Escape from Zion

Chapter 7

"Well that's easy. Amani was my daughter and Sara's little sister." Elsa replied to Gregory.

"Okay great. What was she like?"

Sara and Amma looked at each other.

"She was full of love-"

"She was really pretty-"

They both began at the same time.

" So pretty and full of love, great thanks" Gregory turned a page in his notebook.

'Oh for fucks sakes' thought Sara. She didn't give herself time to be shocked at this unwitting slip of the mind, this was a chance to introduce people to the real Amani who was brilliant. She had been so many things and people shouldn't miss out on knowing her just because her sister and mother were incapable of using words to express themselves. They were letting her down. Sara felt her face growing hot, her fists clenched on her lap. Now was the worst time to get upset with a camera in her face and Amma next to her and that cow with her fake sympathy grimacing at them both.

"Oh no I forgot the stove!" Amma got up and rushed to the kitchen yelling over her shoulder "Sorry everyone- maybe you can pause it and I'll be right back!"

"It'll be quicker if I help too, sorry guys I'll be right back" Sara got up and ran after her mother, grateful for the well- timed distraction.

Amani was a good person. She just found most things that other people found easy, difficult. It wasn't her fault obviously but she found it frustrating and it made her angry or avoidant so to a lot of people in the community- Amani was unknown at best and different at worst. She was smart but she never did too good or too bad in school. she had never particularly had a specific dream or job that she had wanted to do. BUt Sara realised she was skirting the issue. The Amani Sara had known for the majority of her life had been angry. She had hated the church and Sehion even more. She had hated her mother's faith and after Sara joined Sehion in a more professional capacity- had slowly stopped letting her in as well. Amani had been alone. It had been her choice but she was still alone. A protective instinct in Sara told her that she couldn't share this with the people in her living room and their cameras. If there was one thing that Sara knew about Amani- it was that she didn't like people she didn't know knowing anything about her.

Once they had sorted out the rice on the stove, Amma and Sara returned to the couch. After Jenny had resumed the camera with a fake smile for who's benefit no- one knew, Sra opened her mouth to speak but to her surprise Amma got there first. "Amani was born when our family was living in Dubai which is why we gave her the name Amani, even though it's not typically malayali. She wasn't as... good at school, as Sara, and she wasn't very social-"

"She was very shy-"

"Exactly, and she had a lot of love. For the people she knew."

'So much for respecting Amani's privacy around strangers' thought Sara. But really what had she expected? This was their- her Amma.

"Okay guys lets move on to the next question shall we?" Gregory thumbed his notebook and then began reading the next question. "We've heard a lot about how 'troubled' Amani was before making her way to Zion so could you tell us a littlle bit about that please?"

Amma and Sara looked at him.

"You know, how did she act out? Was she angry, was she she sad or depressed, was she into anything that was maybe not legal, did she hang out with the wrong people, things like that." Gregory added flippantly as if he were listing activities for a weekend hang with his mates. 'His golden retriever looks were evidently just surface level', concluded Sara.

"She was a difficult child but all children are difficult when they're little" Amma snorted before continuing, "I mean one of my friends- I say friend, we didn't really know each other that well. She was more an acquaintance I made through our malayali association and she was telling me about her child at one of those events- we only ever really talked at the events. And she was saying how he would always ruin their furniture jumping around and call her names and act like a 'little demon' if I were to use her words. And Amani was never like that. She would get angry, sure, but what kid doesn't? And then teenagers are a dangerous age so..." Amma trailed off.

"Amani never knowingly caused trouble or was knowingly hurtful to anyone" Sara added. "She just wasn't as great at understanding people as others. That doesn't mean that she was into anything like drugs or alcohol or clubbing or anything. She actually liked to stay inside and stuff."

Gregory's face remained nodding and impassive as it had so far. He nodded, taking notes, not looking at their faces before finally looking up and continuing, "So why did it take her so long to join Zion when you guys joined about 9 years ago and Amani only joined this year. That's a long time right?" His smile almost threatened to split his face in two. He didn't really have lips so it looked like sosmeone had taken a seam- ripper to his face and undone a previously unseen stitch that kept the lower half of his face attached to the upper. Sara felt a sudden urge to call him a myre but it was gone in a flash. "Well like I said, she wasn't good with people and she liked to stay indoors so Zion wasn't really her thing." Sara managed to grit out as nonchalantly as she could manage.

Amma looked at her before apprehensively continuing "Yes she would say that all the time but she did have a problem with anything to do with praying and faith. She fell prey to a lot of Satan's 'pralobhanangal' but of course thanks to the goodness of our God's power, she found her way to Zion. And I always believed that she would. That's why I joined Zion in the first place. Sara too. We saw the power and we saw how Zion helped us to be closer to God and it just took Amani a bit longer... but at least she found her way before she..." Amma trailed off as her sobs choked her from speaking further. Sara reached for the tissue box and held it out to her mother before sitting down beside her and rubbing her back. "We can take a break for 2 minutes and then continue" Sara directed at Gregory and Jenny who seemed disconcertingly unfazed.