?” he snapped. He turned to the grinning soldier. “Tell him he’d better kill me good with that first shot. Because if I don’t go down, I’m tearing him to pieces, goddamn his father!”

(Basement)

THE STENCH OF SOMETHING DANK, like mildew, bludgeoned my nostrils the moment Karim opened the door that led down the creaky steps to the basement. We descended in single file. The steps groaned under Baba’s weight. Standing in the cold basement, I felt watched by eyes blinking in the dark. I saw shapes huddled around the room, their silhouettes thrown on the walls by the dim light of a pair of kerosene lamps. A low murmur buzzed through the basement, beneath it the sound of water drops trickling somewhere, and, something else, a scratching sound.

(Fuel truck)

PANIC.

You open your mouth. Open it so wide your jaws creak. You order your lungs to draw air, NOW, you need air, need it NOW But your airways ignore you. They collapse, tighten, squeeze, and suddenly you’re breathing through a drinking straw. Your mouth closes and your lips purse and all you can manage is a strangled croak. Your hands wriggle and shake. Somewhere a dam has cracked open and a flood of cold sweat spills, drenches your body. You want to scream. You would if you could. But you have to breathe to scream.

Panic.

Summary

Hassan’s departure didn't bring things back to normal, for the war broke out all of a sudden. People could trust no one around and dead bodies were seen everywhere. In such situation, Baba and Amir decided to leave. The way toward freedom and safety was neither comfortable nor smooth. Things got even worse when the stuffed truck pulled up to the checkpoint where a Russian coveted the beauty of the young Islamic woman sitting in the back of the vehicle. Baba stood up fearlessly, confronting the Russian, a soldier armed with a gun, without any hesitation. Though the Russian halted their harassment under such valiant behavior, the hardest part didn’t give a clue until all passengers reached their midway destination, a dark, filthy, rat-infested basement crowded by tens of refugees. It turned out that the truck that supposed to carry them was broken weeks ago and they had to wait, maybe for weeks. Eventually, a fuel truck offered the miserable a way out. It was an extremely tough and painful ride, but the truck managed to put the whole journey to an end, except for one thing, it cost a young boy’s and his father’s lives.

Notes

战争爆发，Ali和Hassan走后无人可信，Amir和Baba艰难地赴上了通往安全和自由的漫漫长路。

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