Two Rivers - pt. 9

January 2008  

I could hear their voices even before I got to our spot - annoying idiots laughing at nothing and poking fun at each other. They were behind the trees, just down the road from school – the trees where Hamza and I met every day after class. Danish wasn't there. I could tell because of how much Feroz was talking. I'd noticed he was a completely different person without Danish - everyone in the group was. It's not like they were scared of him, but when he wasn't around everything wasn't about him anymore.

There was nothing to do but ignore them and wait. They were lounging against the wall behind the trees, and I'd been there often enough to know that it was hard to see the road from there. This was always a busy time. Cars crowded the small street, honking at each other even as kids and parents squeezed between them to cross or get to a car they'd left parked in the middle of the traffic. I'd realized the smarter parents made their kids walk down to different, less crowded roads to be picked up. Most kids were like me and walked all the way home. I imagined what a bird would see in the afternoon – a steady stream of light blue (the colour of our uniform) leaving the school and spreading out into the city, getting thinner and thinner until it disappeared.

I crossed my arms and tapped my foot impatiently, ignoring the groups of kids (older and younger) that walked by. What was taking him so long? Eventually, the crowd dispersed and the road emptied. I kept waiting. An occasional straggler would leave the school gates alone, looking at the ground with both hands on their bag straps as they walked past me. They stared until they got close; people had been doing that more and more lately. Still, Hamza was nowhere to be seen.

And of course, that's when Feroz and his friends decided it was time to go home. I turned away as they left the trees – maybe they wouldn't see me. But they did. The laughing and joking came to a halt when one of them shouted, "hey, isn’t that the pathan boy!"

"He looks like a degenerate!"

"Hush, don't you know he's a terrorist!"

Two Rivers - pt. 8

Ahmed Gulzar
16 Cham St.
Mingora, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Pakistan

26th October 2007

Dear Mina,

I just saw your letter, and yesterday we saw on the TV that the army is fighting terrorists in Swat. Is that true?? What's going on? Are you okay? Is everyone else okay?

Uncle Masood tried calling, but it didn't work. Can you tell Abu to call him when you get this letter?

Don't worry about anything. The army is amazing! They have all these strong planes and tanks. They'll kill the terrorists and then you can go to school again (I don't know why you want to though, school sucks!).

Write back as soon as possible,
Alam

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Alam Zawar
32-A Sarwar Shaheed Rd, Ichra
Lahore, Punjab
Pakistan

17th November 2007

Dear Alam,

I don't know if you've written to me recently, but I haven't gotten any letters. Uncle Gulzar isn't coming up here anymore. I guess he doesn't have any tourists. Why would anyone want to come here? Even if they did, I don’t know if the horrible Taliban would let them. I'm writing this because Aimal bhai was at the farm and he told me that he's going to go to Kalam. I asked him to get a letter to the postal service. 

Anyway, I hope you get this letter. Did you get my last one? The Taliban are everywhere. They're like the police now. But they make up their own stupid rules and none of them make any sense. Ami and I can't leave the house anymore; Abu won't let us. You can't even imagine how bored I am, Alam! There's nothing to do. I just sit here and read my old books or help Ami with chores.

Aimal Bhai's been visiting pretty often, and he's told me all sorts of things. He said that in Matiltan there's a body in the market every week. A body, Alam. They cut off the head and hang it somewhere else in the village. It's horrible. I asked Abu if it's true, but he didn't say anything...So I guess it must be. Every day, I think about all the people I know in the town, and I pray it wasn’t one of them.

Bilal got in really big trouble. I don't know what he did, but one day Uncle Rehmat came running to our house shouting that he was being punished. Him and Abu went to Matiltan together. When they came back, they were carrying him. He was crying and bleeding, so they brought him here. Ami, me and Aunty Rehmat took off his shirt (we had to use scissors and cut it off because it was stuck to his cuts). He had so many straight red lines on his back. They'd held him down and lashed him. Don't worry, he's okay now...But I've never seen him cry so much before. It must have really hurt.

Oh Alam, who are these people and why have they come to ruin our lives? They keep saying that they're bringing Islamic Law to the country, but this isn't the same Islam that Nano and Abu taught us. And Abu keeps saying that. He's so angry and tense all the time, he'll yell at us for no reason. But every night, he tells me that this isn't Islam. That these are all just bad people. He says that they will be punished in the afterlife. But I'm scared. Because Jamal isn't a bad person. And if he joined them, it's because they tricked him. Will he also be punished?

There are rumours about the army. Abu and Uncle Rehmat often talk about it quietly over dinner, and Aimal Bhai told me too. We haven't seen anything. No soldiers, no planes, nothing. But they say that the military has started fighting further South in the Valley. They say that people are leaving their homes, or that the military's bombs are killing them. They say the military doesn't care about us Pashtuns.

Alam, we all miss you so much. But everything is so terrible right now that I'm happy you aren't here. I'm happy you're safe in Lahore. Keep going to school and working hard! I wish I could.

Mina

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