Finding Muna: A Palestinian Novel

Chapter Forty-Nine

Whenever tragedies occurred, the people affected react in three different ways, some of the people die and leave the survivors with mere memories, forcing them to carry on with life, as if they were never a part of it, some others 'survive' but their survival is only until the end of the tragedy, and their strength doesn't seem to be able to carry them past the healing stage, nightmares and hallucinations become their closest allies, and it would only be a matter of time before they sadly pass away just as the time passes by, while the last set of people heal so quickly one would think they hadn't even heard of the tragedy, talk less of living through it.

And that was the reality of the three friends. Muna died during the genocide, Lamees couldn't handle the aftermath struggled with extreme PTSD, and lived a difficult life until she passed away, while April, the one who seemed to struggle the most during the attack, was now living in Boston as if she hadn't even stepped foot in Gaza at all.

What a strange world!

Some people love their homeland so much that they'd die for it, maybe it's the longingness, maybe it's the precious memories the land holds, perhaps it's the innocent kids that ran through the neighborhood, or maybe it was because people didn't deserve to be driven out of their own lands, illegally.

It seemed as though Muna's whole life was just for the moment she'd be back in her hometown, her heart had always longed for Palestine, and although she hadn't been there before, she had heard stories from her parents, painful stories that made her heart constrict whenever she told them. She had been a victim of racism and discrimination before which only intensified her dream of visiting Palestine someday.

While she couldn't be blamed for wanting to visit her country so badly, she did make a mistake in her timing, which only led to her untimely death. Surely, she could have visited Palestine when the attack had died down, just that it didn't seem like it would be dying down anytime soon which was why she made a hasty decision.

But maybe it was a way of getting her closer to her religion and her Lord, only after she spent weeks in Gaza did she bother to open a Quran to find verses that could protect her friends and herself. Only when she was in her land did she begin to ask herself some mind-boggling questions that she didn't entertain when she was in Boston.

But tragedies don't always mean people would turn back to God, many people even turned away from God during tough times, muttering words of disbelief and projecting all of their anger onto the Lord of the Worlds, failing to see their actions that have led to their reality.

Muna did die on her faith, she said her testimony of faith right before she died because God willed for her to be guided, while April disbelieved more even after she had been returned to safety, to her, if there was a God, why in the world should innocent people suffer?
While Lamees labeled herself a Christian, everyone knew she was mostly agnostic, she knew there was a higher power but didn't really know what religion was the correct one, if there was a right one to begin with, and she left the world like that.

Individual decisions can greatly impact the people around them either negatively or positively depending on what decision was made; Muna made a decision out of hastiness which cost her not only her life, but one of her friends and both of her parents, her decision cost an entire company a lot of money. But at the same time, her decision shed a lot of light on the suffering of the people, it exposed the agenda of the illegal settlers, it gained her a martyr death and it provided comfort for the people suffering, they were relieved the world at least knows who's the victim.

Lamees found out in the cruelest of ways that her brothers whom she thought were her biggest supporters actually didn't care for her. She had initially thought they would eventually forgive her for choosing to be a journalist despite their warnings and threats, it was only when she returned back from Gaza did she realize they didn't really love her nor did they care for her. Muna was more of a family than her brothers could ever be, some friends really fit in the family category, even more than those who we are related to by blood.