Lake Uriah Caspian Sea Turkey A Patrix Ayra Sain Kala Persia Mosul Hamadan Kerma Baquba Iraq Baghdad Ayna to Hamadan to Baqubah 1918 Baqubah to Baghdad 1921 Baghdad to Kermanshah 1921 Kermanshah to Hamadan 1922 Hamadan to Sain Kala to Tabriz 1923 Tabriz to Ayna 1924 As a 0 in 250
ONE No Safe Place
Ayna Persia July 1918 A SOUND A VERY quiet sound woke Samira What was it She listened but she kept her eyes tightly closed hoping she could drift back into sleep We always hear noises when we sleep on the roof she told herself It must be the donkey stamping its hoof or Papa snoring She put out her hand and touched her little sister Maryam who was sleeping beside her Maybe it was just a dream Then she heard it again Metal clinking against metal and then a voice whispering Samira sat up The sky was clear and black There was no moon but the stars gave enough light that she could see Mama lying on her sleeping mat on the other side of Maryam Beyond her was Papa and then her brother Benyamin They were all sleeping quietly She listened holding her breath Where had the sound come from again There was no more clinking but the whispering came Samira pushed her thin summer quilt aside and stood up
The clay floor was rough under her bare feet as she silently crossed the flat roof She was sure now The whispering was coming from the garden behind the house Boys from a nearby village sometimes sneaked into Ayna to steal a few ripe melons Well she would catch them this time There was a wall around the edge of the roof but by standing on tiptoe Samira could see over it and over the wall that surrounded the village The garden was on a hillside so she could see the almond tree and the rows of peppers and eggplants and the tangle of melon vines Among the melons were three figures dressed in bulky clothes and wearing strange peaked caps No village boy wore such a cap and these were not boys Then Samira saw a glint of starlight on something shiny They were men There it was again It was the blade of a knife The man was lifting a melon and cutting it from the vine He lowered it to the ground and its pale round shape disappeared They are thieves thought Samira That man is cutting melons and putting them in a sack The man stood up and lifted the sack to his shoulder and Samira saw that he had a rifle strapped to his back The knife in his hand clinked against the rifle barrel That was
