The Siege of Haniya [ONC2024] ✔

4. Place Like Home

CHAPTER FOUR : PLACE LIKE HOME

"We try to hide our feelings, but we forget that our eyes speak."

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Abu Ali was right.

A couple of days after we first came into the family, the first wave of the sand storm hit us. The storm blew through the makeshift tents, but it did little damage to their inhabitants. The multiple layers of the tents protected us from the approaching storm. The family taught us how to use headwear and wrapped them all over our heads, leaving only our eyes visible, in case we needed to get out of the camp during the storm, which meant going to the bathroom.

But the warmth of the tent, the plenty of food stock, and the comfort from the goat's milk eased the seemingly difficult situation. Reem's soothing words—although I didn't understand half of the words—, Umm Ali's comforting black tea with sage leaves and a sprinkle of sugar, the children's precious laughters and curious stares whenever I spoke a foreign language somehow made the far distance from my family bearable. Abu Ali's jokes that made the camp echoed with laughter, Prof. El-Azizi's quiet demeanour as he watched the family's interaction, and Leila's cheerful conversations with Umm Ali in Arabic, added colours to my black and white mind.

My Arabic improved a little during the stay with the family, and in return, I taught them basic words in English and my native language.

They made me realise that with the company of the right people, even a desert would feel like home.

I couldn't imagine what our situation would be if we were still stuck on the mountain. Scratch that; honestly, I did not want to imagine what could happen.

A shiver ran down my spine as I remembered the fate of other people being banished by the government.

A ball hit my shoulder, snapping me out of my reverie and bringing me into reality. The faded black and white ball, covered with sand and dust, fell near my feet. As I picked it up, muffled laughter reached my ears, followed by a series of footsteps. I shook my head, hiding the smile on my lips as five-year-old Saleh looked up with his wide black orbs and sheepish smile when he reached the place.

"Sorry," he mumbled, saying one of the many words I taught him, but somehow the word for apologising was put into practice more than the others for the little troublemaker.

"It's okay." I ruffled his hair before passing the ball to him, who lit up instantly.

Amina, the seven-year-old girl, came to hug me as soon as she reached where I stood—a little habit of hers whenever she saw a member of her family. Ali, the eldest child from whom his parents got their honorific names, which literally translated to 'father of Ali' and 'mother of Ali', stood awkwardly behind his sister. A giggle escaped my lips as I opened one of my arms to him, who rushed into my embrace. Saleh, upon seeing his siblings in my arms, abandoned the ball and hugged my knee.

Something about the children brought warmth to my heart. It could be their precious smiles or their innocent gazes that softened my heart, but I just loved them so much.

"You're a natural when it comes to children," said Prof. El-Azizi out of nowhere, the ball abandoned by Saleh in his hold.

The children, especially Saleh, stiffened in my embrace at the sound of Prof. El-Azizi's monotonous voice before scrambling away like a monster was hot on their tails. Ali even had the guts to scream the word monster in Arabic.

A displeased look graced the old man's facial features as the ball slipped away from his grasp. "I just want to be friendly."

I laughed, remembering the first day of our stay with the family. Since the children went into bed that night without a proper introduction, they woke up in the morning while Abu Ali was teaching Prof. El-Azizi how to don the headwear. And the old man, trying to be funny or something, raised his hands over his poorly-wrapped headwear and said in a scary voice that he was a monster coming to eat them. The children screamed on top of their lungs, running around the camp and hiding behind their mother and grandmother, who looked like she wanted to beat Prof. El-Azizi for causing the chaos.