Khaled Hosseini’s writing style allows the reader to use their imagination to fill the empty spaces he leaves in some parts of the narrative. Following his style and the character’s personalities, I decided to write a piece to fill one of these gaps: the episode when Baba gets Ali’s wife pregnant. As we were talking about these empty spaces in class, my idea came from a question we discussed: ““How could such a man of principles like Baba have fallen for Sanaubar?” Inspired by this question, I imagined the situation and set off to write this piece.
…It was my fifth bottle of whisky. I‘d never drunk so much. I missed her a lot… My vision was blurred, my head ached and my stomach was sick. It was a windy spring night; I went out to have some air. I was in the front yard when someone opened the gate. For the shape, you could see it was a woman. She walked to where I was standing. I could hardly see her, though I could smell her. It was a familiar perfume, jasmine, just like the one she used… She stood in front of me, I could feel her breath, the warmth of her body… she kissed me…it was her. I couldn’t let her go…
The sun light woke me up. I was excited, there were many things I wanted to tell her… I wanted her to see our child, but… it wasn’t her. I woke Sanaubar up. I told her to leave and to never mention this to anyone. She did what I told her. We never talked about this night again. I felt embarrassed for what I had done. I had betrayed my friend, and that’s something I would never forget.
A month later, she came to talk to me. I couldn’t look at her in the eye, I still felt embarrassed. She told me she was carrying my baby. I couldn’t believe her. May be she was pregnant of Ali’s child, but she told me he hadn’t touched her since they got married. What was I supposed to do? I told her to make him believe it was his baby. And she did so.
Months passed, and I could see my biggest mistake grow in her belly. Remorse. That was what I felt when I saw Ali, so happy, telling everyone he was going to be a father. I decided to tell him the truth.
He was working in the garden, cutting the grass, I told him I needed to talk to him, so he stopped his work and paid attention to me.
“There’s something I need to tell you”, I started.
“Yes, Baba agha, what is it?”
“You…” I tried to start, but he interrupted me.
“Baba, I didn’t have the chance to talk to you and thank you for everything, you are a great man and my best friend. I appreciate everything you have done for me. ”
He was making it so hard for me to say what I had to tell him. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I had to get it off my chest…
“You aren’t…” Suddenly, Sanaubar appeared. Her water had broken; she was going to give birth. I couldn’t finish my sentence, Ali ran to help her. They went into their little house and came out after five hours.
It was a healthy baby boy, Ali called him Hassan. I loved him since the first time I saw him. And, because of Ali’s pride, happiness and the baby’s sake, I never told him I was Hassan’s father.
Sanaubar came to talk to me and said she wanted to be with me, raise our kid together; she wanted to leave Ali and marry me. I hit her. I couldn’t let her say those things. I told her to leave and never come back. The next day she was gone, leaving no trace of her destination.
I did everything to give Hassan what he needed. I raised Ali’s salary, so that he could buy what my baby needed, I hired the same nursing woman for him and Amir. In a way I wanted them to bond, so that maybe when they grew up, they could figure out they were brothers.
And they grew up as friends, I suppose. Hassan acts like me; he stands up for Amir, he is so loyal. Sometimes I wish Amir was more like Hassan; he is so fearful sometimes. He can’t look after himself. I don’t know what to do with him.
I just hope one day they’ll realize they are brothers. I know it is my duty to tell them, but can’t. I am afraid of them hating me for lying. They mean so much to me and they are doing great without knowing the truth. I give them what they need… they spend time together, I think they are happy this way. I don’t want this family to suffer for my mistakes. Hopefully someday they’ll see I did this because I love them and they mean the world to me.
If I am lucky enough things will continue as well as they are now. Amir and Hassan have just won the Kite Tournament. I am so proud of them, they are both excellent children. Tomorrow, the three of us will go out to celebrate.
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