Operation: Dard and Devotion

23 | Ludicrous & Languish

The person behind the door was not dressed much different from Ahsan and I. She was a middle-aged woman who wore something similar to our abayas and Ahsana's khimar, but judging from the small wooden cross that hung around her neck, she was a nun.

"Yes?" She croaked softly as though speaking above a whisper would hurt her. Other nuns craned their necks in the back to see who had arrived and there was the sound of children who had stirred in their slumber.

Ahsan retrieved Saad from my grasp and handed him to the nun. "Watch him for some hours. Do not give him to anyone else. Only return him to either me or her when we come back," he informed the nun, grabbing my upper arm and bringing me in the nun's view.

Her eyes widened a fraction at hearing a very masculine voice from someone in an abaya, but nevertheless, she nodded and shut the door. Ahsan motioned for me to follow him as he went down another unfamiliar passageway and opened yet another discrete door, revealing a small flight of stairs that led to ground level. A lonesome jeep was waiting just outside.

Ahsan must have forgotten he was donning an abaya because in a failed attempt to reach the outside world, he had yet again tripped on the end of the abaya, falling face first on the very first step. Hiding my smirk, I tried to help him up by grabbing his elbow, but he shoved me aside.

"How the hell do you walk in this thing?" He muttered more to himself, clearly rather annoyed.

"Welcome to my world," I told him. "Now you know how I felt when you made me run up many flights of stairs with a child in my arms!"

"If I remember correctly," he snapped, glaring at me. "I carried you both for the last two flights."

"Oh!" I sarcastically let out, throwing my hands up in the air. "Thank God you decided to carry me for two sets of stairs after making me race up five."

"Just shut up and get in the jeep," he muttered after unsuccessfully searching for a comeback.

I frantically looked around, fearing that somebody would jump out from the shadows, as I bolted towards the doorless jeep and sat next to Ahsan. "You sure nobody is awake?"

"Faizan and most of the others went elsewhere today. Only a handful of men are left and the last I checked, they haven't gotten up." He turned the key into the ignition and drove off into the pre-dawn horizon.

Some time had passed and I was getting bored staring at the barren scenery. "So, tell me something about Idleb. I don't think I've heard of it until now."

"There's nothing much to say," Ahsan told me, as he turned on the road. "It's known for its agriculture production. You'll find a lot of olive trees and other crops around. Well, maybe not so much now because of the war."

"Why is there a war though?"

"We want their land, and they don't want to give it up. Simple."

"But why do you want their land? Why can't you just live and let live?"

Silence.

"Are they all minority groups or something? Is that why?"

"Not completely," he admitted as he sped down the deserted road. "The town is filled with Sunni, Shi'a, Christians, and others too."

"And they're fine living amongst each other?"

"Yes, they are."

"And so you all want to wreck the peace of the area." I scoffed. "Good job."

Every time I questioned Al-Tho'baan's motives, Ahsan seemed to be more and more uncomfortable with responding. It seemed as if he didn't know why exactly the extremist group did the things they did. Was it for money? Land? Women? Power?