Shaheed!

Chapter 2: Vukovar

"Please, do not ask me this." Her cheek twitched under her eye. "Please."

"I'm tired of not knowing!" Lorelei felt heartless, but this was the closest she had come to finding out about her mother. At least she was sure now her mother was the Jadranka Suljić in the Croatian passport, and had given birth to Lorelei at fourteen years of age. She also knew how tough her mother could be. Despite her petite looks and shaking hands, what contest of wills her mother did not win through charm or emotional manoeuvring, she could win in a stand-up fight. Except with Valon. Then, she turned to water.

"Before Dubrovnik, I will tell."

A phone reminder tinkled.

"I said I'm not going to Dubrovnik. Not unless you tell me everything, now."

"I am too tired. I must sleep. Please, I cannot."

"Just tell me what happened in Bosnia. Tell me."

Her mother slumped. "In Bosnia. In Bosnia. My mother has family in Dubrovnik and we try to go there. It was big mistake. Because Serbia make war in Bosnia too. When fighting starts again, my mother goes mad. First she talks to herself. After she is raped she sits in road, not moving. Serb militia laugh and beat her. When she does not move, they hit on head with gun and she is dead. Serbs angry that my brother and me, we see. We run across field and they shoot at us like rabbits. We left my mother just on road."

Her mother cried into her hands. Then, voice quavering, she continued. "In Bosnia everywhere is killing and people leaving homes. Thousands leaving and we go with them. But there is no food. Sometimes we dig vegetable from field. Eat rubbish. On tenth birthday I am shivering in snow! Near Sarajevo we beg for food and are caught. We go to place like war orphanage. Everyone hope UN will save us. We stay two months. Then Serbs surround Sarajevo to kill Muslims and Croatians. Many men are killed. They put into concentration camp. Women and girls, many they rape. I am sold to Albanian man, Valon. He buy girls and sell to brothels. I am sex slave."

Her mother had been right: she hadn't wanted to hear it.

With tears streaming down her face, her mother wiped her nose on the back of a shaking hand. "No more. No more."

"A slave?" Lorelei said. "You come home every day. How can you be a slave?"

With reddened eyes, she faced Lorelei. "I have you. They think there is no escape. After court order, Valon sold me to others for profit."

"Is that why you have an Albanian minder?"

Her mother tried to control her weeping. "You think I walk here alone at night?"

No. Walking around Farm Estate alone at night: that would be mental.

"And now he's hunting me?"

"This I have heard. Please, we are safe in Dubrovnik."

Lorelei did not want to hear any more. Glancing at the time on her phone, she fought back a sense of despair. She wanted to kill Valon. Or, find someone who would kill him. "If Valon doesn't own you, why does he want me?"

Her mother wept, shaking her head.

Lorelei stood. She felt a deep need to get away from her mother. "I have to go to school."

"Tell no-one what I tell you. Very important. Tell no-one." After hugging Lorelei, she retreated back into her bedroom. Lorelei saw the double bed covered in a hand-embroidered throw and, remembering the parcel it came in, wondered whether it had come from Dubrovnik.

She glanced at the message waiting on her phone.

"detention with u? who do i have to kill?" It was Bunny.