"While you’re busy knitting sweaters, my dear, I have to deal with the community’s perception of our family. People will ask. They will want to know why there is a Hazara boy living with our daughter. What do I tell them?”
Soraya dropped her spoon. Turned on her father. “You can tell them--”
“It’s okay, Soraya,” I said, taking her hand. “It’s okay. General Sahib is quite right. People will ask.”
“Amir--” she began.
“It’s all right.” I turned to the general. “You see, General Sahib, my father slept with his servant’s wife. She bore him a son named Hassan. Hassan is dead now. That boy sleeping on the couch is Hassan’s son. He’s my nephew. That’s what you tell people when they ask.”
They were all staring at me.
“And one more thing, General Sahib,” I said. “You will never again refer to him as ‘Hazara boy’ in my presence. He has a name and it’s Sohrab.”
No one said anything for the remainder of the meal.
IT WOULD BE ERRONEOUS to say Sohrab was quiet. Quiet is peace. Tranquillity. Quiet is turning down the VOLUME knob on life.Silence is pushing the OFF button. Shutting it down. All of it.Sohrab’s silence wasn’t the self-imposed silence of those with convictions, of protesters who seek to speak their cause by not speaking at all. It was the silence of one who has taken cover in a dark place, curled up all the edges and tucked them under.He didn’t so much live with us as occupy space. And precious little of it. Sometimes, at the market, or in the park, I’d notice how other people hardly seemed to even see him, like he wasn’t there at all. I’d look up from a book and realize Sohrab had entered the room, had sat across from me, and I hadn’t noticed. He walked like he was afraid to leave behind footprints. He moved as if not to stir the air around him. Mostly, he slept.

Soon after the attacks, America bombed Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance moved in, and the Taliban scurried like rats into the caves.
Suddenly, people were standing in grocery store lines and talking about the cities of my childhood, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif. When I was very little, Baba took Hassan and me to Kunduz. Hamid Karzai’s caracul hat and green chapan became famous.
Sohrab sleepwalked through it all.
“你在忙着编织毛衣的时候，亲爱的，我不得不应付邻居对我们家的看法。人们会有疑问。他们会想知道为什么有个哈扎拉男孩住在我女儿家。我怎么跟他们说？”
索拉雅放下她的调羹，转向她父亲，“你可以告诉他们……”
“没什么，索拉雅。”我说，拉起她的手，“没什么，将军说得没错，人们会有疑问。”
“阿米尔……”她说。
“没关系，”我转向将军，“你知道吗，将军大人，我爸爸睡了他仆人的老婆。她给他生了个儿子，名字叫做哈桑。现在哈桑死掉了，睡在沙发上那个男孩是哈桑的儿子。他是我的侄儿。要是有人发问，你可以这样告诉我。”
他们全都瞪着我。
“还有，将军大人，”我说，“以后我在场的时候，请你永远不要叫他‘哈扎拉男孩 ’。他有名字，他的名字叫索拉博。”
大家默默吃完那顿饭。
如果说索拉博很安静是错误的。安静是祥和，是平静，是降下生命音量的旋钮。沉默是把那个按钮关掉，把它旋下，全部旋掉。索拉博的沉默既不是来自洞明世事之后的泰然自若，也并非由于他选择了默默不语来秉持自己的信念和表达抗议，而是对生活曾有过的黑暗忍气吞声地照单全收。他身在曹营心在汉，人跟我们共同生活，而心跟我们一起的时候少得可怜。有时候，在市场或者公园里面，我注意到人们仿佛甚至没有看到他，似乎他根本并不存在。我曾经从书本抬头，发现索拉博业已走进房间，坐在我对面，而我毫无察觉。他走路的样子似乎害怕留下脚印，移动的时候似乎不想搅起周围的空气。多数时候，他选择了睡觉。
美国轰炸了阿富汗，北方联盟乘机而进，塔利班像老鼠逃回洞穴那样四处亡命。
突然间，人们在杂货店排队等待收银，谈着我童年生活过的那些城市：坎大哈、赫拉特、马扎里沙里夫。阿富汗人的羊皮帽和绿色长袍变得众所周知。
索拉博依然梦游般地度过这段日子。