Assef’s brow twitched. “Like pride in your people, your customs, your language. Afghanistan is like a beautiful mansion littered with garbage, and someone has to take out the garbage.” “That’s what you were doing in Mazar, going door-to-door? Taking out the garbage?” “Precisely.” “In the west, they have an expression for that,” I said. “They call it ethnic cleansing.” “Do they?” Assef’s face brightened. “Ethnic cleansing. I like it. I like the sound of it.” “All I want is the boy.” “Ethnic cleansing,” Assef murmured, tasting the words. “I want the boy,” I said again. Sohrab’s eyes flicked to me. They were slaughter sheep’s eyes. They even had the mascara--I remembered how, on the day of Eid of qorban, the mullah in our backyard used to apply mascara to the eyes of the sheep and feed it a cube of sugar before slicing its throat. I thought I saw pleading in Sohrab’s eyes. “Tell me why,” Assef said. He pinched Sohrab’s earlobe between his teeth. Let go. Sweat beads rolled down his brow. “That’s my business.” “What do you want to do with him?” he said. Then a coy smile. “Or to him.” “That’s disgusting,” I said. “How would you know? Have you tried it?” “I want to take him to a better place.” “Tell me why.” “That’s my business,” I said. I didn’t know what had emboldened me to be so curt, maybe the fact that I thought I was going to die anyway. “I wonder,” Assef said. “I wonder why you’ve come all this way, Amir, come all this way for a Hazara? Why are you here? Why are you really here?” “I have my reasons,” I said.padding-bottom: 75%;"> 阿塞夫眉頭一鎖：“比如爲你的人民、你的習俗、你的語言驕傲。阿富汗就像一座到處扔着垃圾的美麗大廈，得有人把垃圾清走。” “那就是你在馬紮挨門挨戶所做的？清走垃圾？” “準確無誤。” “在西方，人們有另外一個說法，”我說，“他們管這個叫種族清洗。” “真的嗎？”阿塞夫神色一亮，“種族清洗。我喜歡它。我喜歡它的發音。” “我只想要這個男孩。” “種族清洗。”阿塞夫喃喃自語，品味着這個詞組。 “我要這個男孩。”我又說了一遍。索拉博的眼睛望着我，那是一雙任人宰殺的羔羊的眼睛，甚至還有眼影——我記得，宰牲節那天，我家院子裏面，毛拉在割斷綿羊的喉嚨之前，塗黑它的眼睛，給它吃一塊糖。我認爲我從索拉博眼中看到了哀求。 “告訴我爲什麼。”阿塞夫說。他的牙齒輕輕咬着索拉博的耳垂，在上面遊走。他的額頭流出汗珠。 “那是我的事情。” “你想要他幹什麼呢？”他說，然後露出猥褻的微笑，“或者，想要對他做什麼？” “真噁心。”我說。 “你怎麼知道？你試過了嗎？” “我會帶他到一個更好的地方去。” “告訴我爲什麼。” “那是我的事情。”我說。我不知道自己何以變得如此強硬，也許是臨死一搏吧。 “我真奇怪，”阿塞夫說，“我真的很奇怪，爲何你那麼老遠來？阿米爾，爲什麼你那麼老遠來，就爲了一個哈扎拉人？你爲什麼來這兒？你來這裏的真正原因是什麼？” “我有我的理由。”我說。
