Dear Blue Sky (15 page)

CHAPTER 36

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Bly Sky's Blog

 

December 30, 2006

Today is the first day of Eid and the news is shock. This was happy day in past. It was big surprise to know Saddam was executed this morning. No one like him for horrible things he did but he was President for 35 years. Why they can not wait until the end of Eid? Even your Bush not execute on Christmas day, true? The worse is the guards told him to go to hell and taunt him at the end. It is not right. Everyone is sad about it. I take my breakfast of hot bread, tea, milk, cream, yogurt and eggs. We learn about Saddam and now no appetite.

Normally at Eid we clean the house. Of course we need water to clean. When the water started as a trickle this morning we dance and collect all we can before it stop. It is never enough.

We pray everyday and hope it work real good.

 

To: Blue Sky

From: Cassie

Subject: Happy New Year

 

Dear Blue Sky,

I am writing to say Happy New Year and Happy Eid, but first I have to say sorry Saddam Hussein had to die the way he did. No one should die like that. It's not right. How can so many things go wrong in your country?

How is your family? Any news? I hope you are still there and can email back. I wish you a happy and safe 2007. I have an assignment for social studies to interview someone from another country. Could I interview you? I hope so. Write back soon if you can.

Your friend,

Cassie

 

To: Cassie

From: Blue Sky

Subject: Re: Happy New Year

 

Dear Cassie,

Yes, it is possible to interview. Send the questions soon. The problem is we leave here. If we stay we can not be safe. America can not protect us. Supervisor of my father say the good Iraqis need to stay to rebuild Iraq but he can not help us. We talk about Syria or Jordan. They are the only countries to take us without visa. Have to be careful the next days or we might die. I fill my suitcase. We are ready.

What memories I save? What CDs, videos, pictures, stuffed animals. Yes I take my computer. Can I use it? Will we ever be come back again? I get scared. What happens to Iraq? Most of our family is here. I do not want to leave them. My mother cry and cry about my uncle. No word and she has terrible time leave him to die. Who bury him? she ask over and over. But my father says we need go fast. Something worse happen in that time we wait.

And school? It is better to live but I need education more than anything. I have dreams. I choose life.

We check for driver reliable to take us. We could take a plane but the Baghdad Airport is very dangerous. Terrorists are like a disease. No one stop them. They pretend to do this for religion but they have no belief. It is dangerous to live.

May peace come soon to Iraq.

Regards,

Blue Sky

 

To: Blue Sky

From: Cassie

Subject: Re: Re: Happy New Year

 

Dear Blue Sky,

How do you leave everything you know? I hope it all works out for your family. I am going to pray for you. I am scared for you. And I'm afraid I won't hear from you anymore.

Here is the list of interview questions. I know the answers to a lot of them now, so just answer what you can. I am going to present you to my class. I want everyone to know who you are, and what is happening in your country. I know you might have to leave quickly. That's OK.

1. What is your blog name, what does it mean, and why did you start your blog?

2. What is your first memory?

3. What is your everyday life like there, and how has the war changed the way you live your life?

4. What are your favorite foods?

5. What is your favorite subject in school? Least favorite?

6. Do you have brothers and sisters?

7. What do your parents do?

8. What do you want to do when you are older?

9. What would you like to tell the world about you/Iraq?

10. What are your dreams?

I keep thinking about what you said about hope. I have been trying to believe in something so the rest will follow. I am trying to be Supergirl like you. Please be safe and write if you can.

Your friend,

Cassie

CHAPTER 37

DYING

WHEN I SAW
the picture of Saddam Hussein with the noose around his neck, I felt sorry for him, even though I knew he did so many horrible things. Mom wouldn't look at the newspaper when I showed her. She said, “It's about time. He's nothing but a rat who deserves to die.” Dad said, “That's what happens in a war. Besides, it was the Iraqis who decided to do it.”

I stopped eating my cereal. “We wanted him executed. They probably got paid to do it. On the first day of Eid, too.”

“What is
Eid
?” Mom asked.

“It's like their Christmas.” I held up the paper to Dad. “Look at him.”

