Excerpt:

“I jumped into the first cab that came my way and told him the intersection where I’d been told my friends were. The cabbie must have heard the urgency and fear in my voice, he drove faster and more recklessly than I expected. During the entirety of the ride, I remained silent, chewing my fingernail absently—it’s a nervous habit I have. As we approached the intersection, it was clear that there had been trouble. My mind was racing with apprehension. ‘Go,’ the cabbie ordered as I shoved my hand into my pocket, nervously fumbling around for some cash. I stared at him, scared. ‘It’s fine. Just go. May Allah be with you,’ he told me. ‘And with you,’ I replied.

I ran towards the scene of trouble. Before I got quite there, I knew what had happened. The vile stench of burning flesh was thick in the air.”

As Ahmad’s voice began to quaver, Jenny handed him a glass of water. She knew to wait patiently for the young man to continue.

“So” he began again, “I knew what to expect before I got there but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.”

Ahmad’s large eyes watered as he gritted his teeth together in a visible struggle to keep from crying.

“Would you like to take a break?” Jenny asked gently when the Ahmad paused for a while.

He shook his head. “I ran over and I saw them. Um… well Yahya, one of my friends, was already dead. He was lying there staring at the sky with this horrible look of utter shock on his face. His skin was pale and his mouth was gaping open. A little stream of blood was trickling out from it and pooling at the site where his head met the ground.” Ahmad paused. “A large piece of metal, glossy with the redness of his blood, was lodged in his belly. I think it was part of a car door.”

Ahmad stopped talking as he gripped his head tightly between his sweaty palms. His gaze was now focused on the dusty tiled floor and he began to rock slowly in his chair.

“Saif, the second of my friends was still gripping onto life when I arrived. I saw him lying in a pool of red, the side of his head was bashed in and his left leg was twisted oddly and bent beneath him. It felt strange to see him like that—he had been the most handsome of us, girls used to flirt with him nonstop. I went over and picked him up—what was left of him anyway.”

Ahmad paused again as tears began to fall.

“I picked him up and we just stared at each other for a while. I was crying and my tears fell onto his blood-splattered face and I remember wondering why they didn’t wash away the blood. I knew that my friend was quickly slipping away but I wanted so badly to help him hold on. I didn’t shout though, or scream for him to stay with me. I just sat there and cried. I remember watching his face as he too began to cry, and I kept whispering to him ‘It’s okay, Saif. It’s okay, don’t be afraid.’ I knew he was dying and I just wanted to comfort him, so I kept repeating, ‘It’s okay, Allah is with you. Don’t be afraid, everything will be alright.’

“We must have sat there for three minutes at most but the painful moments felt like days dragging slowly past. As I stared into his eyes, utterly transfixed, memories of better times flashed through my mind. I thought of the parties we’d attended and the stupid stunts we’d pulled. I thought of the laughs we’d shared while messing around with friends in the streets and in our homes.

“Fresh waves of tears streamed down my face as I stared down at his mangled body. I remembered the most serious conversations we’d had and the advice he’d given me. I remembered it all…

“As these memories flashed to mind, I hugged my friend’s body closer to me and wept. As I did so, Saif continued to stare up at me, tears falling from his light grey eyes. Slowly, he opened his mouth to speak but as he attempted the task, a large scarlet bubble rose from his mouth. It grew larger and larger until it popped at last, spraying me with a mist of scarlet. I could do nothing more than gently wipe the blood from his face.”

Ahmad paused again, staring at the floor and wringing his hands as tears poured from his eyes and splashed lightly upon the ground.

“He tried once more to speak but this time he could just barely open his mouth. And that was it.”

As Ahmad’s voice drifted away, Jenny removed her glasses and wiped the lenses, then raised her hands to wipe away her own tears.

“It wasn’t like the movies, though,” Ahmad resumed. “Where he slowly dies and all this dramatic, mournful music begins. No.

“All around us, people were shouting and children were screeching. Victims of the explosion who had managed to survive were screaming at the tops of their lungs. Stray dogs were barking and the distant noise of gunfire contributed to the sense of total chaos that ensued all around us. But still, I sat completely oblivious. It was as though I had stumbled into a pocket of silence temporally isolated from the rest of the world.