°°Prologue°°
"Well, Mariam, I am so pleased for you to be joining us today."
"Thank you."
The flash of cameras blinded her eyes. But she was used to that by now.
"Can you tell us more about your teaching career, your husband Khaled," women of all ages fangirled, "or your teen life?"
The interviewers too talkative , she thought, while internally rolling her eyes.
"Well, I guess we should start from the beginning shall we?"
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1983 December 21st
Mariam looked around at this wasteland. Decayed skyscrapers loomed over her, using their outstretched arms as a prison.
A prison of not remorse or sadness,
But of fear.
It was an emotion played on replay, forcing her heart to pump faster, then reduce to a soft lullaby, her mouth to hyperventilate, and then reduce to a calming breath. Over and over again.
Mariam's calloused fingers wrapped around her family's, using their make-shift chain to navigate our way through the crowds. The people were seen to be a bouquet of weeds, messily squashed, and interlocked, showcasing different shades of wilted skin and different angles of distorted dysmorphic facial expressions. Their wails and screams echoed in her ears, accentuated with the obnoxious high-pitch wails of the sirens. Mariam's tastebuds shrivelled at any slight breeze of wind, meeting with the carried dust and smoke that entered through her nostrils.
Everywhere her eyes laid, was a memory. Like the once sky-blue seat that now reached out of the rubble, trying to escape its new crimson-stained sheen. Fallen debris scattered around the family, desperately trying to escape from the clutches of war.
The ear shattering scream of bombs were nearing them.
Getting closer and closer.
The wailing cries of 2 month old Mariam were heard across Lebanon as she was cradled in her mother's panting chest.
A yellow and white vehicle stopped them right in front of the un-even rigid path which used to be a road.
The explosions were just a breath away now.
Mariam's father, Abdul, was a small frigid man who was, now, trying to load Mariam's two brothers into the cramped van. As soon as the noise of the van's shuttering doors was heard, the driver immediately stepped on the accelerator and blasted out of the decayed country.
YOU ARE READING
I Am Mariam
AdventureMariam is a 15 year old girl who fled the war in Lebanon with her family. She thought her new life in Australia would be full of opportunities but she faced an unexpected struggle in high school. Mariam wore a hijab and practiced the Islamic religio...
