追风筝的人阿塞夫结局 残忍而美丽的情谊:The Kite Runner 追风筝的人(113)

残忍而美丽的情谊:The Kite Runner 追风筝的人(113)  

A CREATIVE WRITING TEACHER at San Jose State used to say about clichés: “Avoid them like the plague.” Then he’d laugh at his own joke. The class laughed along with him
but I always thought clichés got a bum rap. Because
often
they’re dead-on. But the aptness of the clichéd saying is overshadowed by the nature of the saying as a cliché. For example
the “elephant in the room” saying. Nothing could more correctly describe the initial moments of my reunion with Rahim Khan.
We sat on a wispy mattress set along the wall
across the window overlooking the noisy street below. Sunlight slanted in and cast a triangular wedge of light onto the Afghan rug on the floor. Two folding chairs rested against one wall and a small copper samovar sat in the opposite corner. I poured us tea from it.
“How did you find me?” I asked.
“It’s not difficult to find people in America. I bought a map of the U.S.
and called up information for cities in Northern California
” he said. “It’s wonderfully strange to see you as a grown man.”
I smiled and dropped three sugar cubes in my tea. He liked his black and bitter
I remembered. “Baba didn’t get the chance to tell you but I got married fifteen years ago.” The truth was
by then
the cancer in Baba’s brain had made him fetful
negligent.
“You are married? To whom?”
“Her name is Soraya Taheri.” I thought of her back home
worrying about me. I was glad she wasn’t alone.
“Taheri... whose daughter is she?”
I told him. His eyes brightened. “Oh
yes
I remember now. Isn’t General Taheri married to Sharif jan’s sister? What was her name...”
“Jamila jan.”
“Balay!” he said
smiling. “I knew Sharif jan in Kabul
long time ago
before he moved to America.”
“He’s been working for the INS for years
handles a lot of Afghan cases.”
“Haiiii
” he sighed. “Do you and Soraya jan have children?”
“Nay.”