https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in Made with a lightning strike of genius en-us 2019-04-04 16:25:14 UTC 2026-03-04 01:31:20 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1457876115 "I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan—the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past—and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran".]]> 2021-04-26 05:03:18 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1457876115 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1457887449 "Never mind any of those things. Because history isn't easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi'a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing."]]> 2021-04-26 05:08:25 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1457887449 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1457900636 "I dream that someday you will return to Kabul and revisit the land of our childhood. If you do, you will find an old faithful friend waiting for you."]]> 2021-04-26 05:14:04 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1457900636 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459311785 "How could I, of all people, chastise someone for their past?"]]> 2021-04-26 13:12:03 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459311785 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459312577 For you a thousand times over, he'd promised. Good old Hassan. Good old reliable Hassan. He'd kept his promise and run the last kite for me.]]> 2021-04-26 13:12:12 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459312577 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459324085 "Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words."]]> 2021-04-26 13:14:20 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459324085 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459327994 "Then I understood: This was Hassan's final sacrifice for me. If he'd said no, Baba would have believed him, then I'd be the accused"]]> 2021-04-26 13:15:03 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459327994 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459333903 "My door is always open to you, Amir jan. I shall hear any story you have to tell."]]> 2021-04-26 13:16:08 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459333903 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459335628 "His saying that made me kind of sad. Sad for who Hassan was, where he lived. For how he'd accepted the fact that he'd grow old in that mud shack in the yard, the way his father had"]]> 2021-04-26 13:16:26 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459335628 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459340667 "In Afghanistan, owning anything American, especially if it wasn't second-hand, is a sign of wealth"]]> 2021-04-26 13:17:19 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459340667 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459343323 "But we were kids who had learned to crawl together, and no history, ethnicity, society, religion was going to change that either.... Sometimes, my entire childhood seems like one long lazy summer with Hassan."]]> 2021-04-26 13:17:46 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459343323 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459344407 “But before you sacrifice yourself for him, think about this: Would he do the same for you? Have you ever wondered why he never includes you in games when he has guests? Why he only plays with you when no one else is around? I’ll tell you why, Hazara. Because to him, you’re nothing but an ugly pet…”]]> 2021-04-26 13:17:56 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459344407 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459347263 "Ali drew Hassan to him, curled his arm around his son's shoulder. It was a protective gesture and I knew whom Ali was protecting him from. Ali glanced my way and in his cold, unforgiving look, I saw that Hassan had told him. He had told him everything, about what Assef and his friends had done to him, about me."]]> 2021-04-26 13:18:25 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459347263 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459351037 "'I don't know. Maybe we should go home.'" Then he stepped towards me and in a low voice, said something that scared me a little. 'Remember, Amir agha. There's no monster, just a beautiful day.'"]]> 2021-04-26 13:19:03 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459351037 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459358207 "On Eid, the three days of celebration after the holy month of Ramadan, Kabulis dressed in their best and newest clothes and visited their families. People hugged and kissed and greeted each other with "Eid Mubarak." Happy Eid."]]> 2021-04-26 13:20:18 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459358207 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459364804 "Because the truth of it was, I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I? The least I could have done was to have had the decency to have turned out a little more like him. But I hadn’t turned out like him."]]> 2021-04-26 13:21:27 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459364804 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459370499 "Would I ever lie to you, Amir agha?"
"I don't know would you?"
"I'd sooner eat dirt"]]> 2021-04-26 13:22:29 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459370499 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459381485 "But better to get hurt by the truth than confronted with a lie."]]> 2021-04-26 13:24:27 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459381485 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459386841 "Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba. Was it a fair price? The answer floated to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?"]]> 2021-04-26 13:25:26 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459386841 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459390657 "Someday Inshallah, you will be a great writer " Hassan said " And people all over the world will read your stories."]]> 2021-04-26 13:26:05 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459390657 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459390816 "Baba and I lived in the same house, but in different spheres of existence"]]> 2021-04-26 13:26:08 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459390816 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459396723 All I saw was the blue kite. All I smelled was victory. Salvation. Redemption.]]> 2021-04-26 13:27:08 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459396723 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459409113 "When they left, I sat on my bed and wished Rahim Khan had been my father. Then I thought Baba and his great big chest and how good it felt when he held me against it, how he smelled of Brut in the morning, and how his beard tickled my face. I was overcome with such sudden guilt that I bolted to the bathroom and vomited in the sink."]]> 2021-04-26 13:29:18 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459409113 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459414775 "Why Baba waited until I was ten to have me circumcised was beyond me and one of the things I will never forgive him for."]]> 2021-04-26 13:30:20 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459414775 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459422426 "The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either."]]> 2021-04-26 13:31:47 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459422426 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459427648 But he’s not my friend! I almost blurted. He’s my servant! Had I really thought that? Of course I hadn’t. I hadn’t. I treated Hassan well, just like a friend, better even, more like a brother. But if so, then why, when Baba’s friends came to visit with their kids, didn’t I ever include Hassan in our games? Why did I play with Hassan only when no one else was around?]]