Finding Muna: A Palestinian Novel

Chapter Twenty Nine

Life in Gaza got incredibly harder for the trio as if it wasn't already hard, it was very strange and hard to get used to the fact that April had lost one limb and cannot function like the rest of them any longer. Not to mention the excruciating pain she always felt due to the impact of wound, she would go on for days without sleeping sometimes and even when she did get little sleep; it would last for barely fifteen minutes.

On the other hand, Muna had tried to reach her dad several times after April's procedure but he never picked up the call, neither did her mum. She had a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that was making her feel cranky but she couldn't place the feeling. She was unsure whether it had to do with she and her friends or her parents back home.

It was Lamees's turn to walk April while Muna went to search around for water and some food, they had barely eaten anything tangible in days and she was convinced she would die out of hunger and dehydration. She chewed on the insides of her mouth as she roamed around Rafah with some other members of the Jabalia camp.

Although the camp had been destroyed, the men of the camp decided it would be best to find materials to rebuild it, instead of going to Rafah camp which already had thousands of refugees.

As she was amidst the crowd, she heard a strange noise and was quick to frown her face; she acted on her reflexes like other people and took on her heels. Only when she got quite away from noise did she see a truck driving past them with essentials for them. Her eyes widened as she dropped everything on her hand and ran towards the truck like others, some shoving some people on the way while others stepped on people.

They jumped on the truck and yanked away some essentials while others screamed at the driver to stop the car and give them something. Some men that were on the truck yanked of the goods and threw it at the crowd, she jumped at the same time as everybody else and caught a bottle of water and a packaged food. Someone tried to take the things from her but Muna was quick to stop her by hitting her elbow on the lady's mouth and giving her a death glare.

Everybody on the site started to fight as the tuck drove away, yelling Arabic words at each other whilst others stabbed themselves. Muna had left the place as soon as she could after the dilemma with the lady, she would forever blame herself if she returned back to her friends with nothing.

And as she quickly tried to escape the yelling and cries, her mind wandered off to how easily she enjoyed life back in Boston, where she rarely ever saw anything as a blessing. She couldn't remember how many times she cursed herself because she wasn't satisfied with one thing or the other.

What better punishment can you give to an ungrateful person than to take away what they thought was insignificant, or what they thought they deserved and see how desperate they become. She couldn't even remember the last time she had a good bath, the toilet in the camp was always occupied and even when it wasn't, it always stunk.

She went from living a perfect life to having nothing. Within less than two months.

If life in Gaza was that frustrating even when she'd been there for only two months, she wondered how it hard it was for someone who lived their entire lives in occupation. She wondered why the Palestinians were subjected to what was happening around, why should the innocent Palestinian be held in hostage because the Zionist wants a country for themselves by all means?

Muna sighed and looked up to the sky briefly, as if to send a prayer to God. The heavy weight of betrayal she felt in her heart was getting to her; all she wanted was to be placed in the presence of Netahanyu without any armed forces so she would beat him to death. So she would torture him and make him pass through exactly what she was going through as well.