Page 178 - And the Mountains Echoed (novel)

yellow or blue. Satellite dishes sat on the roofs of a few; Afghan flags draped a

number of windows. Baba jan had told Adel that most of the homes and
businesses in Shadbagh-e-Nau had been built in the last fifteen years or so. He’d
had a hand in the construction of many of them. Most people who lived here
considered him the founder of Shadbagh-e-Nau, and Adel knew that the town
elders had offered to name the town after Baba jan but he had declined the
honor.
From there, the main road ran north for two miles before it connected with
Shadbagh-e-Kohna, Old Shadbagh. Adel had never seen the village as it had
once looked decades ago. By the time Baba jan had moved him and his mother
from Kabul to Shadbagh, the village had all but vanished. All the homes were
gone. The only surviving relic of the past was a decaying windmill. At
Shadbagh-e-Kohna, Kabir veered left from the main road onto a wide, quarter-
mile-long unpaved track that connected the main road to the thick twelve-foot-
high walls of the compound where Adel lived with his parents—the only

standing structure now in Shadbagh-e-Kohna, discounting the windmill. Adel
could see the white walls now as the SUV jostled and bounced on the track.
Coils of barbed wire ran along the top of the walls.
A uniformed guard, who always stood watch at the main gates to the
compound, saluted and opened the gates. Kabir drove the SUV through the walls
and up a graveled path toward the house.
The house stood three stories high and was painted bright pink and turquoise

green. It had soaring columns and pointed eaves and mirrored skyscraper glass
that sparkled in the sun. It had parapets, a veranda with sparkly mosaics, and
wide balconies with curved wrought-iron railings. Inside, they had nine
bedrooms and seven bathrooms, and sometimes when Adel and Baba jan played
hide-and-seek, Adel wandered around for an hour or more before he found his
father. All the counters in the bathrooms and kitchen had been made of granite
and lime marble. Lately, to Adel’s delight, Baba jan had been talking about
building a swimming pool in the basement.
Kabir pulled into the circular driveway outside the tall front gates of the
house. He killed the engine.
“Why don’t you give us a minute?” Baba jan said.

Kabir nodded and exited the car. Adel watched him walk up the marble steps
to the gates and ring. It was Azmaray, the other bodyguard—a short, stocky,
gruff fellow—who opened the gate. The two men said a few words, then
lingered on the steps, lighting a cigarette each.
“Do you really have to go?” Adel said. His father was leaving for the south in