“I love you, man. But seriously, don’t wake me from a dead sleep unless you’re bleeding out.”
Seth turned off his phone and placed it on the nightstand. He slid out of bed and let his knees hit the carpeted floor below. He knew he could pray anywhere, that it wasn’t the posture but the heart that mattered. But he was about to storm the heavenly gates on his sister’s behalf, and kneeling in prayer was the most spiritual battle position he knew.
#
He yawned as he set down the net of balls and fished one out. It had been a long night. After his mum’s call, he’d prayed for Kayla for what seemed like hours, often repeating the same words. That she’d find Jesus. That he could somehow get through to her.
Hopefully God didn’t mind the repetition. Somehow he thought not. He’d crawled back under the sheets around five in the morning and had dozed on and off for another hour after that, the little snippets of sleep he’d snatched robbed by the memory of Amber behind the wheel of the Porsche, grinning ear to ear and taking the corners of the Autobahn at a speed that had him white-knuckling the grip on the car door. After that experience, he had no doubt she’d be able to relate to anyone who had a thrill-seeking addiction. Or any addiction that gave the rush of a high. Vibrancy had radiated off her, her skin glowing with life and vitality and her eyes gleaming. The whole effect had mesmerized him.
The football bounced high in the air, and Seth eyed its descent, returning his concentration to the action at hand, waiting and watching. At the last second, he positioned his body, his shoulders straight, back of his neck exposed. The ball landed in the cradle he’d made between neck and shoulder. He bent his knees to absorb the force and then rolled his wrists with a wink.
Twenty rapturous faces turned up at him, eyes wide and shining. They clapped, urging him on to do more tricks.
He let the ball roll down his back then kicked it up with his heel. It soared over his head in a perfect arc and he caught it in another cradle made with the top of his foot and his shin. He kicked it up and juggled the ball for a while, not letting it touch the ground by bumping it back up into the air with either his knees, his head, or his feet.
He caught Amber watching, Yara on her lap. Amber’s lips twitched like she was fighting off a grin.
One he very much wanted to see.
Kicking the ball up higher than before, he squatted, then pushed off with the balls of his feet in a backflip, scissoring his legs and giving the ball a perfect bicycle kick in the air. He landed on his feet and rotated at the waist. The ball floated perfectly through the air and landed in the back of the goal net.
The kids leaped to their feet, shouting all at once, running to him. Before he knew it he had hands all over him, voices raised to be heard above the others. He tussled a few heads before raising his gaze to Amber. She was rising from the ground, Yara on her hip. Her smile hit him square in the chest, knocking the breath out of his lungs.
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re a show-off?” She laughed.
He answered with a grin. “All the time.”
A shadow raced across the ground. A second later the earth shook and the air vibrated. A loud rumble pierced through the revelry of just a moment before. Like prairie dogs spotting a ravenous predator, the children threw themselves on the ground, covering the backs of their heads with their hands. A few screamed, and then muffled sobs filled the silence left by the air stream of jet engines.
The scene was like watching a set of dominoes fall from a slamming door. Kids huddled on the ground, protecting themselves from an unseen attack. Seth’s heart twisted. It wasn’t right. He remembered watching the Royal Air Force at air shows as a kid. Yes, it had been loud, but the noise hadn’t sent his heart into a panic. Instead, he’d stared up at the sky in wide-eyed awe along with the rest of the kids.
He glanced around him and then bent and picked up the closest child, a girl recently arrived from Syria. Sonia was ten and too big to be carried, but he set her on his hip as she buried her face in his neck. Moisture soaked into his skin, and he realized her tears had been transferred to him. If only he could take their fear and painful memories as easily.
His fingers grazed over heads, and then he found a spot on the grass and lowered himself to sit cross-legged, Sonia nestling in his lap. Slowly faces rose from the ground, fear and worry creasing brows, dirt streaked across cheeks. He opened his arms and beckoned them to him. Yesterday he may have been a spokesperson for tough love, but Amber had been right. These kids needed to know that the center was a safe place. Thathewas safe.
Amber sat down beside him, Yara clinging to her neck like a baby koala. Orhan had pasted himself to her side and leaned into her. She wrapped her arm around his thin shoulder. A tear slid down her cheek.
“What these kids must have gone through to react…” She shook her head.
“Es tut mir Leid.I’m sorry.‘Ana asif.” He apologized in German, English, and Arabic. He knew the Air Force sometimes flew drills in the area. He should have warned the kids. Prepared them for the sights and sounds that brought back horrifying memories.
“Our home was destroyed by a missile.” Sonia’s voice was muffled, her breath hot on Seth’s neck. “I will never forget the sharp whistle before a loud explosion. We ran as fast as we could, my family. My grandmother was old. She could not move quickly. My aunts, they go back to help her.” Her arms constricted and Seth patted her on the back. “I turned back to look. All that was left was rubble. A stack of bricks and stone and metal pointing to the sky while dust rose in the air. I never see myjidaor aunties again.”
He pressed her head to his chest and made shushing sounds. Not to quiet her, but as a small measure of comfort. He couldn’t say everything would be all right. For Sonia and her family, it sounded like nothing would be right again.
Jesus, help her. Bring comfort…somehow.
“For us, it was the same, but also different.Umitook Yara and me to the big market on the other side of town that day.” Orhan’s gaze grew distant, as if he were still with them in body but his mind had travelled through space and time, back to his homeland on a day that had been seared into his soul. “I had been naughty and hid from her behind the stall sellingfalafel. I thought this great fun, butUmiwas angry when she finally found me. She said I had made us late. That we were supposed to be home thirty minutes ago.” Amber’s arm tightened around the boy. She whispered something to him, but he didn’t seem to hear her. His gaze was vacant as he stared out at nothing.
“When we return, it was like an angel of death had visited our entire neighborhood. All was still. Too quiet. Where was everyone? I thought to myself. Then I saw. Bodies lying here and there. Eyes open, no one blinking. They were dead. All of them.Baba. A little blood here.” He touched the corner of his mouth and shuddered.
Chemical warfare of some kind. Didn’t matter that such weapons had been limited since 1925 after the rampant use in World War I. Nor that they had been banned for over a decade. Bashar al-Assad’s government had used a number of different chemicals including sarin, weaponized chlorine, and blister agents like sulfuric mustard. Thousands of innocent civilians had been brutally murdered—he ran his hand over Sonia’s hair—including the family members of these innocent children.
“Once upon a time…” Amber rested her chin on the top of Orhan’s head, which had nestled its way into her shoulder. “A long, long, long time ago, there were two dinosaurs named Sam and Jane—brother and sister, of course.”
“Like me and Orhan?” Yara lifted her face enough to ask.
Amber smiled gently at her. “Exactly like you and Orhan.”
