The Boy from Aleppo Who Painted the War (24 page)

A grumpy man sitting in front of us turns around and tells us to be quiet. His mouth and nose are scrunched up like a bulldog. Yasmine and I look at each other and laugh quietly. I look outside the window and notice how everything is green around us. There are only trees and grass all around. I wonder where we are. I don't even know where this bus is going.

‘Do you know where the bus is going Yasmine?'

‘I don't know, Tariq must know.'

‘Can I ask him?'

‘Just rest Habibi, we'll ask later.'

I rest my head on the window and feel the bumps and shakes of the bus. It feels like it's turning my brain into scrambled eggs. I can't sleep like this. I continue to stare out of the window. I notice several tents in the middle of nowhere by the trees and two women are standing outside them talking. Did they move there or are they walking to Damascus like us?

I see police cars and men holding big guns in front of us. They are wearing the green army uniform.

‘Look, look Yasmine!'

‘Oh no!… God help us, don't say a thing Adam, pretend you're asleep!'

The bus stops and I close my eyes and lie back. My heart is beating fast and loud. What if they hear it? It reminds me of the story ‘The Tell-Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe. When I first read it I couldn't finish it all because I was too scared and then when I finished it I loved it. What if my heart tells on me too? I shut my eyes tight and try to block out my thoughts. I can hear a man speaking at the front. His voice sounds like a soldier. They have different voices like they have been voice trained. His footsteps are heavy and sound like they have a mind of their own. I start to imagine the conversations he would have with his legs if they had a mind of their own.

‘Go right, leg!'

‘No, I don't want to!'

‘Damn it, go right I said!'

‘You can't control me!'

Then he starts punching his legs and realises that he likes the pain. I want to laugh to myself because the scene is funny but I try my best to hold it in. His footsteps get closer and heavier.

‘Sir, your ID?'

My heart drops. Is he speaking to me? I have no ID. Should I open my eyes?

‘Sir, your ID please?' he repeats louder. I open my eyes slowly and swallow the saliva building in my mouth. I try to control myself; I don't want them to take me to jail. I open my eyes and find the soldier three seats in front of me. I breathe out really loudly. The soldier looks at me for a split second and back at the guy. I hold tightly onto Yasmine's skirt.

‘I don't have my ID,' the guy says. His voice is shaking.

‘Please come with us.'

‘Please don't take me, I have a family, please.'

‘Sir, please come quietly with us.'

He pulls him up from his seat and ties his hands behind his back.

‘Please leave my husband alone! Please!' The woman next to him shouts and leans towards the soldier.

‘Sit down,' the soldier shouts at her. The whole bus is silent.

The woman screams and begs and runs after them to the door but they push her in and close the door. She lies on the floor at the front of the bus crying.

‘Please someone help my husband! Please!'

Nobody says anything, they all look down.

I stand up a little to see the husband outside.

‘Sit down Adam!' Yasmine hisses. I slowly sit down but I can still see them. I put my feet under my legs to boost me up. They push the guy against the bus and I feel the bus move a little. I can see the man's lips moving but I don't know what he is saying. The bus starts to move but I keep my eye on the man. Is he not coming back with us? Are they really taking him?

‘Yasmine…' Before I get to ask her my question we hear a gunshot and everyone turns around. The man is now on the ground with blood pouring out of his head. Yasmine tries to pull me down and cover my eyes but I have already seen him. I saw him fall to the ground. I saw them kill him. The wife is screaming and banging on the window.

‘Are you okay Adam?'

I can hear Yasmine asking me if I'm okay but I can't answer. Why are soldiers killing people? They should be protecting people. Who are we even in a war against? Ourselves?

‘Why do we have a war Yasmine?'

‘I wish I knew,' she says.

‘But who is fighting against who?'

‘The government against the free fighters.'

‘But we are one country Yasmine, why would they do that? Why would the government kill Syrians? What about the national anthem? We are meant to be together.'

‘If only everybody thought like that. Politics are complicated Habibi.'

