“I want you to go to KabuL I want you to bring Sohrab here,” he said.I struggled to find the right words. I’d barely had time to deal with the fact that Hassan was dead.“Please hear me. I know an American pair here in Peshawar, a husband and wife named Thomas and Betty Caldwell. They are Christians and they run a small charity organization that they manage with private donations. Mostly they house and feed Afghan children who have lost their parents. I have seen the place. It’s clean and safe, the children are well cared for, and Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell are kind people. They have already told me that Sohrab would be welcome to their home and--” “Rahim Khan, you can’t be serious.” “Children are fragile, Amir Jan. Kabul is already full of broken children and I don’t want Sohrab to become another.”“Rahim Khan, I don’t want to go to Kabul. I can’t!” I said. “Sohrab is a gifted little boy. We can give him a new life here, new hope, with people who would love him. Thomas agha is agood man and Betty khanum is so kind, you should see how she treats those orphans.”“Why me? Why can’t you pay someone here to go? I’ll pay for it if it’s a matter of money.”“It isn’t about money, Amir!” Rahim Khan roared. “I’m a dying man and I will not be insulted! It has never been about money with me, you know that. And why you? I think we both know why it has to be you, don’t we?”I didn’t want to understand that comment, but I did. I understood it all too well. “I have a wife in America, a home, a career, and a family. Kabul is a dangerous place, you know that, and you’d have me risk everything for...“ I stopped. “You know,” Rahim Khan said, “one time, when you weren’t around, your father and I were talking. And you know how he always worried about you in those days. I remember he said to me, ‘Rahim, a boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.’ I wonder, is that what you’ve become?”I dropped my eyes. “我要你到喀布爾去，我要你把索拉博帶到這裏。”他說。我搜腸刮肚，尋找恰當的詞彙。我還來不及接受哈桑已然死去的事實。 “請聽我說。我認識一對在白沙瓦的夫婦，丈夫叫約翰，妻子叫貝蒂?卡爾德威。他們是基督徒，利用私人募捐來的錢，開設了一個小小的慈善機構。他們主要收容和撫養失去雙親的阿富汗兒童。那兒又幹淨又安全，兒童得到很好的照料，卡爾德威先生和太太都是好人。他們已經告訴我，歡迎索拉博到他們家去，而且……” “拉辛汗，你不是說真的吧？”“兒童都很脆弱，親愛的阿米爾。喀布爾已經有太多身心殘缺的孩子，我不希望索拉博也變成其中之一。”“拉辛汗，我不想去喀布爾，我不能去！”我說。 “索拉博是個有天分的小男孩。在這裏我們可以給他新的生活、新的希望，這裏的人們會愛護他。約翰老爺是個善良的人，貝蒂太太爲人和善，你應該去看看她如何照料那些孤兒。”“爲什麼是我？你幹嗎不花錢請人去呢？如果是因爲經濟問題，我願意出錢。”“那和錢沒有關係，阿米爾！”拉辛汗大怒，“我是個快死的人了，我不想被侮辱！在我身上，從來沒有錢的問題，你知道的。至於爲什麼是你？我想我們都知道，爲什麼一定要你去，是嗎？”我不想明白他話中的機鋒，但是我清楚，我太清楚了。“我在美國有妻子、有房子、有事業、有家庭。喀布爾是個危險的地方，你知道的，你要我冒着失去一切的危險，就爲了……”我停住不說。 “你知道嗎，”拉辛汗說，“有一次，你不在的時候，你爸爸和我在說話。而你知道他在那些日子裏最擔心的是什麼。我記得他對我說，‘拉辛，一個不能爲自己挺身而出的孩子，長大之後只能是個懦夫。’我在想，難道你變成這種人了嗎？”我垂下眼光。
