Finding Muna: A Palestinian Novel

Chapter Twenty Seven

Muna watched as April grumbled in pain some minutes after she dropped her beside Lamees who was already fully conscious by the time they got there.

Just like Muna, Lamees was over the moon that they all survived the attack but she was upset seeing the pitiful state April was in. But they weren't aware of how severe April's pain might be, until several minutes after the attack.

They had already removed the cloth April wrapped around the leg and then they called some people to help them with the removal of the bullets, and even though they knew removing the bullets wasn't the solution, they wondered how to break the news to April without her freaking out. But one of the guys that were helping them beat them to it.

"I don't think removing the bullets is going to change anything, the structure of the leg is destroyed already and the bones from the shin downwards are already shattered beyond repair. I personally don't think her foot can be repaired, the fire truck really crushed all the bones in her foot."

"I think she needs amputation," he concluded and there was an awkward silence, Muna and Lamees shared a look of fear while April kept her gaze on the man emotionlessly, keeping her hands on her affected leg with dried of tears on her cheeks.

April struggled to control her anger for some seconds before she loudly hissed and lowered her gaze from the man. She couldn't bring herself to look at her friends, for the fear of finding the truth in their eyes. The man who spoke wasn't even a medical student, how dare him spit out words like it wouldn't affect her for the rest of her life?

She was so convinced that her leg could be fixed, the doctors would probably just do their thing, find an alternative to the broken bone, arrange the ones that were still good, then she would go to rehabilitation centre and she would start walking back normally before she knew it.

But she also knew that was impossible in Gaza Strip.

The excruciating pain brought her back from her train of thoughts, water spilled from her eyes as she struggled to contain the pain, anger suddenly built up inside of her and she turned to her friends.

"Take me away from this place!" April exclaimed as she lifted her teary eyes to meet with Lamees's who was staring down at her pitifully, while Muna refused to meet with April's gaze.

Amputation...

Cutting off a limb a person has lived with all their lives? How would they cope?

Turning a perfectly abled person to a disabled person, how cruel can one be?

They ran over her leg knowing fully that she was wounded, they crushed the bones into broken pieces and they rendered her leg useless.

Muna knew April's leg couldn't be saved as soon as she saw her in the bush, but she couldn't dare bring herself to say it to April's face.

The poor orphan who had no one, no family, no friends, no properties. She grew up in a shelter care where she was abused in various ways, and when she finally had the freedom to leave, she took on different jobs to make sure she would end up being successful. And she succeeded, only to become disabled? Only to live a short life and die with the other civilians in Gaza? Only to become an amputee?

April ran a hand over her face and huffed as beads of sweat rolled down her face, she was trying to massage the areas on her leg to reduce the pain but it was all futile; instead, the pain grew more and more.

But she would rather have her legs in pieces, broken and dismantled than having it amputated. They wouldn't cut off her leg and toss it aside on her watch, never!

She started to pull her hair in pain, her eyes not leaving the horrific thing which had replaced her leg. Her breathing got harder as the minutes passed, she felt internally hot and she was slowly starting to feel dizzy yet again.