“I saw him.” Dad threw up his arms. “How can you feel sorry for Saddam Hussein? He threw his people into vats of chemicals and hung them from ceilings by hooks! He tortured thousands of his own people!”

“It's still not right,” I said.

“I don't care as long as it means Sef can home quicker,” Mom said. “Maybe now the war will end.”

“Don't count on it,” Dad said.

“That country is crazy. I don't know what he's doing there at all.” Mom began to cry. “He's going to be all messed up.”

Dad shot me a look, took the paper, folded it, and put it into his armpit. “He's going to be fine. He's going to be the same Sef he always was.”

The back of my cereal box read, “How long can a puffin stay underwater?” I stared at the cartoon bird with the big beak. I kept seeing the picture of Saddam with the noose around his neck in the paper. How could anyone
want
someone to die?

“Remember Blue Sky, the girl from Iraq who wrote the blog? Her family has to leave Iraq.”

“Why?” Dad asked.

“Her father worked for our military as a translator. If they don't leave, they could be killed. They might be killed anyway.”

“I thought things were starting to get better over there.” Mom sighed. “Do you even know if Blue Sky is real?”

“Are you kidding? You actually think someone's pretending to be an Iraqi girl?” I laughed.

“Well, we're over there fighting for them. Sef is risking his life. Does your friend realize that?”

“She realizes it every time a bomb falls, which is all day long—or
was
all day long. I'm not sure where she is now.”

Mom threw up her hands. “Her father's working for us, probably making more money than he's ever made, and you're telling me they don't want us there?”

“
Was
working for us before his family was threatened and had to leave their country. And we can't help them. Or won't help them.”

“Come on, Cassie. We're spending billions of dollars over there. They aren't grateful for that?” Mom said. “It's not like we're threatening them.”

“Just listen to her, Grace,” Dad said. “Let her talk.”

“She said her father had a good job before the war. He was an English teacher. They could leave their house then. They weren't in danger of getting shot or blown up every time they did leave. Now after he's worked for us for three years, we can't help them.”

Mom took a deep breath. “Cassie,” she said slowly, “did it ever cross your mind that we've got enough on our plate already? At least
I
do.”

• • •

I thought about what Blue Sky had said—that they didn't show Iraqis dying on our TVs. We knew troops were dying, but we didn't see them either. They were only numbers in the paper. I ran down the street where the cars had cleared tracks. I ran up and down our street until I was too tired to be scared about Blue Sky or Sef anymore. I was like the polar bear I saw once at a zoo in New York, swimming in circles, pushing off the wall over and over again.

Then I fell back into the snow on our lawn under the gray sky and lay there until I could breathe right. I looked up once and saw Van in the window. I half waved to her, and she disappeared.

• • •

Van was lying on her bed with her book over her face. “Hey,” I said. “You okay?”

“No. I feel like I'm dying,” she said through the book. “Finn's going to break up with me.”

“How do you know?”

“I know. He thinks I'm crazy.”

“What do you mean?”

She stared at me. “This is the worst New Year's ever. I really don't feel like staying here all night. It's going to be so boring.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

“This is the first time I'm going to miss Nora's party.”

“Why don't you call her on my cell phone?”

“Maybe I will.”

I could hear Nora's voice as Van walked out of our room. “I mean he's cool, but does he respect you, and I mean
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
?”

Down the hall, Van shut the bathroom door behind her. I went into Sef's room, where Jack was sitting on the floor with Mom's poetry books stacked all around him. On the top was one called
The Colossus,
and on top of that was the picture of Sef driving a tank that Mom had printed. Sef was smiling and waving, but the tank looked like some kind of enormous metal contraption that was swallowing him.

A circle shape outlined where the Osama bin Laden dartboard had been. Jack must have taken it down. There were hundreds of tiny holes and longer scrapes where the darts hit or dragged over Sef's door. I ran my finger over them.

After a while, Van finally came out of the bathroom, walked back to our room, and shut the door. The long, beautiful dark hair that she'd had her whole life was chopped off. My stomach turned. What'd she do? In the bathroom, I brushed my foot through the piles of dark, feathery hair without a sound. It looked like someone had died.

When I went into our room, Van was looking in the mirror.

