Finding Muna: A Palestinian Novel

Chapter Twelve

Muna scrolled through her phone with a straight face, she pressed her lips together and stared at the phone as a narrowed line began to form on her forehead. Her video had been removed from all her social media accounts, her Instagram account banned for a day, and her TikTok account was permanently deleted.

'All for saying the truth?' she questioned herself unable to fully contain her anger, she was frustrated, she dropped her phone and held her head in her hands, trying to stop herself from angrily smashing the phone on the floor.

As she was about to stand up from the bed, her phone began to ring and she smiled when she saw it was her mother, she hurried to sit on the bed and grab the phone, then she swiped up on the screen of the phone, "Hi mama," Muna greeted with a full smile.

"Muna," Amina breathed a sigh of relief as her daughter picked the call and smiled at her warmly.

"Hi mama," Muna repeated, now with a grin taking over her featured.

"Say salam instead Muna, and you should start praying," Amina said and bit her lower lip, if her daughter was eventually going to die, then she'd rather she died as a martyr instead of just wasting her life.

"Alright ma," Muna said and stifled a laugh.

As her mother spoke, a smile just found its way to Muna's face, she missed her mother very much, her warmly embrace, her homely scent, her loving gaze and her sweet words, although her mother wasn't her favourite, she still would give up anything to have one more hug from her.

"You're lean ummati," Muna said softly with a soft sigh and her mother gave her a tight lipped smile, "How can I eat when I don't know if I'll see you again," Amina said.

"What about this? Aren't you seeing me enough this way?" Muna asked and her mother scrunched up her nose.

"How sure am I that this isn't our last call together?" Amina asked and Muna could only stare at her through the phone tight-lipped, her mother had developed a habit of sighing in relef whenever she picked up her call, although they only spoke three times the past week due to the network being cut off, Muna knew her mother would have tried calling at least a thousand times.

"Ayna abi?" Muna questioned.
(Where's my dad?)

"He went to the mosque," she replied and Muna nodded.

"I saw the video you did," Amina said in a hushed voice, sounding almost like a whisper. If Muna hadn't been listening attentively, she wouldn't have caught her voice.

"Yeah, it was taken down in less than a day and now I cannot access most of my socials," Muna said releasing a bitter chuckle while her mother just stared at her with a straight face.

"So much for freedom of speech huh?" Amina said as she sighed, looking into the screen with a straight face but her mind was elsewhere.

"Yeah," Muna said as she shut her eyes gently, rubbing them quickly.

She remembered the day she broke the news to them like yesterday, it was the second day after they got to Ahmad's house, the second day after the horrifying beating they got for the security men, the second day after they realized they were truly doomed.

She was terrified, scared beyond measure, afraid of how her parents would react, she wanted to call them that same day, cry to them about what had happened and imagined that somehow her father would come over to get her like he always did whenever she was in trouble. Her father never let her down; he would always save her after she took her stupid decisions as well.

He was there to pick her up when she her date during high school senior year was pressuring her into doing things even though she went against his will, he was there to save her when she snuck out to a party only to find out the people there dealt with drugs and she didn't want to be caught, he was there for her when she was adamant on being a journalist, he was there for her whenever she fell, her father was always there to pick her up.