‘I don't like politics. They confuse me. Why do people lie?'

‘For greed…'

‘But we are not greedy Yasmine so why are we in the war?'

‘We can't do anything about that, don't worry Habibi, we'll get to Damascus and be safe for a while.'

‘How long is a while?'

‘As long as possible Adam.'

*

I wake up to Yasmine whispering in my ear.

‘Wake up Habibi, this is the last stop.'

‘Are we in Damascus?' I jump up.

‘Not yet, but we are closer now.' I get up and put Liquorice back in the box and leave the bus. I watch the bus drive away and wish it could take us all the way to Damascus.

‘Is everyone ready to walk?' Yasmine shouts.

We start walking. It is starting to get dark, the sun is setting. I think about the food we had at the woman's house and get hungry again. I look back at the road we came down and realise how far we are from home. I have never been this far away from it and for this long. I wonder if we will ever have a new home.

‘Look there's a town! I can see lights!' Tariq shouts.

‘Can we rest there?'

‘Of course! Come on let's get going.'

We all walk faster. I hope there are nice people there who will look after us again. I feel bad that we have to ask people for help because I don't like to. This actually looks like a town, not a village. There are people walking down the streets. I notice some buildings that have collapsed and some blood trails on the ground. It looks like Aleppo before our house got bombed.

‘Yasmine can you please tie my hair back again?' Khalid asks. We all have long hair now because we haven't cut it in ages. We all tie it back because it gets annoying but Khalid can't, he always asks Yasmine. Before he used to be shy to ask but now it's fine. I always ask Khalid if he needs any help because I know that living without hands must be annoying. He always smiles when I ask him so I always do. Liquorice runs ahead of me and makes a weird noise I haven't heard before. I notice another cat approaching her and they start talking together in cat language. I hope she is telling the other cat that she's happy with me. A man runs up to us and picks up the other cat.

‘There you are, now stop running away, we are all hungry.'

The cat squirms in his hands and Liquorice hisses. When the man spoke he had bad breath that reached me. There's something wrong about him.

‘You're lucky you've got your meal too, many families are looking for something.' He looks down at Liquorice. I don't understand what he is saying.

‘Excuse me?' Tariq asks.

‘Huh?'

‘What do you mean we have our meal?'

‘The cat.'

‘The cat? We don't eat cats!'

I pick Liquorice up and stroke her in my arms. This man is going to steal my cat.

‘Did you not hear? We have no food so the sheikhs allowed us to start eating cats so we don't starve to death.'

I really don't like this man. No one is going to eat my cat.

‘Thank you,' Tariq says and the man walks off.

‘Tariq how can people eat cats?'

‘Well we are not in a normal situation, people starve.'

‘No, no! No one is going to eat Liquorice!'

‘Okay don't worry, calm down maybe we can find another cat.'

I can't believe Tariq is saying that.

‘Adam don't give me that face, there is no food, no food anywhere!'

‘We ate food at the woman's house.'

‘That was probably cat meat too actually…'

No, no, I didn't eat a cat! My heart starts to hurt me, I feel sick. Green smoke forms a cloud around my heart, it's pushing it down.

We set our tents in the town and I hold onto Liquorice the whole time in case someone takes her. There are other tents around so it doesn't feel too lonely. We set our tents next to a family who start speaking to us. The woman is speaking to Yasmine and the man to Khalid. The rest of us sit around and just listen. I hear the lady tell Yasmine that she takes her children to school every morning even though they don't have a house. It got bombed just like ours. How come we don't have school? I wish we did. A woman with hair that looks like she got an electric shock is holding a dirty pillow and talking to it. I keep staring at her and she looks at me and starts shouting. I hold onto Yasmine who tells me not to look at her.

‘She lost her son when they came walking in a crowd from Aleppo,' the woman explains. ‘She thinks the pillow is her son now.'

‘Poor woman,' Yasmine says and tells me it's okay.

