Prayer Of The Refugee

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What if they left me alone? Would they leave me alone?

I felt tears in my eyes and I felt Gerard's eyes on me but my head was hanging low. Almost heavy with regret.

"Okay. I'll take you back to your camp."

Was all he said. I heard noise and saw that he had gotten up and left me to sit on the ground.

I felt a tear slip out of my eyes but I smeared it away from my face almost as quick as it fell.

What did I cause? Did I hurt him?

He had to surely understand that I couldn't stay at this camp forever.

I sighed and got up. I saw my clothes dried on the fence and decided to change behind a building really quickly.

I put my clothes on and my jacket. I neatly folded Gerard's sweater and crawled into his tent. He was carving something with his pocket knife into a wood block.

"When do you wanna leave?" He asked abruptly.

"I don't know. Now?"

He put his brick and knife down and I caught sight of his eyes.

They were dull. I took it's brightness by what I said.

"Well go on then. Head out so I can come with." He said and I did as I was told.

We walked down some hills to another camp about 8 miles from his.

"Gerard I-"

"If you want to say sorry, don't. I know you couldn't stay at my camp. I just thought I'd give it a shot." His voice sounded hurt.

I looked at the camp ahead of us. Surely it was my refugee camp. I could just walk right into it, shake Gerard's hand goodbye, and be with my parents again.

But something stopped me.

"It's not just that." I decided to tell him about Hector.
He stopped in his tracks and looked at me. I continued.

"I am looking for someone. A boy. I found him hurt under a big pile of woods and rubble. We escaped to the sewers because he said there were people after him. He is my priority. We spent a night in the sewers but in the morning I heard clicking sounds like my lighter and we realized there was someone else in the sewers with us. So we ran away into this tunnel. That's where I almost drowned but managed to keep him up over my shoulders. That's why my clothes were wet. And then... And then..." I suddenly stopped my talking and felt my shoulders shake out a sob. Soon some tears.

"Wait Lilly... Don't do that." I felt a hand on my shoulder and a tissue being pushed into my hands, "Crying will take away the brightness of your eyes." He whispered and I stopped my sobbing.

I nodded my head and he said, "And then what happened?"

"Once the water cleared we ran out of the tunnel planning to go out of the sewers. I saw an open sewer hatch with no one around so we decided to climb it. I went first so then I could help Hector up but then a guy took him away from me. I can't believe I didn't realize it was a trap. The guy said he was the police and he admitted Hector to some robberies. That's why I wanted to go back to my refugee camp. Maybe as a sense of distraction. But I know if I go back to camp, I won't be able to get Hector back."

I finished and took a big gulp of air to calm myself. By this time I was sitting down on a rock with Gerard next to me.

"So what I am hearing is that your priority is to save Hector? Not your camp?" Gerard arched his eyebrows and small smirk was upon his lips.