The Doctor of Aleppo by Dan Mayland

Author:Dan Mayland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 2020-07-23T15:48:17+00:00

chapter 35

Adam waited and waited for his father to come home that night. After he heard his mother slam her door sometime after midnight, he decided he would try to sleep too. So he drank half a box of room-temperature milk that was stamped with the flag of Saudi Arabia, then crept back down to the cool, stone-walled storage cellar beneath the kitchen where he and Noora had been sleeping for the past year.

When he woke again, it was still dark out. After drinking all that milk, he should have tried to pee before going to bed, but the inside toilets had not been working for months, so he had to go to a corner of the courtyard where his mother had pried up a tile and dug a hole.

As he was passing by the iwan, though, he heard a sound—like an animal panting. Afraid that it might be a soldier, or maybe a thief, he froze. A figure, bathed in cold moonlight, was seated on the floor of the courtyard, back to the fountain. Recognizing his mother, Adam almost called out to her, but before the words could form, he saw that she was hugging herself and still making that panting sound as she rocked back and forth.

For a moment, he thought he must be dreaming. He had seen his mother crying before. But never like this.

It occurred to him that if his mother was this upset, something must have happened. Something truly terrible.

And then he recalled that his father had not come home, even though his mother had been expecting him to.

The panic that started in Adam’s mind radiated outward. He began to feel a tightness in his chest, as though a bully with strong arms were squeezing the breath out of him. Struggling to breathe, he began to hyperventilate. It occurred to him that he was starting to sound a little bit like his mother.

This house, Noora, his mother . . . if his father could be hurt . . . He felt his chest tighten even more. Everything, everything could be at risk.

“Who is there?” cried his mother.

For the briefest of moments, they made eye contact. “Where is Baba?” asked Adam.

“I do not know.”

“Is he dead?”

“I said, I do not know!” screamed his mother, pulling her hair.

Adam ran.

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