I go into my tent and close it to paint. I can hear voices outside so I don't mind closing it. My paper is nearly finished. I don't know what I will do when it finishes. I used both sides of every page and I have two left. I start painting the tents and the kids running around and then remember I left Liquorice outside. I quickly open the zip and look around. I just left her outside my tent, where did she go?

‘Yasmine… Yasmine! Where's Liquorice?'

‘I don't know, I haven't seen her.'

‘They're going to eat her Yasmine! Don't let them eat her!'

‘Who will?'

‘The people who took her!' I run around looking and calling out for her but I don't see her anywhere! I see a black bag next to the bins and my heart tells me it's Liquorice. I go up to the bag and realise it is just a bag and I throw it on the floor.

‘Liquorice, come back to me!'

I hear a scratching sound coming from the bins and my heart opens up like a flower because I know it's her. I know I have found Liquorice. She loves bins. I tip the bin up and Liquorice jumps on one of the bags. I laugh and pick her up and stroke her. Thank God she is alive. She smells like rubbish. She squirms out of my hands and jumps into the bin bags again and finds her food. I squat down beside the bin and play with the rocks on the floor until she finishes eating.

‘I found her Yasmine!'

‘I knew you would Habibi!'

‘Goodnight.'

‘Goodnight.'

I go into my tent again and continue painting, with Liquorice on my lap this time. I add my tent to the picture and paint myself with Liquorice so it looks like someone else has painted us all.

‘H
ELP
! H
ELP
! People of Syria, help!' I rub my eyes quickly and behind the zipped tent I see shadows of people walking around slowly with their hands out and their clothes ripped up and dangling. They look like the shadows of zombies walking around the city. I am scared to unzip my tent. Liquorice is still asleep on my stomach so I pick her up and gently put her down and unzip the tent. I say my prayers while doing so. Nobody is around. Where did they all go? I am scared. None of their tents are up, did they all leave me? I walk on and see people walking around with blood on their bodies, moaning and screaming. I think another bomb went off. Wherever we go we are followed by disaster. We have no luck.

‘Yasmine! Yasmine!' I see Yasmine kneeling down on the floor wiping blood off someone.

‘Go back!'

‘What happened?'

‘Just go back!' Yasmine shouts at me. The man she's wiping the blood from screeches like the tyres of a car in an accident. What is happening? What did I miss? I didn't even hear anything while I was asleep. I see a man lying on the ground with his head split open and his brain coming out. I stop and cover my mouth in shock. I have never seen anything like this. I have seen blood every day for a long time but I have never seen a brain. I close my eyes and run even though I can't see where I am running. I can feel myself getting sick. How did that happen? How did his brain come out? I wonder if he will have flies all over him later when they smell the pool of blood. It looked thick and deep. I stop and open my eyes because I can feel the vomit coming out. I have no time to move, I vomit straightaway. There was nothing under me; I vomited on the ground thank God.

I get up and walk on to look for everybody else. I find a shell covered in blood on the floor and lean down to pick it up. The moment I pick it up I throw it back down and scrunch my face in disgust. It felt soft and gooey. What is it? I go to it and lean down and stare. The shape looks familiar. I am sure I have seen something like this before but I have never felt anything like that. It's an ear! It's an ear! Oh my God! Does it belong to the man with his brain on the ground? I want to walk back to check if he has his ear but I am scared of feeling sick again. I clench my heart and grab the ear again. It feels just as disgusting as the first time but I hold my breath and wipe the blood on my trousers. It looks beautiful. I didn't know an ear could be this beautiful. I put it in my pocket and walk on.

I see Ali running around with clothes dripping blood.

‘Adam! I'm scared!' Ali comes up to me holding the clothes in a disgusted way.

‘Let's go to my tent!'

‘People need our help!'

A woman running to my right is carrying a young girl. The girl's whole body is brown and white like she has been burnt. How did this happen? There is no blood on her, just burns all over her body. One of her shoes falls off while she is being carried away. It's a white shoe with a flower on the side. There is no blood on it. She doesn't say a single word or even moan in pain.