the kite runner
"sometimes she sat alone, the general off to some other row to socialize, and i would walk by, pretending not to know her, but dying to. sometimes she was there with a portly middle-aged woman with pale skin and dyed red hair. i promised myself that i would talk to her before the summer was over, but schools reopened, the leaves reddened, yellowed, and fell, the rains of winter swept in and wakened baba's joints, baby leaves sprouted once more, and i still hadn't had the heart, the dil, to even look her in the eyes."