Finding Muna: A Palestinian Novel

Chapter Thirty-Nine

April awaited a response from the company for days, but to her disappointment, she didn’t receive any response from them despite sending them multiple messages after that and refreshing her Instagram page almost a hundred times.
She was beginning to accept that she would eventually die in Gaza along with Lamees, and while she was still trying to cope with the new pain, Lamees couldn’t help but ask her about the matter.

“They didn’t reply to my original message, and then I sent them multiple messages after that and I saw it was delivered and read, yet, they chose not to respond,” April informed her frustratingly while Lamees remained quiet, taking in all April had said.
“Besides, even if they did reply, it’s not like there’s anything they can do to help our situation. It’ll all probably end in pity. I’m sure they wouldn’t send a team over here to rescue us Lamees, it’s pointless,” April said tiredly while Lamees raised her gaze to read April’s facial expression.

She could see that April was tired just as much as she was, the situation was desperate and their only source of hope seemed to have dimmed, it had been over 30 hours since they ate last, so she could perfectly understand why April had lost all hope.

However, Lamees didn’t want to lose hope just yet, for some reason she believed that the company wouldn’t let them down. She had high hopes in their public relations officer, she knew Asma wasn’t one to forsake someone in their time of need.

She watched as April lay on her side with her eyes wide open, with a million thoughts running through her mind, Lamees let out a deep sigh and grabbed her phone. She opened her Instagram and before she sent a message to the company, she shut her eyes and prayed to God under her breath.

Then she opened her eyes and with a heavy heart, she sent the message to them and she watched as she message was sent instantly, then she sighed and dropped the phone. Only a few minutes later did her phone vibrate. Her eyes widened as she grabbed the phone and read the reply from them, claiming they did send a reply to April and a screenshot was even attached.

With a frown, Lamees grabbed April’s phone to see that she hadn’t received any replies, but glancing at the screenshot again, it showed that the message was sent and delivered from the company to April, it even showed that the message was read.

Lamees sat there in confusion for minutes, wondering what could have happened. She didn’t want to think April might have deleted the message because that would be an absurd step to take considering they were both suffering in every aspect of their lives. Surely, April wouldn’t do such a thing and lie to her face despite going through hell in their current condition.

Lamees rubbed her face with her hand, trying to control her breathing pattern that was getting raggedy, all so that she wouldn’t get angry at April. But her self-control was short-lived as she couldn’t wrap her head around it, she didn’t understand why April would read the messages and delete them then lie to her face.

She shook her head vigorously to get the thoughts out of her mind and focus on getting help, she replied Asma asking her what’s the way forward and she saw as the message was sent and delivered, she heaved a sigh of relief, maybe help was indeed near, she was grateful she didn’t listen to April’s discouraging words. She hissed at April’s sleeping form and shifted away from her, she turned her focus back to her phone and was perplexed as to why she hadn’t received any reply from them after five minutes despite being online.

Her patience was wearing out as she seconds passed by and after fifteen minutes, she couldn’t handle it anymore and messaged them again, and she watched as the message was delivered and was instantly read, she was taken aback. She tried to stay patient with hopes that they may respond to her message, but to her disappointment, they didn’t reply her.