How It All Goes Down
- In this chapter, we get the skinny on winter kite fighting tournaments, and Amir's dreams of winning this year's tournament. Pay attention.
- Amir loves wintertime, like most other Afghan kids. Why? It's pretty, there's snow, no school, and, most importantly, kite flying. Baba loves kite fighting, too, so it's a rare connection for them.
- Amir tells us a little about kite fighting. He and Hassan used to make their own kites with bamboo, glue, string, and paper. To make the kite a fighting kite, the boys coat the string in glass and glue. (The point of the kite fight is to cut the other kite's string with your string – thus the glass.)
- There's also kite running, which seems just as important as kite fighting. Once a kite is cut, the kite runners chase after the released kite and try to run it down. The big deal kite to run is the tournament runner-up – the last kite cut. Hassan, as it turns, is an expert kite runner.
- One winter day, Hassan and Amir run a kite. Hassan is a better kite runner than Amir – faster, more athletic, and with better instincts – and Amir struggles to keep up. Hassan runs away from the kite that's just been cut. Amir follows, and they rest on a field by a middle school.
- Amir doesn't believe the kite is going land anywhere near where Hassan has led them. So he asks Hassan if Hassan would ever lie to him. Hassan says no, and that he'd "sooner eat dirt" (6.31). Amir toys with Hassan. In the end, Amir makes nice and the kite floats down to where they're sitting.
- Four days before the kite-fighting tournament, Baba casually tells Amir he thinks Amir is going to win this year. Amir starts to imagine all the wonderful things he and Baba will do together and how the two of them will grow closer. Now, Amir really wants to win this tournament.
- The chapter ends with Hassan and Amir playing cards the night before the tournament. There's some talk about Daoud Khan, televisions, and how Amir will buy Hassan a television some day. Hassan thinks Amir will win the tournament the next day. Amir wins the card game but has the distinct feeling Hassan let him win.