Naveed by John Heffernan

Author:John Heffernan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV039000, book
ISBN: 9781743431320
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2014-01-03T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Naveed’s mother and sister have long since gone to bed, but he is wide awake. Although it must be after midnight he is still bubbling with excitement from the events of the day, thoughts racing through his mind. He has left the little room where they live and sits just inside the alcove. Nasera lies beside him, her head resting on his leg, her eyes on her ragdoll, which she has dropped in his lap. He gazes down the narrow lane that runs past the house, and then up at the sky strewn with jewel-like stars. A fog is drifting in.

He can hear the big carrier planes still taking off and landing at Bagram Airfield. This is the best time for them to do that, safer from attack than in daylight. Even so, a flare flickers into the night accompanied by mortar blasts to the east: definitely Taliban. A chorus of gunfire chatters in reply, followed by a mighty explosion that makes the ground shudder and lights up the sky. A quiet period follows – dogs bark, a cat yowls, someone shouts something somewhere.

Earlier that night, Naveed didn’t say much to his mother or sister about his time at the base with Jake, despite their many questions. One part of him desperately wanted to tell everything. But caution made him hold back; if nothing came of it, the disappointment would be so great for all of them. And if something did eventuate, the joy would be so much greater. ‘Don’t expect anything,’ he said with a shrug over their evening meal. ‘But I’ll go back for a few days just in case. Who knows?’

‘Just imagine,’ he now whispers to Nasera. ‘We could save people, save lives, limbs.’ With that thought alone, life has suddenly taken on an extra meaning for Naveed. It doesn’t have to be only about getting up and finding work in order to eat. It can be about much more.

When he was at the base, Naveed couldn’t explain to Jake why he’d become so emotional. At the time he wasn’t even sure himself. Now he knows that a great weight has been lifted from him. And with that weight has gone some of the darkness that has filled his life ever since Anoosheh lost her legs, made even more intense when his father died.

For years he’d carried the darkness wherever he went, never letting on to anyone, especially his mother and sister, always showing a brave face. He had to; he was the man of the house. But in fact it had been slowly eating away at him.

Now it has lifted a little, at least enough for him to see ahead. Never has anything so wonderful happened to him. This is a chance to end the darkness forever. Naveed knows he has to grasp it with both hands – no, more than that – with all his heart and soul.

‘I’ll do it, Padar,’ he whispers. ‘You’ll be proud of me.’

Nasera looks up at him, her head cocked sideways, and makes a whining noise.

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