"Kite Runner"
by
Emily Stachowiak
Johnny Navarro
Diego
1234 Your Street
City, State ZIP Code
Telephone Number
FAde In:
rahim khan is talking to amir on the phone
Amir is standing by a table with the phone to his ear.
Amir
Hello?
Rahim Khan
(coughs before replying and speaking with a raspy voice) Amir-jan?
Amir
Yes… who is this?
Rahim Khan
Rahim Khan. You must return to your home.
Amir
Why?!? What has happened? Are you alright?
Rahim Khan
I'm fine. (Laughs then coughs a few more times) I just want you to know there is a way to be good again.
Rahim Khan hangs up the phone and Amir places the phone on the table and stares at it for a few seconds. The sound of the television suddenly alerts Amir back to the real world. He turns to see Soraya, his wife, on the couch with their dog Aflatoon lying on top of her.
Soraya
You look pale Amir.
Soraya looking concerned mutes the television and stops grading her papers that are sitting on her lap. Her feet are under the pillows on the couch.
Soraya
You look pale.
Soraya places the stack of papers on the table behind her.
Amir
I have to go to Pakistan
Soraya
Pakistan?
Soraya is now standing up. Aflatoon is still lying on the couch.
Amir
Rahim Khan is very sick.
Soraya
Kaka's old business partner?
Amir
Nods
Soraya
Oh. I'm so sorry Amir.
Amir
We used to be close, when I was a kid, he was the first grown-up I ever thought of as a friend.
Soraya
I remember you telling me that, How long will you be gone?
Amir
I don't know. He wants to see me.
Soraya
Is it…
Amir
Yes, it's safe. I'll be all right, Soraya. I'm going for a walk.
Soraya
Should I go with you?
Amir
Nay, I'd rather be alone.
A little while later
Amir is talking to Rahim Khan in Pakistan.
Amir
How did you find me?
Rahim Khan
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. It's wonderfully strange to see you as a grown man.
Amir
Baba didn't get the chance to tell you but I got married fifteen years ago.
Rahim khan
You are married? To whom?
Amir
Her name is Soraya Taheri.
Rahim Khan
Taheri…whose daughter is she?
Amir
General Taheri's
rahim Khan
Oh, yes, I remember now. Isn't General Taheri married to Sharif jan's sister? What was her name…
Amir
Jamila jan.
Rahim Khan
Balay? I knew Sharif jan in Kabul, long time ago. Before he moved to America.
Amir
He's been working for the INS for years, handles a lot of Afghan cases.
rahim khan
Haiiii, do you and Soraya jan have childrena?
amir
Nay
Rahim khan
Oh
The two talk about a few topics and then the conversation turns to the Taliban.
Amir
Is it as bad as I hear?
RAHIM KHAN
NAY, it's worse. Much worse, they don't let you be human.
Points to a scar above his right eye cutting a crooked path through his eyebrow.
I was at a soccer game in Ghazi Stadium in 1998. Kabul against Mazar-i-Sharif, I think, and by the way the players weren't allowed to wear shorts. Indecent exposure I guess. Anyway, Kabul scored a goal and the man next to me cheered loudly. Suddenly this young bearded fellow who was patrolling the aisles, eighteen years old at the most by the look of him, he walked up to me and struck me on the forehead with the butt of his Kalashnikov. 'Do that again and I'll cut out your tongue, you old donkey!' he said. I was old enough to be his grandfather and I was sitting there, blood gushing down my face, apologizing to that son of a dog.
The two talk about more things and the conversation turns to Kabul.
Rahim khan
If you went from the Shar-eNau section to Kerteh-Parwan to buy a carpet, you risked getting shot by a sniper or getting blown up by a rocket—if you got past all the checkpoints, that was. You practically needed a vise to go from one neighborhood to the other. So people just stayed put, prayed the next rocket wouldn't hit their home.
Amir
Why didn't you leave?
rahim khan
Kabul was my home. It still is. Remember that street that went from your house to the Qishla, the military barracks next to Istiqlal School?
Amir
Yes?
rahim khan
When the Taliban rolled in and kicked the Alliance out of Kabul, I actually dance on that streat, and believe me, I wasn't alone. People were celebrating Chaman, at Deh-Mazang, greeting the Taliban in the streets, climbing their tanks and posing for pictures with them. People were so tired of the constant fighting, tired of the rockets, the gunfire, the explosions, tired of watching Gulbuddin and his cohorts firing on anything that moved. The Alliance did more damage to Kabul that the Shorawi. They destroyed your father's orphanage, did you know that?
Amir
Why? Why would they destroy an orphanage?
Rahim Khan
Collateral damage, You don't want to know, Amir jan, what it was like sifting through the rubble of that orphanage. There were body parts of children…
FAde Out:
The End