Never Lose Hope

Chapter Twelve

            As soon as Jihad pulls into our driveway everyone rushes inside, except for Troy, who decides to help me up the steps that lead to the door. “Thanks.” I whisper before opening the door. Tamara and I go upstairs and do our homework I hand her my math homework so she could copy it. While I get started on the other classes. We finish an hour later and we get our pajamas on before going into the kitchen to see my mother cooking dinner and the boys smoking the argeela. “So are you guys going to stay for dinner?” My mother asks looking towards Troy and Kevin. “You are always welcome.” My mother adds.

            “Thanks Mrs. Assaf.” They both say at the same time.

            “Please, call me Amal.” She says with a smile on her face. I sit down on one of the chairs and Jihad give me the hose for the argeela and gets up to help Tamara set the table. I start to smoke the argeela. “Sara, put the argeela away, it’s dinner time.” My mother says.

            “I can’t walk on one leg.” I say teasingly.

            “I got it.” Troy says with a smile on his face. “Where does it go?” He asks picking it up. He walks out the door to put the argeela out and walks back in with his phone on his ear.

            “Just throw the coal into the sink and you could put it outside on the table.” My mother says thanking him. He nods his head and gets up with the argeela.

            After dinner we all head to the living room after putting the little ones to sleep, we end up watching movies for the rest of the night, which I fall asleep to. Next thing I know I’m shaken awake and jump up scared. “Sara, are you okay? What happened?” I look around confused. I start to cry because right now everything just seems so confusing. One minute I’m happy the next, I’m having dreams of when I was in Palestine. I don’t know if it’s a sign, but I feel in my heart that I have to check on Amo Hamada. I haven’t called him since I got here and I feel like I should talk to him and thank him for making this happen. The least I could do is call him a few times a month to see how he is. He spent his whole looking after me. “I need to call him.” I say looking around the room frantically. Everyone looks at me confused except for Tamara who probably knows what’s going on through my head.

            “Who do you need to call? What’s going on?” My mother asks looking at me frantically. “Sara, look at me please.”

            “Just get her the phone and let her call whoever she needs to.” My father says urgently and Jihad runs to the kitchen to get the phone and hands me it. I dial his number with shaky hands, once I dial the number wrong my father understands who I’m calling and takes the phone from my hands and dials his number before handing me the phone. I put it on speaker, and my leg starts to shake involuntarily.

            “Hello?” A girl’s voice says through the phone, I look at Tamara confused because we both know he’s always the one who picks up the phone.

            “Uh, is Hamada there?” I ask in a shaky voice.

            “Whose speaking?”

            “Sara Assaf, I used to stay there.”

            “Hi Sara, I’m sorry to tell you but he passed.” She tells me in a sad tone. I become totally speechless and shocked. My mouth drops open and I let out a loud sound that’s between a sob and gasp. I grab my crutches and rush out of that room where everyone is looking at me.

Troy’s Point Of View

            One minute we’re watching a funny movie laughing, next thing I know everyone’s crowding around Sara, who looks like she’s having a panic attack in her sleep. When she wakes up, it looks like she doesn’t remember where she is which confuses me as hell. What was she dreaming about before she woke up? Seeing her like this scares me, she’s usually a happy person, it’s weird how one second she’s laughing along with us to the movie and next she’s going through this.