My Battle For Equality

Chapter 8

This is a picture of Dounia's mother.

"He came in every night and sat with her. The first couple of times, he simply stayed. A stranger to kill the loneliness. A few nights after that, he whispered, "Shhh, I'm here, it's alright." After three weeks, he held her. Trust was accumulated quickly, due primarily to the brute strength of the man's gentleness, his kindness. The girl knew from the outset that Hans Hubberman would always appear mid-scream, and he would not leave.

- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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I went to the kitchen with a big smile.

"As-salamu alaykum." I greeted my mother. "Wa alaikum assalam." She greeted me back.

It is a greeting in Arabic, that means 'Peace be upon you'.

"Can you help me, habiba?" She asked me.

"Yes, of course."

I helped her to cook and put the groceries away. I like helping her because when we're working she tells me stories about her childhood or the latest gossip.

There is always drama in our family. You can literally make a reality show about our family. Without the fake acting.

I also help her because I don't like watching her work. My mother was a cleaning lady but she stopped when Mohammed was born.

She was working a lot and has because of that back and foot pain. So I don't like seeing her stand a lot. That's one of the reasons I help in the house a lot.

The other reason is that I have no choice.

"Mom, the library is amazing. It is very big and the librarian is so nice to me" I said to her while I was cutting some vegetables.

"First, you send me a text saying you have found a new home. And now you have replaced your own mother?" She said to me while she was shaking her head.

You have to understand that my mother jokes a lot.

I think that was a joke though.

In a group you will always recognize her, she is the one talking while the other people are laughing. She can make the angriest person laugh and love her.

"I wouldn't replace you if you stopped smacking me." Guess what I got by saying that?

She smacked me on the head.

"You know mother there is going to be a day that I will be calling child protection." I said to her while I was running away for her. I heard her laughing so I came back.

At dinner I found out that the boys where helping my father with the house. He told us that he started working tomorrow.

After dinner we watched a movie. Guess who used his puppy eyes to pick a movie.

So we all watched the Lion King for the hundredth time.

At the end of the movie I saw that Mo was asleep so I held him in my arms and took him to bed. The boys were happy that they could play on their PlayStation.

While my little brother was sleeping I took the books out of my bag and put them on my bedside table. I began to read the Book Thief. I have a little flashlight to read with.

After I finished the first half of the book, I began to feel sleepy. So I turned my flashlight off.

I was staring at the ceiling and started to think about Alexander. Don't get me wrong it's not that I've never hung out with boys before and fall in love with the first boy I see. My brothers friends were at our house literally all the time. It was different, though.

They didn't call me pretty.

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"Dounia, wake up." I heard someone crying and woke up immediately

It was Mohammed.

"What's wrong, little boy?"

"I peed on the bed again. Ayoub said that if I did that again the police will arrest me. I don't want to go to jail." He said with tears rolling down his face.

I tried not to laugh. We will get Ayoub back soon.

I took his hand and took him to the bathroom. There I took of his dirty clothes and washed him. Then I went back to the room and replaced the dirty sheets and did them in the washing machine.

"Are you feeling better, little monkey?" I gave him a big hug. He smelled clean.

He nodded but he was still a little bit scared.

"Ayoub lied to you, nobody is going to arrest my brother. Let's get him back." Finally he was smiling again.

I found a bucket and filled it with water. I gave it to Mohammed so he could carry it. We walked to the room of the boys. Luckily they were still sleeping. It was 11 AM and they had vacation.

We walked to the bed of Ayoub and Mohammed dumped the bucket with water on him. But he saved also some water for his other brother.

Mohammed and I couldn't stop laughing when we saw them jumping out of their beds.

"Look Mo they are going to arrest your brothers they peed on their beds."

We were running as fast as we could down the stairs so my mother could save us.

"Mom, they want to hurt me." Mohammed screamed to our mother.

The boys were running behind us.

"What is wrong with you guys? Are you going to hurt a 4 year old boy and a girl? I taught I raised you better and why are you guys so sweaty, go shower. Breakfast is ready in 15 minutes." Mom said.

Mo and I gave each other a high five behind her back.

Mom didn't even give the boys time to reply. They looked angry at us and turned around.

When they came back, breakfast was ready.

"This is war." I heard Ayoub saying.

"You won't expect what we will do to you." Souf said.

Mo and I looked at each other with fear in our eyes.

"You guys haven't forgotten that school starts tomorrow, have you?" Mom said.

We looked at each other. Of course we forgot.

"Enjoy your last day of freedom." My mother said while she was laughing at our faces.

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Authors note

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