Page 115 - The Kite Runner

104 Khaled Hosseini

bottom. Before I went to bed that night, I asked Baba if he’d seen
my new watch anywhere.

The next morning, I waited in my room for Ali to clear the
breakfast table in the kitchen. Waited for him to do the dishes,
wipe the counters. I looked out my bedroom window and waited
until Ali and Hassan went grocery shopping to the bazaar, pushing
the empty wheelbarrows in front of them.
Then I took a couple of the envelopes of cash from the pile of
gifts and my watch, and tiptoed out. I paused before Baba’s study
and listened in. He’d been in there all morning, making phone
calls. He was talking to someone now, about a shipment of rugs
due to arrive next week. I went downstairs, crossed the yard, and
entered Ali and Hassan’s living quarters by the loquat tree. I lifted
Hassan’s mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of
Afghani bills under it.
I waited another thirty minutes. Then I knocked on Baba’s
door and told what I hoped would be the last in a long line of
shameful lies.

Through my bedroom window, I watched Ali and Has-
san push the wheelbarrows loaded with meat, naan, fruit, and
vegetables up the driveway. I saw Baba emerge from the house and
walk up to Ali. Their mouths moved over words I couldn’t hear.
Baba pointed to the house and Ali nodded. They separated. Baba
came back to the house; Ali followed Hassan to their hut.
A few moments later, Baba knocked on my door. “Come to my
office,” he said. “We’re all going to sit down and settle this thing.”