Page 171 - And the Mountains Echoed (novel)

overpopulation in Kabul, then on the cost of housing, lastly, before he circles

back and says, “I have lived in this house now for a number of years. I
understand you lived in this house too.”
“I’m sorry?”
“This was your parents’ house. That is what I am led to believe, in any case.”
“If I can ask, who is telling you this?”
“The landlord. His name is Nabi. It was Nabi, I should say. He is deceased

now, sadly, as of recently. Do you remember him?”
The name conjures for Pari a handsome young face, sideburns, a wall of full
dark hair combed back.
“Yes. Mostly, his name. He was a cook at our house. And a chauffeur as
well.”

“He was both, yes. He had lived here, in this house, since 1947. Sixty-three
years. It is a little unbelievable, no? But, as I said, he passed on. Last month. I
was quite fond of him. Everyone was.”
“I see.”
“Nabi gave me a note,” Markos Varvaris says. “I was to read it only after his
death. When he died, I had an Afghan colleague translate it into English. This
note, it is more than a note. A letter, more accurately, and a remarkable one at
that. Nabi says some things in it. I searched for you because some of it concerns
you, and also because he directly asks in it that I find you and give you this
letter. It took some searching, but we were able to locate you. Thanks to the
web.” He lets out a short laugh.

There is a part of Pari that wants to hang up. Intuitively, she does not doubt
that whatever revelation this old man—this person from her distant past—has
scribbled on paper, halfway across the world, is true. She has known for a long
time that she was lied to by Maman about her childhood. But even if the ground
of her life was broken with a lie, what Pari has since planted in that ground
stands as true and sturdy and unshakable as a giant oak. Eric, her children, her
grandchildren, her career, Collette. So what is the use? After all this time, what
is the use? Perhaps best to hang up.

But she doesn’t. Her pulse fluttering and her palms sweating, she says, “What
… what does he say in his note, in this letter?”
“Well, for one thing, he claims he was your uncle.”
“My uncle.”
“Your stepuncle, to be precise. And there is more. He says many other things
as well.”