> 2021-04-26 13:32:45 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459427648 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459435587 Never mind any of those things. Because history isn’t easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing.]]> 2021-04-26 13:34:15 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459435587 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459441008 "I was the one who went to school... Haasan couldn't read a first-grade textbook but he'd read me plenty. That was a little unsettling, but also sort of comfortable to have someone who always knew what you needed."]]> 2021-04-26 13:35:13 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459441008 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459535386 "Buzkashi was, and still is, Afghanistan's favourite passion. A Champandaz, a highly skilled horseman usually patronized by rich aficionados, has to snatch the goat or cattle carcass from the midst of a melee..."]]> 2021-04-26 13:51:29 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459535386 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459743753 "In it, I read that my people, the Pashtuns, had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras. It said the Hazaras had tried to raise against the Pashtuns in the nineteenth century, but the Pashtuns had ‘quelled them with unspeakable violence.’"]]> 2021-04-26 14:28:15 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459743753 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459751121 "For how he'd accepted the fact that he's grow old in in that mud shack in the years, the way his father had."]]> 2021-04-26 14:29:32 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459751121 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459751896 "On the south end of the garden, in the shadows of a loquat tree, was the servants' home, a modest little mud hut where Hassan lived with his father." ]]> 2021-04-26 14:29:40 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459751896 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459756361 I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan—the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past—and accept whatever would happen to me.]]> 2021-04-26 14:30:28 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459756361 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459763733 "After all I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn't I?"]]> 2021-04-26 14:31:44 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459763733 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459769681 I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing is free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba.]]> 2021-04-26 14:32:48 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459769681 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459772629 "Tell him I'll take a thousand of his bullets before I let this indecency take place."]]> 2021-04-26 14:33:16 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459772629 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459774219 "You know, sometimes you are the most self centered man I know".]]> 2021-04-26 14:33:32 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459774219 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459775559 "And maybe ,just maybe, I would finally be pardoned for killing my mother"]]> 2021-04-26 14:33:46 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459775559 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459781999 "He wrinkled at the word Shi'a, like it was some kind of disease."]]> 2021-04-26 14:34:53 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459781999 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459785226 "Ali and Baba grew up together as childhood playmates- at least until polio crippled Ali's leg."]]> 2021-04-26 14:35:25 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459785226 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459787078 "The kite-fighting tournament was an old winter tradition in Afghanistan. It started early in the morning on the day of the contest and didn't end until only the winning kite flew in the sky."]]> 2021-04-26 14:35:45 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459787078 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459801621 "Still I don't know it." If he felt the sting of my tease, his smiling face didn't show it. " Well everyone in my school knows what it means" I said. "Lets see 'imbecile'. It means smart, intelligent. Ill use it in a sentence for you. 'When it comes to words, Hassan is an imbecile." "Aahh" Hassan said, nodding. I would always feel guilty about it later ]]> 2021-04-26 14:38:20 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459801621 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459806557 "When they left, I sat on my bed and wished Rahim Khan had been my father"]]> 2021-04-26 14:39:10 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459806557 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459807635 "They say there is a brotherhood between people who've fed from the same breast" (Chapter 7, pg 69)]]> 2021-04-26 14:39:22 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459807635 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459810249 "Baba came right out and asked. "Did you steal that money? Did you steal Amir's watch, Hassan?" Hassan's reply was a single word, delivered in a thin, raspy voice: "Yes." I flinched, like I'd been slapped... Except Baba stunned me by saying, "I forgive you.""]]> 2021-04-26 14:39:51 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459810249 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459817915 "I spent most of the first twelve years of my life playing with Hassan."

]]> 2021-04-26 14:41:14 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459817915 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459824283 "We are true Afgans, the pure Afgans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood"]]> 2021-04-26 14:42:22 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459824283 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459824908 2021-04-26 14:42:28 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459824908 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459831131 "Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba" (Chapter 7, pg 73)]]> 2021-04-26 14:43:36 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459831131 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459832642 "I grew up with Ali," he said through clenched teeth. "My father took him in, he loved Ali like his own son. Forty years Ali's been with my family. Forty goddamned years. And you think I'm just going to throw him out?"]]> 2021-04-26 14:43:51 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459832642 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459851190 "One day, we were walking from my father's house to Cinema Zainab for a new Iranian movie, taking the shortcut through the military barracks near 
Istiqlal Middle School."]]> 2021-04-26 14:47:14 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459851190 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459855634 "But we were kids who had learned to crawl together, and no history, ethnicity, society or religion was going to change that either."]]> 2021-04-26 14:48:03 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459855634 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459863983 "Hassan didn't struggle. Didn't even whimper"(Chapter 7, pg 71)]]> 2021-04-26 14:49:34 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459863983 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459891504 "My door is and always is open for you, Amir jan. I shall hear any story you have to tell. Bravo." 

