Faith

    Today was the day I was dreading for the past couple of months. I had to get on a tiny boat with hundreds of other people. I needed to leave my beloved grandmother behind. She's the one who raised me, after my parents passed away, she was my only family. As I kissed her goodbye I felt my eyes tearing up, I tried to push my tears down but I couldn't. I started crying. She looked at me with her deep brown eyes, wiped my tears away with her soft finger and told me: "Faith is seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness." With those words I ambled towards the dangerous looking boat.
    When I got on, it was so crowded I could barely find a spot. I sat down and waited for the departure. Soon the boat was so packed I couldn't move. That's when the motor started and journey began. I looked at Latakia one last time, my grandma was still standing there. I was looking at the land until I couldn't take it anymore, I wanted to jump off the boat. I put my head on my knees and started crying. I heard a high little voice and looked up; a little girl in a yellow dress, white tights, red sandals, and two messy braids was standing there.
"Why are you crying?" she asked me.
"Go away." I said through my tears.
"Do you like dogs? I really like them!" She asked me with a smile on her face.
"Just go away!"
"I'll get a dog when I get to Vienna. It's gonna be little, and brown, and..." That's when I ran out of patience.
"Why are you so happy?! Don't you understand, that you'll never see Latakia again! That you just left everything: your house, your friends, your family." I screamed.
"Well not really, my parents are going to meet me in Vienna." She said. I went back to crying. I don't know when I fell asleep but I did.
     I was awakened by cold sea water splashing my face. The boat was rocking furiously back and forth. People were screaming. On the other side of the boat was the little girl, curled up in a ball on the floor. Carefully, I made my way towards her. The wind was roaring, the salty smell of the sea was starting to sting. I stuck my hand out, she took it. The water started rising. The boat was sinking. We were pushed under the deck, then everything went black...
   Opening my eyes was a challenge, since we were under water. The little girl was still hanging on to my hand. I saw a light, so I started swimming towards it, the light got bigger and bigger. It was a window, we climbed through it. As we were swimming to the surface, I felt something pulling me down. It was the girl twisting frantically, I realized that she didn't know how to swim. So I stopped and showed her the swimming motion and she imitated. We swam. When my head hit the surface, the cold air hit my face, my eyes burned, but it was great to finally have air. When everything came into focus I saw the worst things. People clinging to dead bodies, men trying to steal life jackets off women. I couldn't swim like this for long, had to get a life jacket. I swam up to a body, it was young woman who was very pale. I checked her pulse, she was dead. I took her life jacket off and put it on the little girl. I swam to a second body, also dead, took his life jacket and put it on. Soon a life boat came and saved us. As soon as we got on, I fainted.
   When my eyes opened, the ocean was still, the sun was shining and I felt the warm breeze on my face. We were still on the lifeboat, but it was on the deck of a huge ship. The girl was still next to me.
"You're ok!" She exclaimed. I coughed.
"I think so" I continued coughing. Finally I stopped. I didn't even know her name.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Iman. What about you?" She said with a smile.
"That's a beautiful name. My name's Amira. How old are you?"
"I'm seven.You?"
"I'm thirteen. Were you traveling with anybody?"
"Yes... My uncle Samire, he fell overboard..."  Then it was silent for a while.
"How long was I out?" I was curious because it felt like a while.
"Around an hour..." But she didn't finish, somebody interrupted her.
"Land up ahead!" Everybody started cheering and clapping.
    The ship slowly approached the land; they told me it was Greece. A city called Legrena. I could see the packed beaches, calm, sparkling water, and the warm sunshine on my face. For the first time in months, I felt a glimmer of hope.
    As soon as we docked some men with riffles, wearing camouflage uniforms, came aboard and started yelling at us in a strange language. Iman and I didn't know what they were saying. They started pushing us off the boat. We were among the first people to be off; as we walked in a disorganized line people were pushing each other. There was a boy who was coughing up blood but the guards didn't care. They herded us in a small space, surrounded by a spiky fence.
     We stayed there for so long that by the time we finally moved it was dark. We were moved into a wooden cabin where a guard was taking people's names and fingerprints, and then handing them sleeping bags. This guy had a certain sparkle in his eyes that other guards didn't. When it was our turn, I gave him our names and said that we were sisters. He asked us if we had adult relatives and we told him our uncle died in the storm. He said, "then I'll have to take you to the kids cabin." He handed us sleeping bags, had a short conversation with another guard and said "follow me." We followed him outside. He led us to a row of portable toilets that were up against a chain link fence. He walked us quickly past the toilets and pointed to a section of the fence that seemed loose. Then he said:
"Go through the fence and run!"
"Why are you helping us?" I asked. I didn't know if we could trust this man. All the others seemed awful.
