The Kite Runner

Chapter Twenty One

Summary

This chapter takes place in front of Khyber restaurant in Pashtunistan Square. The restaurant where Amir used to come to eat kabob with Baba was not just standing without doors and windows. Beside the restaurant Amir spotted a dead hanging body which wasn't seemed to be noticed by anyone. Moving toward the Wazir Akbar Khan district Farid pointed out a man to Amir selling his artificial leg. When questioned, Farid said the leg is worth a lot of money and the man can get money to feed his family for couple of weeks.

Reaching the district Amir notices that the houses here are in better conditions then the other areas and questions this to Farid. As the answer Farid says that this area was called a guests area where most of the Taliban's and their supporters from Pakistan and Arab lived. Moving on they reach the landmark that use to be Amir's guide to get home when he was a kid. Amir recalls that Baba had told him to look for the pink house if he ever got lost. Amir is surprised to see the pink house still standing there and by help of that he finds his house. Reaching the house Amir reminisces all the fun he had with Hassan with a turtle they found in the yard, and doing all other activities such as learning how to ride a bike, climbing trees, running around for no re4asons. Amir and Hassan's heaven has become a hell today. The trees that they use to climb to shine mirrors has been chopped down, the water that use to be foamy ones doesn't even exists no more, the paint has been starting to peel, grass that used to be green ones has been turned into dusty brown, instead of corns, rose and Cherri plants all Amir can find is weed and more dust. The whole scenario was wrong to Amir as he sees the jeep parked instead of Baba's mustang in the driveway. Everything including the driveway and mansion looked smaller to Amir. Looking at the house Amir looked at his bedroom window and recalls how he was staring at Hassan and Ali for the last time. Insanely Amir wanted to go in and follow his old daily routine with Ali and Hassan, who were history now. After being honked twice by Farid, Amir asked for ten minutes and said he doesn't want to forget anymore when was told to forget everything. In those ten minutes Amir walked up to the hill and stood under the wilted, leafless pomegranate tree that will never grow fruit again. He found the carved letters on the tree trunk which said "Amir and Hassan. The Sultans of Kabul." and traced every letter with his fingers.

Moving on they passed the Pashtunistan Square where and ranted a room at a small hotel for 75$ which was a lot of money compared to what they use to pay in his childhood. After observing the room Amir gave some money to get food. Amir finds the kabob as delicious as it used to be. At night Amir found out from Farid that his father has been killed by gunfire from a helicopter, when they were fighting and his two daughters have been killed because of a land mine. Farid was amazed by the American living style when he asked Amir what was America like. After treading the most popular Afghani Mullah jokes Amir was questioned for his reason to be there. Failing to answer the question Amir asked Farid to go to sleep and stayed awake all night thinking about Afghanistan being a hopeless