Chapter+Eight+-+The+Kite+Runner


 * __ The Kite Runner

Chapter Eight – The Kite Runner __** Hassan continued with his duties around the house but avoided Amir. **Ali, Hassan’s dad said that Hassan only wanted to sleep at the moment. “…He does his chores…then he just wants to crawl under his blankets.** Ali asks Amir if he would tell him if he knew that something was wrong with Hassan. **“I didn’t say anything. Just kept pushing the egg around on my plate”** Amir always gets bolshy and starts attacking with superiority. Baba was agreeing to everything that Amir wanted or said. He asked Amir if Hassan would also like to go to the movies and Amir gets jealous again.**Why did Baba have to spoil it like that? “He’s mareez,” I said. Not feeling well.** Guilt is getting to Amir. He feels ill when he is being congratulated by Baba’s family friends. He sees replays of Hassan being raped in the alley. **“Little shapes formed behind my eyelids, like hands playing shadows on the wall. They twisted, merged, formed a single image: Hassan’s brown corduroy pants discarded on a pile of old bricks in the alley.”** The guilt affects his happiness with his new relationship with his father. “**It shouldn’t have felt this way. Baba and I were finally friends. We’d gone to the zoo a few days before…I had hurled a pebbled at the bear when no one was watching…That should have been fun…finally had what I’d wanted all those years…I felt as empty as this unkempt pool I was dangling my legs into….I became an insomniac.”** Baba and Amir immersed themselves in a “sweet illusion” of friendship and family. **We’d actually deceived ourselves into thinking that a toy made of tissue paper, glue and bamboo could somehow close the chasm between us.”** Hassan keeps trying to rekindle their friendship and again he blames himself for their falling out. This torments Amir with guilt. **“I don’t know what I’ve done, Amir agha. I wish you’d tell me. I don’t know why we don’t play anymore.”** Amir’s guilt gets so bad he can’t bare to have Hassan near him anymore. **“when he was around, the oxygen seeped out of the room. My chest tightened …even when he wasn’t around, he was. He was there in the hand-washed and ironed clothes…the warm slippers…Everywhere I turned, I saw signs of his loyalty, his goddamn unwavering loyalty.** Amir asks Baba if they can get new servants and loses the friendship all over again.**“Why woujld I ever want to do that?’Baba said curtly. ..”Is this about you and Hassan? I know there’s something going on between you two, but whatever it is, you have to deal with it, not me….I grew up with Ali,” he said through clenched teeth. “My father took him in, he loved Ali like his own son. Forty years Ali’s been with my family. Forty goddamned years. And you think I’m just going to throw him out?...I’ve never laid a hand on you Amir, but you ever say that again…you bring me shame. And Hassan…Hassan’s not going anywhere, do you understand?...he’s staying right here with us, where he belongs. This is his home and we’re his family.** When Baba takes him to school he is unhappy**. “I should have been beaming with pride …Baba drove away without saying good-bye.”** School gave Amir an excuse to stay out of Baba’s way and it took his mind off what he “hadn’t” done. ** “…but always my mind returned to the alley. To Hassan’s brown corduroy pants lying on the bricks. To the droplets of blood staining the snow dark red, almost black.”** Amir asks Hassan to go up the hill to the pomegranate tree with him one afternoon. Hassan was overjoyed but Amir was just trying to stir him up to make him hate him and fight him. **“What would you do if I hit you with this?” I said, tossing the fruit up and down.** ** “Hit me b ** ack!” **I snapped…Get up! Hit me!” …I wished he’d give me the punishment I craved, so maybe I’d finally sleep at night. Maybe then things could return to how they used to be between us.** Amir bursts into tears. **__Amirs Birthday__** Amir's birthday was in the summer of 1976. He turned 13. Afghanistan's last summer of peace. Amir's relationship with Baba was cooling off again. "I think what started it was the stupid comment i'd made the day we were planting tulips, about getting new servants....by the end of the summer, the scraping of spoon and fork ...had replaced dinner table chatter...Baba had resumed retreating to his study after supper. And closing the door."
 * “Did something happen to him, Amir agha? Something he’s not telling me?” **
 * “How should I know?...Now, am I going to freeze to death or are you planning on lighting the stove today?’ **
 * “Really?” Baba stopped rocking in his chair. “What’s wrong with him?...I haven’t seen much of Hassan the last few days,” I couldn’t help hating the way his brow furrowed with worry. **
 * “you haven’t done anyting, Hassan. Just go….I want you to stop harassing me. I want you to go away,” I snapped. I wished he would give it right back to me…tell me off…I fell on my bed, buried my head under the pillow, and cried. **
 * Hassan’s smile wilted. He looked older than I’d remembered….old…Lines had etched into his tanned face and creases framed his eyes, his mouth. I might as well have taken a knife and carved those lines myself. **
 * “What would you do?”…The colour fell from his face…I hurled the pomegranate at him. …Hassan’s cry was pregnant with surprise and pain. **
 * Hassan rubbed the fruit on his face.”There …red dripping down his face like blood. “Are you satisfied? Do you feel better?” **

Baba threw a huge party for Amir's 13th birthday.

Assef arrived at the party with his parents. "I tried to fake a smile, but all I could manage was a feeble upturning of the corners of my mouth - my stomach was turning at the sight of my father bonding with Assef." **"Wali and Kamal are here too. they wouldn't miss your birthday for anything," he said laughter lurking just beneath the surface.

"he was dressed in a cotton shirt and blue slacks, a red silk tie and shiny black loafers... he was the embodiment of every parent's dream, a strong, tall, well-dressed and well-mannered boy with talent and striking looks..." "But to me his eyes betrayed him. "...the facade faltered, revealed a glimpse of the madness hiding behind them."

Assef gives Amir an autobiography of Hitler. He throws it away.

Rahim khan sees Amir avoiding everyone in the dark. Rahim Khan knows that Amir knows about what happened to Hassan. "You know, you can tell me anything you want, Amir jan. Anythime."

He looked at me for a long time, like he ws waiting, his black bottomless eyes hinting at an unspoken secret between us. For a moment i almost did tell him....what would he think of me? He'd hate me..."

...I saw something I'll never fortget: Hassan serving drinks to Assef and Wali from a silver platter..."**