Friday, March 4, 2011

Tired on Thursday

Well, I'm wiped! That's all I can say, ha. Swimming has been really hard lately. We started doing P90X at dryland. Man, is that hard. I know tomorrow I'll have trouble getting out of bed, sigh. But I'm looking forward to the weekend! I'm going bowling with some friends and going out to dinner with my family. Oh yeah, and babysitting Friday. So a busy weekend, but it should be fun!

The Kite Runner By: Khaled Hosseini pages 273-310

Let me tell you this, the book gets intense here. If you remember, a meeting is set with the Talib man for three. Amir goes to his home and waits to meet with him. When he gets called into his room, the man says, "You can do away with that now, you know." Amir has no clue what he is talking about until the man reaches to his face and rips off Amir's fake beard. Then he asks him how he liked the "show" today at Ghazi Stadium. Amir is angered by the fact he refers to it as that. The man tells Amir about going door to door killing Hazaras and leaving them in the streets for days so the dogs could eat them. Then the Talib asked if he wanted to see the boy. Amir answered yes, so he called Sohrab out. He was dressed his bells around his wrists and ankles and was made to dance. Then after he was done the man hugged him and rubbed his stomach as he said, " I've been wondering , whatever happened to old Babalu, anyways?" He was talking about Ali. "The question his me like a hammer between the eyes," Amir thinks. "What did you think? That you'd put on a fake beard and I wouldn't recognize you? Here's something I'll bet you never knew about me: I never forget a face. Not ever. I heard your father died. Tsk-tsk. I always did want to take him on. Looks like I'll have to settle for his weakling of a son," the man said. Amir was finally able to mutter the words, "Assef." Maybe you remember from previous posts the bully from back when Amir and Hassan were kids, the one who raped Hassan. Well, this is him. He goes on to explain how he became a Talib. Amir asks to leave with the boy. Assef agrees and just as Amir is walking out the door he says, "Of course, I didn't say you could have him for free." After this, Assef puts on his brass knuckles and tells the other gaurds that there will only be one person to walk out of this room, and if its Amir they must let him go for he has earned it. Also, no matter what they hear, they can't come in. Assef orders that Sohrab stay and watch. The next three pages describe the fight. Amir is getting beat up badly, he can hear his ribs cracking, feel the blood on his face, and he has swallowed many of his teeth. Assef has gotten him in a position and is about to kill him, but Sohrab begs him to stop. When he doesn't, he pulls out his slingshot and shoots Assef in the eye with a metal ball. Amir and Sohrab are able to escape, but they barely make it to the car because Amir is hurt so badly.

The next chapter Amir is in the hospital. He has wires all through his stomach and tubes in his chest, even wires the keep his jaw in place which makes it hard to speak. Sohrab is still very quiet toward Amir, but the begin to play cards and start to bond. Amir asks Farid to find the family whom Rahim Khan said would take care of Sohrab, but it turns out he made it up and there is no family.

This section of the book was very eye opening. Amir finally stood up for Hassan, indirectly. After all those years of Hassan sticking up for Amir, he finally repaid him. Oddly enough, Amir was happy that Assef beat him up; he finally feels that he has been punished for betraying Hassan all those years ago. Honestly, I don't know how he did that all for a boy. But I guess when your family is in need you'd do anything for them! I really hope that Amir ends up taking Sohrab home with him, but I guess we'll find out what happens!

Have a great day tomorrow! Night

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