His hands are tied behind him with roughly woven rope cutting though the flesh of his wrists. He is blindfolded with black cloth. He is kneeling on the street, on the edge of a gutter filled with still water, his head drooping between his shoulders. His knees roll on the hard ground and bleed though his pants as he rocks in prayer. It is late afternoon and his long shadow sways back and fourth on the gravel. He is muttering something under his breath. I step closer. A thousand times over, he mutters. For you a thousand times over. Back and forth he rocks. He lifts his face. I see a faint scar above his upper lip. We are not alone. I see the barrel first. The the man standing behind him. He is tall, dressed in a herringbone vest and a black turban. He looks down at the blindfolded man before him with eyes that show nothing but a vast, cavernous emptiness. He takes a step back and raises the barrel. Places it on the back on the kneeling man's head, for a moment, fading sunlight catches the metal and twinkles. The rifles roars with a deafening crack. I follow the barrel on its upward arc. I see the face behind the plume of smoke swirling from the muzzle. I am the man in the herringbone vest.
Symbolism
The eyes : empty, cruel, emptyness, Amir fears being/becoming this man
The man being Amir : the internal struggle of Amir feeling resonsible and guilty for what he has done to Hassan
Black : he color of nothing, lack of color, mourning color
Praying : hope, redemption, belief
