Rahim Khan admits that the primary reason he searched for Hassan was his own loneliness. It happened like this: After Rahim Khan hears of Baba's death, he drives to Hazarajat to search for Hassan and asks him to move to Kabul with him. Rahim Khan learns that Hassan is married and that his wife is expecting a child. He also learns that a land mine killed Ali two years earlier. Hassan has many questions about Amir and his life in America. Initially, Hassan says he does not want to go with Rahim Khan, but after a night of whispers and tears between Hassan and his wife, in the morning, Hassan agrees.
Hassan and his wife, Farzana, refuse to move into the house with Rahim Khan; instead, they live in Ali's old hut. They begin to take care of both Rahim Khan and the house. Their child is stillborn. Years pass. In 1990, Farzana is pregnant again. One day a disfigured old woman arrives. The woman is Sanaubar, Hassan's mother. Upon hearing this news, Hassan flees the house; however, he returns the next morning, welcomes his mother, and nurses her back to health. That winter, Sanaubar delivers Hassan's son, Sohrab, named after the hero from the Shahnamah. Sanaubar becomes inseparable from her grandson until her death four years later.
By this time it is 1995, and Kabul suffers from the infighting of three factions — Massoud, Rabbani, and the Mujahedin. Hassan teaches Sohrab to use a slingshot, and like his father, Sohrab becomes deadly with it. Hassan and his son also run kites. It is 1996 when the Taliban rolls in, and they are viewed as heroes by many, but not by Hassan. Hassan's response to their coming is "God help the Hazaras now." And he is right. A couple of weeks after they seize power, the Taliban ban kite fighting. "And two years later, in 1998, they massacred the Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif."
