Kiss the Dust by Elizabeth Laird

Author:Elizabeth Laird
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

16

Tara slept all the rest of the afternoon, all evening and all night, though she woke up enough to have a good supper that the other family kindly cooked for them with the rations they’d been given. When she finally woke up properly next morning, she was so stiff she groaned. The rough concrete floor was covered only by a dirty mat, and it hadn’t made a comfortable bed, but she’d been too exhausted to notice.

She was trying to drag a comb through her tangled hair when she heard loud voices from the men’s quarter next door. The captain was shouting furiously, and he hardly stopped for long enough to let the interpreter translate. Kak Soran only gave a few answers, and when he did speak he sounded slow and stupid, quite unlike his usual self.

Teriska Khan was still asleep. Tara jumped up and went to the door.

‘Don’t forget your chador!’ one of the other girls said, scrambling after her with the piece of black cloth.

Tara opened the door and peeped out, trying to hear without being seen, but Kak Soran and the interpreter were speaking quietly and their voices sounded confused. All she could catch was Ashti’s name, but she didn’t hear Ashti’s voice.

After a while the captain seemed to burn himself out. Kak Soran’s quiet answers and his convincing show of stupid bewilderment seemed to calm him down. He shrugged his shoulders and marched off, swinging his arms in a soldierly way. Tara darted out to catch her father before he went back into the men’s quarter.

‘What’s happened? What was all that about Ashti?’

‘He ran off in the night. He’s gone back to the mountains.’

‘Oh no! How awful! What will Daya say?’

‘What’s all this about?’ Tara turned. Teriska Khan had woken up and was standing behind her. She had one hand pressed to the side of her head as if she had a headache.

‘Ashti ran away in the night,’ said Tara.

‘Oh, my God! Oh no!’ Teriska Khan pushed Tara aside. ‘Why did you let him go?’

‘Listen.’ Kak Soran was feeling bad himself. He wasn’t in the mood to argue with his wife. ‘Do you know what they told me in there?’ he said, nodding towards the open door behind him, through which Tara could see a group of other Kurdish men, all sitting in silence round the walls. ‘They told me some Iraqi Kurdish boys have been sent to join the Iranian army! If Ashti was here he’d have to fight for Iran. Think of that – he might have to kill some of our own people! And if he refused do you know what they’d do?’

Teriska Khan shuddered.

‘Where’s he gone? What’s he going to do?’

‘He’s gone back to Rostam. It was the only thing he could do. He had all night to travel in, and he slept all yesterday afternoon so he was pretty well rested. He’ll have arrived back at the village we first came to hours ago. There were more guides coming through again last night with another lot of refugees.

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