"You two seem like nice kids who've been through a lot. I don't know how you're still sane, I would go mad. You have been through enough. Now run, when you get the old oak tree, in the hole you'll find a small bag filled with everything you might need to survive for a few..."' He was speaking so fast I could barely understand him. Someone yelled something. He turned around and said something in a foreign language, he looked at us then mouthed "run." We didn't thank him, Iman and I ran away as fast as we could. We ran until that prison was just a dot in the horizon.
  I ran until my legs couldn't cary me anymore. I spun around and saw how tired Iman was. She was dragging her feet. Suddenly something pulled my arm when I turned my head I saw that Iman had collapsed. She tried to get up, but couldn't. Her tights were ripped and dirty, her dress that started yellow was now a dark shade of brown. I sat next her. I didn't know what to say, it was obvious she wasn't ok. So I started to look around, that's when...
"The tree, it's right there!" I yelled. We both smiled. "Do you think you can get enough strength to walk there?"
"I'm so hungry and so weak, but I'll try." She struggled to her feet. We slowly walked towards the tree. When we came to the oak, I looked in the hole, there lay a little bag. I opened it and our eyes lit up. Inside was a loaf of bread, some money and a bottle of water. After we ate, we got in our sleeping bags and fell asleep.
   When I woke up the sun started to rise; the sky turned auburn. Another day away from my country had started.  I opened my eyes. I had grass and dirt on my cheek, I looked around, everything seemed fine, then an awful realization came to me. Iman wasn't here. My heart sank, I started panicking.
"Iman?! Iman?! Where are you?!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
"I'm here." a said a voice from above. I looked up. Iman was swinging from a branch, laughing.
"You scared me! Get down from there! We have to figure out how we're going to get more money for the train to Vienna." She climbed down the tree. I started brainstorming:
"We can be street performers or we can just beg for money?" I suggested.
"Oh, I can dance!" Amira cheered. Then she got up and did some ballet moves, after she took a long bow while I clapped. We both laughed. I thought about what I'm good at. My friends told me that I had a good voice.
"Maybe I can sing, and you dance?" I asked. She nodded.
"Ok so it's settled, I'll sing you'll dance" I said.
   We saw some buildings in the distance and realized it was a small town. We walked there and found a small gift shop. We needed new clothes since ours were ripped and dirty. I walked out of the store wearing an "I heart Zeus" t-shirt and baggy blue pants that say "Greece's number one". Iman walked out in a "goddess of beauty" sweater and a Greek folk skirt. With rest of the money we bought another loaf of bread and two bottles of water. Then our street show began...
    The little bag that used to be filled with food, served as a bank. I chose my favorite song "Hello, by Adele" and started singing, Iman started dancing. A small crowd gathered and at the end everybody clapped and put money in the bag. Then followed the songs "Sorry" by Justin Bieber", "Stitches" by Shawn Mendes", and "Adventure of a lifetime" by Coldplay". I looked in the bag; it was filled with money. We took it to the train station and figured out that we had enough money for two tickets two Vienna! That same night we left.
    I woke up, looked at Iman, for the first time I saw her sleeping. Her cheeks were red, her lips were puffy, her eyes were closed; she was so peaceful. Then her eyes slowly started to open. She yawned and smiles then stretched then asked "are we there yet?" I answered "no". My stomach growled since we finished our bread for dinner and we had nothing to eat. The smell of breakfast was delicious. A dining car service attendant came up and asked us if we wanted to order.
"No, thank you, we don't have money to pay." I answered. She leaned close to me.
"It's ok, this ones on the house." She whispered. "So, what would you like, we have pancakes, waffles, cereal, oatmeal, and eggs."
"I'll have some pancakes!" I answered.
"And I'll have a waffle" Iman answered.
"With hot chocolate on the side?" she asked.
"Yes!" We said happily. Soon we were happily munching our first breakfast in days. 
   The conductor announced that next stop is Vienna. As we got off, I realized what if Iman's parents just told her they're coming here to make her feel better? Even if they're telling the truth how will we find them?
"Iman, how are your parents going to find you?" I asked.
"They said, they'll meet me as soon as I come." She answered. We waited and waited.
    Suddenly, Iman jumped up started sprinting.
"Where are you going?!" I yelled. It was no use. She ran up to a man, and hugged him. He was wearing a ripped up sweater and jeans. Then a small woman came and hugged them. She was wearing a dress that was  similar to the one I met Iman in. They were all crying. I approached them. The woman wiped away the tears.
"Who's this?" She asked.
"This is my new sister. She took care of me." Iman answered.
"Well hello... then new daughter, what's your name" the woman asked.
"Amira." And then we just hugged.
   That night, I thought of my grandma and said to myself, "Faith is seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness".