Quarter 2: Outside Reading Post #12

About an hour before sunrise, they truck arrived at another city, Jalalabad. Karim, the driver, ushered all of the passengers quickly into a little house. His brother Toor was supposed to take over the driving from there and take them to Peshwar, but was unable to, "His brother Toor couldn't take us to Peshwar. It seemed his truck's engine had blown the week before and Toor was still waiting for parts"(Hosseini 118). Once Karim told the passengers that, Baba was so angered because he thought that he never told them about the engine because he wanted to get paid for his leg of the trip, so he started to choke Karim. Baba eventually let loose his grip and Karim fell to the floor. They hear something, and it turns out that there is another group of people downstairs from them that had been waiting for two weeks, so they went down in the basement with them. After Amir's eyes adjusted to the darkness he saw that one of the thirty refugees was Kamal, one of Assef's companions, and with him his father. Eventually a different truck came, but this was a fuel truck, so when they got in the truck it was almost impossible to breath. Once they got out of the truck Kamal's dad started crying. Kamal wasn't breathing. So he takes out a handgun and shoots himself in his own mouth, "But before any of us could say or do a thing. Kamal's father shoved the barrel in his own mouth. I'll never forget the echo of that blast. Or the flash of light and the spray of red" (Hosseini 124). I think that this time period of escaping from Afghanistan will scar Amir for the rest of his life, with memories of suffering.