Saba stood in front of Hajj Ali. They were surrounded by grass, shrubs. This was the field where the aid workers promised to build a school. Saba looked at the rock where she usually sat.
This place is not for love, the nomad said. I know a cave full of jasmine flowers. A woman deserves to lie in a bed of flowers.
Saba’s chest heaved. Hajj Ali reached with his hand and massaged her chest, between her breasts, as if to unclog her airways, as he tried to open his own zipper.
Take off your clothes.
There are two conditions, she said, her voice low, barely able to breathe. She turned her head away from him.
He nodded without smiling. Say them then.
A light wind had risen and Saba heard it rustle through the field. First, Saba said, you can’t have my vagina. Because I will never let a man I don’t love inside me that way.
It was when Saba revealed the second, that Zahra would leave with them so she could be treated in a village for the wounds Tedros had inflicted upon her, that Hajj Ali insisted on a new deal.
Saba hadn’t seen the nomad’s hunger for Hagos coming. His desire for her brother was as invisible as Hagos was to the people in the camp.
To smuggle two out of a camp is high risk, Hajj Ali said. I can only do it if I get Hagos as well as you.
Of course not, Saba said to Hajj Ali. It’s only me or nothing.
Then I have to go, he said. We will see each other in the camp for the rest of our lives now that you will be staying. My greetings to your husband.
Hajj Ali, wait. Please understand, Zahra needs a doctor urgently or she will die. Please.
It was the morning after Tedros had fled the camp on foot, leaving Zahra behind fighting for her life. Saba and Hagos left their hut for a walk. Clouds obscured the morning sun. They climbed the hill, the same hill on which they had sat on that first morning in the camp. Flowers tickled Saba’s feet. Hot wind blew. Saba studied the profile of Hagos’s face as he stared out to the camp. His hair fluttered against his face.
A moth landed on her shoulder and spread its wings. Insects climbed her feet. She had become a habitat for wilderness just as the wilderness was her habitat.
Saba took the map from under her bra and showed it to Hagos.
Six hours. Yes, it would take me six hours to get to the village by cart, Saba said to Hagos. She whispered to him her new dream, because the old Saba she had dreamed was no longer feasible. Saba is leaving the camp to fight. She had made the promise to Zahra that if anything was to happen to her, she would take her place.
But he set a heavy price, she said to Hagos. A price we both have to pay to Hajj Ali. And I will never let you do this.
Hagos pulled her closer to him. They wrapped their arms around each other and their cheeks pressed together, like the intertwined flowers her grandmother had planted on the wall of their courtyard back home.