追风筝的人经典书评 残忍而美丽的情谊:The Kite Runner 追风筝的人(70)

残忍而美丽的情谊:The Kite Runner 追风筝的人(70)  

But it rained the afternoon Baba took Ali and Hassan to the bus station. Thunderheads rolled in
painted the sky iron gray. Within minutes
sheets of rain were sweeping in
the steady hiss of falling water swelling in my ears.
Baba had offered to drive them to Bamiyan himself
but Ali refused. Through the blurry
rain-soaked window of my bedroom
I watched Ali haul the lone suitcase carrying all of their belongings to Baba’s car idling outside the gates. Hassan lugged his mattress
rolled tightly and tied with a rope
on his back. He’d left all of his toys behind in the empty shack--I discovered them the next day
piled in a corner just like the birthday presents in my room.
Slithering beads of rain sluiced down my window. I saw Baba slam the trunk shut. Already drenched
he walked to the driver’s side. Leaned in and said something to Ali in the backseat
perhaps one last-ditch effort to change his mind. They talked that way awhile
Baba getting soaked
stooping
one arm on the roof of the car. But when he straightened
I saw in his slumping shoulders that the life I had known since I’d been born was over. Baba slid in. The headlights came on and cut in funnels of light in the rain. If this were one of the Hindi movies Hassan and I used to watch
this was the part where I’d run outside
my bare feet splashing rainwater. I’d chase the car
screaming for it to stop. I’d pull Hassan out of the backseat and tell him I was sorry
so sorry
my tears mixing with rainwater. We’d hug in the downpour. But this was no Hindi movie. I was sorry
but I didn’t cry and I didn’t chase the car. I watched Baba’s car pull away from the curb
taking with it the person whose first spoken word had been my name. I caught one final blurry glimpse of Hassan slumped in the back seat before Baba turned left at the street corner where we’d played marbles so many times.
I stepped back and all I saw was rain through windowpanes that looked like melting silver.