Standing in front of the largest window in the house, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There was no baseball game scheduled for tonight, so why would there be fireworks? My 5-year old mind didn’t have an answer for that, but my Mama did. She ran into the room, sobbing her eyes out, and I was worried about her. She grabbed my hand and started pulling me along on her desperate dash around the house.
“Where’s Daddy, Honey?” My shoulders do a sort of shrug, but she’s rushing so much that I don’t think she sees it.
We rush down to the hall, towards the secret, emergency room hidden smartly right next to another door. Smartly? Is that a word? I try to remember being taught the word, thinking back to my grammar lessons with Mama and Daddy. I knew there was an intelligently, and I started to whisper it, stumbling right in the middle, “Intelli-i-gent…” I stop as I’m pulled through the door.
I haven’t been down here much, except to learn what to do if Allah tries to rule the world. I didn’t understand the Islamic religion, but I got the picture that this guy got struck by a flash of lightning, and suddenly believed he had God inside of him, telling him what to do. Most said he was crazy, but we were also afraid. Shortly afterward, people said he started acting like some old guy called “Hitler”. I don’t know what the suffix “ler” means, but “hit” doesn’t sound all that nice. He started making speeches about how all not of his religion would die, and since God was inside of him, he would make sure that happened.
My family’s Christian, whatever that means exactly, so we don’t believe him, but that doesn’t mean we don’t believe he’s going to try to do what he says he’s gonna.
When Mama yanks my arm a little too hard, I stop thinking of “Allah” and start thinking about what’s gonna happen now. Finally, we’re out of the passageway, and in the little room. My young mind picks up all the little details, like how there’s a huge bed in the corner, a huge container of water, a ton of food, and a little bit of a toilet-like thing showing through the crack of a big cover-thingy. It’s like the cover-thing is hiding the toilet, and them I realize that’s exactly what it’s doing. There’s a tub next to it, and I wonder what that’s for.
But my mind stops thinking when I hear a screech. It’s my daddy! He’s in here! He just set down a big box of stuff, so it looks like he was bringing even more stuff into this room. But it seems impossible that anything could have gotten in here, since the passage into “here” is so narrow. Then, I realize he came through another door, a huge one. It’s like he opened up the wall itself, since the whole right wall seemed angled, with a crack between the would-be corner and where the wall ended.
More to come!!!
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