Chapter 8

One day... while Nadeem and some of our cellmates were entertaining ourselves with pebbles, a ridiculous game we had invented in order to cut off endless time, and we were glad or pretending to be happy or convincing ourselves of it, the door opened and a group of people entered. The soldiers. We all stopped playing and turned our attention to them. We did not feel any reassurance when any of them entered... Their arrival portends evil and danger. The soldiers started looking around at us in disdain and disgust. Then the middle of them took a step forward and said: "Nadim Wajih." “Get up.” Nadim got up coldly, and when they slammed him fiercely and led him towards the door... Nadim walked with them without resistance, while our hearts were fearful and anticipating evil. Neither of us said a word, and we remained in terrible silence as we watched Nedim anxiously. The latter turned to look at us and smiled... The soldiers came out, closed the door, and we remained in terrible silence for a few minutes... I was the first to make a sound. The wall of lonely silence broke through when I said: "Where did they take him?" Back and forth and I pray to God that Nadim has not been executed... While I am, the door opens again, and two soldiers enter carrying Nadim and throw him to the ground, and then they leave... We quickly came towards Nadim, and blood stained his body. And his clothes... and if burning wounds and bruises covered his body... "Nadeem! What did they do to you??" I screamed in panic as I raised his head and rested him on my knees... Nadim was unable to speak because of his exhaustion. It was clear to us that he was subjected to severe torture... We all took turns taking care of him until life began to flow in his veins. He told us later that they beat him in order to provide information he was not aware of... and that they were on their way to execute him inevitably the next day, the soldiers also came, and as soon as they entered prison, our hearts all trembled and our necks were tied and our eyes were fixed on them in a state of no Described from the panic, at that moment I was sitting next to Nadim cleaning some of his wounds and without feeling from me I grabbed his arm tightly for fear that they would take him... One of them shouted: “Moataz Anwar,” we all rose up, and Moataz was one of the cellmates, and one of the political criminals , Most of us rose and panicked. Moataz screamed in terror: “No.” And the soldiers advanced towards him, and he retreated backwards, his hands trembling and sweat soaking his emaciated body... The soldiers advanced mercilessly and caught him as he screamed and resisted helplessly, and led him out. . It was only an hour and a half, until he was returned to us in a bad condition, full of wounds and fractures as well. We lived in a constant state of intense fear, and none of us could sleep after that. And just because we heard any sound coming from the side of the door, we were terrified, and the next day came, and the soldiers came again... We were all crumpled near each other, our eyes staring at them, and each of us in fear that he might be next... “Walid Shaker” when he spoke my name, I was shocked, and even everyone with me was shocked... My heart started beating violently, and I watched the soldiers advancing towards me step by step. I shouted: “But I have nothing to do with politics.” I did not confirm that I finished my sentence unless the soldiers caught me ... I tried to pull my hand out of their hands with all my muscles could give me strength ... and failed ... "I'm here for a murder ... I have nothing to do with politics" I desperately tried to get rid of them and resist them in vain. They forced me to the door and None of my colleagues could utter a word, and as I pulled out, I looked at Nadim and said: “What are they going to do to me? What have I done?” Nadim closed his eyes tightly, in sorrow and pain, as if to say: I pity you, woe to you for what you will receive. ...and I have experienced, what I have never met in my life...I have met...kinds of torment that I writhed and writhed from just mentioning them... A torment... One forgets his name and his gender. Because my mother did not give birth to me If I had killed myself the day I killed Ammar If God had created me without nerves and feelings... and no heart... Even if the world was devoid of the name of torment and the name of prisons and even of the name Raghad... The only times in my life My whole life, in which I wished that Raghad wasn't... and it didn't exist... I had a fracture in my nose that made its shape change and a small curve appeared above. I lay on my bed motionless for two days, during which the rest of my colleagues were taking care of me, Bendim and Moataz, and two others ... A few days later, we learned from the guard that my name had been wrongly included in the list of political criminals! Just a mistake ... ! This was several months after Seif's first visit and before other months of his next visit, which he began by saying: "Walid! What did you do with your nose!?" I told Seif what happened, and he promised me that this would be mentioned in my file. When I asked him about my subject, he told me that his father was still studying the matter, and when I asked about my family, he said: "They disappeared!" war... and if that is the case, I don't want to go out... I just want to die.... Really, my family no longer exists?? Did they die? Or did they abandon me? Or what ?? And Raghad?? What happened to Burghad?? That night, I saw a nightmare that frightened me... Raghad and Samer were playing with their bicycles, then they fell into a pit full of burning coals, then the fires burned and grew bigger, and burned our house... And I came screaming trying to get Raghad out of the hole... And I stretched out my hand So I pulled out a long belt that was being eaten by the fire... and my face was closer to the hole, so I saw Ammar's face inside, smiling and then giggling, and I heard a screaming from the sky, a scream of prosperity..." Walid

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