Dante
The sun goes down again, and we still have not slept at all.
We had only stopped for supplies; the child needed food and new burkas for the women.
Sarah and I switch places, Bruno said it would be less suspicious if a man was in the front seat.
I look at my brother; despite his inner strength, he looks defeated and tired.
“Brother, let me drive.”
He shakes his head.
“Your dress got bigger.” I hear the kid’s tiny, sweet voice. He is sitting next to a stiff Sarah, looking at her curiously.
“Oh, the wizard without the cape got me one. Do you like Ben?” says Sarah, trying to mask her pain.
My eyes look at Bruno, he’s looking at the rear-view mirror with love and pride.
“So, your name is Ben?” asks Bruno.
“Benjamin,” he corrects him. “My friends call me Ben.”
I turn my body to see him, Sarah tries to hide her laughter and Amira looks at him in surprise. She never heard a child talking so confidently before.
Amira...the great enigma, she’s been so quiet. I wonder what she' s feeling?
Bruno talks to Ben, asking random questions and making him relax a bit. Although Ben had been silent and cautious at first, now he just talks and talks, Bruno follows the conversation attentively.
In the meantime, I peep through the mirror on my side at Amira and see her looking out the window with anguish.
I thought this was what she wanted.
Hours go by, Amira is as quiet as a tomb and Sarah falls asleep from exhaustion and pain, I guess.
Bruno opens his mouth and yawns widely like a lion, making an exaggerated noise to make Ben laugh, and of course, he does.
“Brother.” I put my hand on his right arm. “Let me drive, sleep a few hours, there's still a long way to go.”
“I'm not going to leave you alone, Dante,” he grumpily answers as he shakes his head, trying to wake up his brain.
Amira pokes her head between the two seats, and after hours of dead silence, she starts talking.
“I can keep him company, so he doesn't fall asleep, just let me put on the burka.”
Pain in the stomach suddenly attacks me. Am I getting sick?
Bruno looks at Amira and then me, and with a smirk says, “All right.”
Amira puts the burka on over her dress, I can still see her eyes and now Bruno sits between Sarah and the boy. Not even ten minutes later I look in the mirror, my brother he is already asleep, his head falling backwards.
Now everybody is asleep, and we have some privacy for the first time since we left the compound.
“I've never seen you in a burka before,” I tease her.
She giggles, I can’t see it, but I know it by heart, no teeth, eyes down, that’s how her mother taught her to be around other people.
“I always wanted to use a burka, but my mom just wouldn't let. Maybe if I wore them, he wouldn't….”
