Ghazal Mhanna, 15 — Trainers’ Academy, Tulkarm
He sat on his bench in the garden sipping his coffee quietly, enjoying the warm sunshine and the gentle spring breeze. Usaid glanced towards the wall to find that its shadow had disappeared…
Rayan
Mohammad Nidal Abu Hamad, 15 — Jalazone Camp
“Please, God, let me wake up and find nobody home - not my mum, not my dad, not my brother, not my sister.” Rayan prayed to his Lord, angry after his mother had told him off for leaving the table just as it was when he finished eating, without putting his plate and spoon in the sink. And his father had told him off because he hadn’t done his homework.
He lay down on his bed and fell into a deep sleep. He slept as he had never slept before, and when he woke the next morning he got out of bed slowly, dragging himself along — he hated school and didn’t want to go. He left his room heading for the bathroom. He was very surprised not to hear a single sound in the house. A strange silence filled the place. When he came out of the bathroom he went to the kitchen, where his mother was supposed to be making sandwiches for him and his brother and sister, but no one was there. He felt a bit frightened. He called out, “Mum, Dad,” but no one answered. “Sister, brother,” but there was no answer. Now he was really frightened. He rushed to his brother’s room, but he wasn’t there. Neither was his sister in her room, nor his parents in theirs. “Where has everyone disappeared to?” he asked himself. “Could everyone really have left the house without me?!” he asked himself again.
He went out the front door in case they were outside, but no one was there. He asked the neighbours and rang his relatives, but nobody knew anything about them. So he reported his family’s disappearance to the police, who took down some information and promised to search for them. Rayan stayed at home for several days watching TV and eating whatever he wanted with no one to tell him off, staying up past midnight playing PlayStation and waking up late. But after a week he began to miss his mother and father and sister and brother. He felt lonely and bored and sorry and frightened all at once.
One night the food ran out and Rayan had no money to buy more. Then the electricity cut out and he didn’t know what to do. He curled up in his bed, crying, regretting the wish he had made — that his family would disappear. He felt how important his family was and how much he needed them. Then sleep overcame him and he slept deeply, more deeply than ever before. In the morning he woke to his mother’s voice shouting, “Come on, get up! Enough laziness — it’s past half seven!” Nothing could describe his happiness in that moment. He jumped out of bed, burst out of his room and kissed his mother on both cheeks, shouting to his family, “I love you, I love you all!”
They never understood why he’d acted that way, but from that day on Rayan became the polite, organised, tidy, hard-working boy.
The End
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