Your friend,
Rahim


]]> 2021-04-26 14:54:32 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459891504 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459931563 "those words made it formal: the tree was ours. After school, Hassan and I climbed its branches and snatched its blood-red pomegranates. After we'd eaten the fruit and wiped our hands on the grass, I would read to Hassan." ]]> 2021-04-26 15:01:27 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1459931563 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460577802 "I would always feel guilty about it later. So I'd try to my up for it by giving him one of my old shirts or a broken toy."]]> 2021-04-26 16:56:38 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460577802 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460600526 "'We'd had a fleeting good moment - it wasn't often Baba talked to me, let alone on his lap - and I'd been a fool to waste it."]]> 2021-04-26 17:00:55 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460600526 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460601120 "Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words."]]> 2021-04-26 17:01:02 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460601120 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460624183 “The earth shook a little and we heard the rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire [...] A white light flashed, lit the sky in silver. It flashed again and was followed by a rapid staccato of gunfire.”]]> 2021-04-26 17:05:13 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460624183 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460638116 Every morning, I watched from my bedroom window as their Hazara servant shoveled snow from the driveway]]> 2021-04-26 17:07:43 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460638116 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460640872 "You know what always happens when the neighbourhood boys tease him? Hassan steps in and fends them off."]]> 2021-04-26 17:08:15 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460640872 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460652820 "Really? You'd do that?" [...] "do what? [...] "Eat dirt if I told you to," [...] "if you asked I would,"]]> 2021-04-26 17:10:26 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460652820 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460676452 Hassan was screaming and his arm was wrapped around my neck. "Bravo! Bravo, Amir agha!"]]> 2021-04-26 17:14:30 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460676452 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460690651 “The shootings and explosions had lasted less than an hour, but they had frightened us badly, because none of us had ever heard gunshots in the streets.”]]> 2021-04-26 17:17:03 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460690651 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460714066 "I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan - the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past - and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran."]]> 2021-04-26 17:21:26 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1460714066 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1462213148 "But mostly because Ali was immune to the insults of his assailants; he had found his joy, his antidote, the moment Sanaubar had given birth to Hassan."]]> 2021-04-27 01:10:01 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1462213148 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1462327520 "I finally had what I'd wanted all those years. Except now that I had it, I felt as empty as this unkempt pool I was dangling my legs into."]]> 2021-04-27 01:51:41 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1462327520 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1464377720 "You don't order someone to polish your shoes one day and call them 'sister' the next."]]> 2021-04-27 13:54:52 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1464377720 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1464427457 "He motioned to me to hold his hat for him and I was glad to, because then everyone would see that he was my father, my Baba"]]> 2021-04-27 14:04:13 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1464427457 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1464438072 "My favourite part of reading to Hassan was when we came across a big word that he didn't know. I'd tease him, expose his ignorance"]]> 2021-04-27 14:06:10 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1464438072 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1464455071 "But there was something fascinating–albeit in a sick way–about teaing Hassan. Kind of like when we used to play insect torture. Except now, he was the ant and I was holding the magnifying glass"]]> 2021-04-27 14:09:24 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1464455071 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1464458359 "Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words."]]> 2021-04-27 14:09:58 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1464458359 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1464470376 "The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either."]]> 2021-04-27 14:12:15 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1464470376 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1471712207 "There was so much goodness in my life. So much happiness. I wondered whether I deserved any of it."]]> 2021-04-29 01:29:07 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1471712207 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1473365940 "All I saw was the blue kite. All I smelled was victory. Salvation. Redemption."]]> 2021-04-29 12:26:42 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1473365940 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1478052076 "The generation of Afghan children whose ears would know nothing but the sounds of bombs and gunfire was not yet born." ]]> 2021-04-30 13:20:39 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1478052076 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1527591283 Hassan's reply was a single word, delivered in a thin, raspy voice:"Yes". ]]> 2021-05-15 23:13:30 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1527591283 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1529418712 But he’s not my friend! I almost blurted. He’s my servant! Had I really thought that? Of course I hadn’t. I hadn’t. I treated Hassan well, just like a friend, better even, more like a brother. But if so, then why, when Baba’s friends came to visit with their kids, didn’t I ever include Hassan in our games? Why did I play with Hassan only when no one else was around?]]> 2021-05-17 01:18:39 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1529418712 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1529422459 I dream that someday you will return to Kabul and revisit the land of our childhood. If you do, you will find an old faithful friend waiting for you.]]> 2021-05-17 01:20:06 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1529422459 https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1529462498 "For you, a thousand times over."]]> 2021-05-17 01:37:19 UTC https://padlet.com/krichardson12/ng9w0q9uj4in/wish/1529462498