“You okay?”

She laughed a high, strained laugh. “I can't believe I just did that. What do you think?”

“It actually looks good.” I was surprised. Van looked even more beautiful than before. Her short, choppy hair framed her small face, made each feature look more perfect.

“Yeah? Feels pretty good, but I'll probably kill myself in the morning.” She ran her fingers through her hair like a comb. “I better clean up before Mom thinks an animal was skinned in there.”

“Well, at least it's not a boring New Year's Eve,” I said.

She laughed again, and I realized that I hadn't heard her laugh in so long.

Mom gasped when she saw Van. “What happened?”

“I cut my hair.” Van was smiling.

“What is going to happen next around here?” Mom sat down and then looked up to Van. “Why?”

“I just wanted to. Can you stop staring at me like that now?”

It was strange. There was something calm about Van—almost peaceful. Mom had long dark hair like Van that she twirled into a knot on the back of her head. She never would have cut her hair like that. Ever.

When Dad came in from the garage, he stopped and said, “Did you get your hair cut, Van?”

“Yes,” she said. “I did it.”

“Oh, it's nice.”

Mom stood behind him with her mouth open.

“Thanks,” Van said as she carried the dustpan up the stairs.

“Happy New Year!” Dad raised his glass.

Mom smiled a big broken smile and clinked her glass with his. “To 2007.”

CHAPTER 38

REAL

KIM WAS ABSENT
the first day back at school. Her plane back from visiting her father in LA had been delayed. Rob was out too, sick with the flu.

I stood in the middle of the cafeteria holding my carton of chocolate milk, trying to decide which direction to go. Dave Swanson was standing behind me. For days after the football game, he wouldn't look at me. Now all of a sudden, he was there whenever I turned around. I tried to ignore him.

Sonia was heading out of the lunch line with a salad on a tray. She was wearing the
CHOOSE LIFE
T-shirt that I gave her. Life was our favorite cereal. I stayed where I was on her path. She could have gone around me, but she didn't.

“Lost?” she asked.

“Very funny,” I said. “Can I sit with you?”

“Whatever.” She shrugged, but I saw a little glimmer in her eyes.

“Look who's back. Guess Weirdo's not here,” Michaela said when we reached their table. “It's been, like, months. I'm only getting like a C in math now, but whatever.”

I said, “Weren't you getting a C before too?”

“Ha ha. Why does Dave Swanson keep looking over here?”

“How should I know?” I said.

“So, are you going to the Spring Dance with him?”

“Are you joking?”

“Well, I just thought you might want to know that I'm asking Rob.”

Everyone looked at me.

“And do you think he'll say yes?” I asked her.

“What's that supposed to mean?” Michaela glared at me.

“Just that he never says yes to dances. Remember how many girls asked him last year?”

“And you're suddenly the expert on Rob,” she said.

“Okay,” Lisa said. “I think this is when it's, like, time for a new subject.”

There was silence, then Lisa asked, “So is it true Jack almost got run over in the parking lot?”

“Yeah, that really icy week.”

“That's so crazy. Is he all right?” She smiled a little, so I couldn't tell if she was making fun of us.

“He was a little shell-shocked, but he's fine now.”

“First I heard Mr. Mac actually did run him over. I was so relieved he was okay,” Sonia said. “Jack's a sweet kid.”

“Thanks,” I said.

Sonia looked away.

“He's lucky.” Lisa set her Diet Coke down. “Did he stop talking or something?”

“He's just been having a hard time.”

Michaela flipped her straightened hair over her shoulder. “Isn't your whole family kind of wacky?”

“I can't believe you said that,” Sonia blurted out. “I never said that.”

“Maybe not exactly in those words.” Michaela smirked.

Sonia didn't say anything. She glanced from me to Michaela and back. I tried to eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but the peanut butter stuck to the top of my mouth. Michaela slipped her math homework in front of me. Then she glossed her lips sparkling pink.

“I have to go,” I said.

“Where do you have to go?” Sonia asked.

“Somewhere real.”

Sonia lifted her silver-blue eyes. “Right.”

“Let me know if you want to talk sometime,” I said to Sonia, and left.