Home Is Beyond the Mountains (22 page)

Anna said, “Yes. It must be
better than mine.”

Miss Sabat looked at Samira.
“I found your Aunt Sahra. She is in Ayna with Ester, your cousin. Your other
cousin died in the city during the massacres. I'm very sorry about that. But
your aunt and your cousin are overjoyed that you are well and they're
waiting for you to come home.”

Samira was quiet for a
moment while the good news settled in her mind. Aunt Sahra and Ester. Ester
would be twelve years old now. Did they live in their old house? Were the
almond trees blooming now, in spring?

She suddenly realized that
Miss Sabat was talking to Anna.

“You'll need time to think
about what you want to do, but Miss Shedd and I have an idea. You've been
training to be a nurse's aide. You could go to the city of Urmieh and work
at the hospital there. There's a residence for the nurses and nurses' aides
so you could live safely among people who would be your friends.”

Anna sat hunched in the
chair and was silent. Samira went and stood beside her.

“Think about it,” Miss Sabat
said after a moment. “I must go but you girls can stay here in the parlor as
long as you want.”

As soon as she was gone,
Anna said in a low, fierce voice, “I won't live in a city in a residence. It
would be like an orphanage again. They can't make me.”

“You wouldn't be so far from
Ayna,” said Samira. “Maybe I could come and visit you.”

“Once you get to your
village you won't have time to go away for visits. You know
that.”

“Yes,” said Samira. Anna was
right. She knew how much work there would be.

“I'm going home,” she
thought. “But without Mama and Papa? Without Maryam and Benyamin? How can it
be home?”

She did have Aunt Sahra and
Ester. Anna had no one. That could not be right. She had been Samira's
family ever since they had put their sleeping mats side by side in the tent
in Baqubah.

Suddenly Samira was standing
in front of Anna.

“Do you still have that
piece of paper? The letter signed by a British officer?”

Anna stared at her. “Of
course I do. It's in my caravan bag. Why?”

“I want you to come with me
to Ayna. That letter says we must never be separated. Do you want to come to
Ayna with me?”

Anna took a deep breath. “I
had such hope that my mother and my sisters would still be alive. In my head
they were there in our house waiting for me. But it was only in my head. Not
real. You are real. I'll go to Ayna.”

Samira felt a wave of relief
go through her.

“Let's get the letter.”

Back in the dormitory Anna
pulled her caravan bag out from under the bed. She took out a piece of
cardboard stitched on three sides to make a pocket.

“When we were in Kermanshah
Mr. Edwards had a notebook with cardboard covers. He was going to throw it
away so I asked him for the cover. I used it to make this pocket to keep the
letter safe. It's right here.”

“You did the right thing,”
said Samira. “Now we have to see Miss Shedd. We'll show her the letter and
explain that you must come with me to Ayna.”

Miss Shedd was in her office
sitting behind a desk littered with papers. The photograph of her father was
there, propped against a pile of books.

“He's still with her,
watching what she's doing,” thought Samira.

“Girls,” said Miss Shedd.
“Sit down. I have better chairs for you than we had in Hamadan.” She looked
at Anna. “I'm sorry that your mother and your sisters didn't live through
the troubles. But I hope that you can think about the plan Miss Sabat told
you about.”

Anna stood up.

“When I first came to the
Baqubah camp I found Samira and we decided that we would not be separated,
no matter what. If my family were alive now I would go to them. But they are
dead and Samira is my family. We want to stay together. And we have
this.”

She slipped the letter out
of the cardboard pocket. Samira could see that it was yellowed and nearly
worn through where it had been folded, but when Anna carefully smoothed it,
there it was, a piece of paper with English words written on it and, at the
bottom, a signature.

She felt a sudden trickle of
fear. No one who read English had ever seen this paper. What did it really
say? She tried to remember the nurse who said she was an officer in the
British army. Was she someone to trust?

Miss Shedd was reading the
paper. She looked up.

“This says that you two
girls and Elias must never be separated. And it seems to be signed by an
officer in the medical corps. Is that correct?”

Samira was speechless. She
had forgotten that Elias was part of the document.

Anna was not speechless.

“They wanted the two of us
to take charge of Elias and we said we would only do it if they promised
that we would stay together. So we got this paper. We knew how the British
wanted everything written down.”

She looked hopefully at Miss
Shedd who said, “Sit down, Anna. You are not under British protection
anymore, of course. But this is an official document and I think you were
very smart to get it. It means that you two and Elias have been recognized
as a family and that makes it reasonable for us to keep you together. I
believe that Samira's aunt would likely be glad to have both of you but
Elias could be a problem. A six-year-old would be a big responsibility and
not very much help. And he's doing so well in the orphanage that I think he
should stay here. What do you girls think?”

Samira could feel thoughts
banging around in her head. Would they have to stay here because Elias
should stay? How could they leave him if it made him unhappy?

Before she could say
anything, Anna said, “If Elias wants to stay here, of course he should stay.
Or he could come to us later. Or maybe Samira's aunt will want him. But what
about me? Do we have to ask Samira's aunt before I can go?”

Miss Shedd frowned a little
and gave Anna a look that said, “There's no need to shout.” Then she said,
“It would take weeks of sending letters back and forth to ask Samira's aunt
whether she's willing to have two girls instead of one. I think we have to
take a chance and send you to Ayna with Samira. But it's not easy in the
villages now. If she can't keep you will you come back without
fussing?”

