Finding Muna: A Palestinian Novel

Chapter Twenty Eight

April blatantly refused when the idea was presented to her and she stayed on her word for several hours. That was until she couldn't bear the pain again and finally succumbed to their pleas.

The procedure was nothing like she'd ever experienced in her life, she screamed out her lungs, even surprising her own self at how loud she could scream. Five grown up men struggled to pin her down while the poor old man tried to carry out the procedure.

Her ears were filled with loud cried from her friends who were both sitting by her side to provide emotional support even though they needed the same themselves.

The feeling was indescribable, the pain traveled through her whole body and it almost felt like she was going through electrocution, she could feel and hear her bones breaking into pieces and she felt like her flesh was getting shredded as if a wild animal got a hold of her.

Her head was banging and her eyes were almost popping out of their sockets, her heart was hammering against her chest all while she struggled to free herself from the strong grip of the men around her. She was getting tired but the excruciating pain wouldn't allow her rest, she was almost crying out blood at that point.

What did I do to deserve this? – was what she kept repeating in her mind, over and over again. She was sure she had suffered more loss in a month and half than most people in different part of the world.

All because a military government want to take someone else's land so desperately and illegally?

Her cries and screams got fainter as the minutes passed, her vision got blurrier and she felt light-headed and before she knew it, her body dropped on the ground and she went unconscious.

Lamees abruptly stopped crying as she couldn't hear anymore of April's cries; she wiped her tears to see her friend sprawled on the floor, unconscious. She immediately nudged Muna as she tapped April's cheeks in attempt to resuscitate her.

"No no! I will wake her up when we're done with the procedure. She will be in pain, when I am done then I will wake her up," the old man explained.

The man quickly rounded up with the procedure, he covered the amputated wound with a sterile bandage and then wrapped another ball of bandage over her leg. Then he told the men to resuscitate her, the process took about two minutes in which the old man rushed to his bag to get some pain killers and dissolved it in a cup of water.

He sprinkled some water on April's face to get her fully conscious and as soon as she sat up straight, he handed her the cup of water and urged her to quickly drink it which she did mindlessly.

"The painkillers will not do anything significant but it's better than none at this point, her wound is still fresh so I think she would need to take the painkillers at close intervals," the old man said to Muna as he handed her the painkillers from his bag. He walked away from them and rinsed off his saw with water and also washed off the blood in his hands and wiped the splattered blood off his cloth.

Then he returned to where everyone else was and gathered his tools inside his bag, he gave a tight smile to the girls and carried both his bag and the bloodied bag, turning on his heels in attempt to leave.

"Wait!" April stopped him in his tracks; he turned around and raised his eyebrows at her in confusion.

"Where is my amputated leg? I would like to see it," she said with a cracking voice, her eyes began to well up with tears before the man even attempted to open up the bag. She harshly wiped her tears away just to see her flesh mixed with her bones and blood on top of each other in the black bag.

She bit her lower lip, trying to control her tears; she kept convincing herself that the contents of the bag weren't once a part of her body.

"Where are you taking it to?" she managed to ask him and he sighed.