Vocabulary

elope v.私奔净嘀；

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;使呈波狀起伏；

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)斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的，短促不連貫的伤提；

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.總結(jié);概要;概括；

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?yàn)樯√ù选⒄痼@或受到驚嚇臉色蒼白的菠隆，面如死灰的；

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

Excerpt

勇敢的父親

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!”

難民生活

THE STENCH OF SOMETHING DANK, like mildew, bludgeoned my nostrilsthe 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 sawshapes 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 tricklingsomewhere, and, something else, a scratching sound.

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 doesn't bring things back to normal when the war breaks out all of a sudden. People can trust no one around and dead bodies are seen here and there. In such situation, Baba and Amir decide to leave. The way toward freedom and safety is neither comfortable nor smooth. Things gets even worse when the stuffed truck pulls up to the checkpoint where a Russian covets the beauty of the young Islamic woman sitting in the back of the vehicle. Baba stands up fearlessly, confronting the Russian soldier who is armed with a gun without any hesitation. Though the Russian halts their harassment under such valiant behavior, the hardest part doesn't give a clue until all passengers reach their midway destination, a dark, filthy, rat-infested basement crowded by tens of refugees. It turns out that the truck that supposes to carry them is broken weeks ago and they have to wait, maybe for weeks. Eventually, a fuel truck offers the miserable a way out. It is an extremely tough and painful ride, but the truck manages to put the whole journey to an end, except for one thing, it costs a young boy’s and his father’s lives.

Notes

戰(zhàn)爭爆發(fā)勃蜘，Ali和Hassan走后無人可信硕噩，Amir和Baba艱難地赴上了通往安全和自由的漫漫長路。