Anna nodded but she closed
her eyes as if to shut out the picture of returning to Tabriz.

Samira was sure that the
Aunt Sahra she had known so long ago would welcome Anna. But if things were
very bad in Ayna maybe she would have no place for another girl.

“Aunt Sahra will want Anna,”
she said at last. “I'll help her make it work.”

“That's all you can do,”
said Miss Shedd. “Can I keep this document in my file? Just in case anyone
questions this decision. And will you girls speak to Elias? I don't quite
know what I'll do if he wants to go with you.”

As the girls left Miss
Shedd's office they heard the bell that signaled that it was time to go
outside for organized games.

“I can't play games today,”
said Anna. “I'm all up and down. I thought I might have a family. Then I had
no family. Now I have a family. I have to get used to it all.”

“Miss Sabat said we could
stay in the parlor as long as we wanted. No one will be there.”

So Anna and Samira spent the
rest of the afternoon curled up in the soft cushioned chairs of the parlor.
They talked a little about Ayna and what they would do there, but mostly
they just sat. Samira even went to sleep for a while.

She dreamed of picking
almonds and eating them while they were still milky and soft. When she woke
up she thought, “Now I'll see whether the almond tree is still there.”

On Sunday afternoon Samira
and Anna lured Elias out for a walk by slipping some dried apricots from
lunch into their pockets.

“You can eat these while we
walk to the gate and back,” Samira said to him. “Then you can play with your
friends.”

“Good,” said Elias. “We have
a team and I'm almost the captain. Well, not quite but I'm the fastest
runner so they really need me.” He went on chattering about his team that
seemed to play every game Samira had ever heard of.

Finally Anna said, “Listen a
minute, Elias. Soon Samira and I will take a boat across Lake Urmieh and go
to live in a village with Samira's aunt.”

“But we live here,” said
Elias.

“We do now,” said Samira.
“But when I was your age I used to live in that village and I want to go
back. Anna is coming with me.”

“Is Benyamin
going?”

“No,” said Samira. “He's
staying here.”

“I'll stay here with
Benyamin.”

“But you'll stay in the
orphanage,” said Anna. “Benyamin will live in the city.”

“Benyamin can visit me,”
said Elias. “I'll grow up and then I'll leave. Like you. But I won't go to a
village.”

Samira looked at him. He was
a sturdy boy. He was smart. She had known him almost all his life. But he
couldn't remember anything before the camps and the orphanages. Why would he
want to go to a village?

She suddenly grabbed him and
gave him such a tight hug that he began to struggle to get away.

“That's so you'll remember
me when I'm in the village and you're here. I'll send you some almonds. Will
you write me a letter?”

Elias thought for a moment.
“I will when I can write better,” he said.

He gave them each a quick
kiss on the cheek and ran off to find his team.

“I don't think we have to
worry about Elias,” said Anna. “I hope he does write. I want to know what he
grows up to be.”

A few weeks later all the
people in the Rooftop Family who were still in Tabriz came to see Samira and
Anna off on their journey. Benyamin and Ashur were there with Elias and
David. Monna's grandmother had been discovered living right in Tabriz. Monna
and Sheran were living with her now and she had brought the two girls to say
goodbye. Shula, Avram, Maryam and Malik had already gone to their mountain
villages.

But someone else was
missing.

Samira looked around. Where
was Miss Shedd? Surely she would come to say goodbye.

The Rooftop Family stood
together in the courtyard with other children who would be returning to
villages around Urmieh. Miss Sabat would soon arrive with a truck that would
take them to the boat.

Seeing Benyamin standing
there made Samira remember how she had seen him under the chinar trees at
the end of the terrible journey. Then he had been thin and dirty. Now he was
healthy and clean. And old enough to choose how he wanted to live his life.

But he was still her brother
and now they had to say goodbye.

“We're each doing the right
thing,” he said to her. “You know that, don't you?”

Samira could only nod. If
she spoke she would start to cry.

“I'll write to you and I'll
come to Ayna as soon as I can and see all the good work you've done. I
promise.”

That was all he could say,
she knew. The truck was there. She only had time to give Monna and Sheran
and David a quick hug each and Elias a longer one. Then she climbed into the
truck and sat down on one of the benches. Benyamin reached up and clasped
her hand.

Then he lifted Elias up in
his arms and everyone waved as the truck pulled out of the orphanage gates.
Samira kept waving until they were out of sight.

They had not gone far when
the truck suddenly stopped. In the silence Samira heard the sound of a horse
coming at a brisk pace. She looked back and saw Miss Shedd riding up on
Sumbul.

The children all scrambled
out of the truck and Miss Shedd dismounted.

“I wanted to come and see
you off when you left but I couldn't get there in time. Sumbul has been
needing a good gallop so I saddled him up and here I am.” She looked at
Samira. “I had to come in my skirt,” she said. “No time to change to my
traveling clothes.” And she smiled.

Samira wanted to fling her
arms around Miss Shedd, but she knew that would be the wrong thing to do.
Everyone would start crying and they couldn't say goodbye that
way.

Miss Shedd looked around the
group of children and said, “We made such a journey together. And none of it
could have happened without your work and your ideas. We managed to have a
good time, too. I'll remember every one of you. Now you had better get on
the road. You have a long way to go today.”

She put her foot in the
stirrup and swung herself up onto Sumbul's back. The children crowded
around.