“Hahahaha,” the tired mother smiled a very lovely innocent smile” you will see him very soon. Just try to force yourself to be patient for just five days. Your dad will get so happy and finally he will be a father of a real son. He finally can walk proudly among his neighbors not caring about their insulting words. I`m sure he will be the happiest father in this life. My aim is just to cheer him up.”
The five days have gone very quickly in safe and sound, full of joy and smiles in spite of the sever situations that Gaza was in. The family did not know the taste of sadness after the happiness killed their sorrow. But all of that was erased after the news about their uncle reached them. The mother`s brother got martyred with his entire family. That news made the family upside down. Their hopes got abolished and their joy got stolen. Everyone got shocked.
The mother was about to deliver the baby on that day, but she began to bleed severely before the time of delivering came. So the father called the ambulance and it arrived after ten minutes. Then the mother was moved to the hospital and entered the intensive care room to be treated before going to the room of birth. Doctors did their bests to make the mother alive, but, alas, she passed away.
Kholood and the sisters` screaming filled the hospital and everyone got really sad. They realized that they will never have a mother again and a brother as well. Everything has happened in some moments quickly.
After half an hour of crying and suffering, they heard a crying of a baby boy from the intensive room, so Kholood smiled a fake smile under a shade of sorrow. She did not know if she should smile or cry. Everything got mixed with each other. Happiness was mixed with sadness, but sadness was more. Her brother Ahmad was alive and her mum got dead. His tears were mixed with theirs. He will be motherless from the first day he saw the life in. Who will care him? Who will nurture him and make him a man to protect his four sisters? Who will look for Kholood and the other three sisters? Who will care the father? Where the family will get the humanness from after they have lost it? Who will let the family`s life smile? Those questions have been asked by kholood and her three poor small sisters until now.
Written by: Shaima` Al- Kholy
Edited and translated by: Mohammad S Arafat (Mr. Pen)