The Journalist

Part 21: The Sky as His Substitute

"Ayano-san?" call Aoba while my gaze is still on the back of the woman carrying the little boy.

"Yes ...." I immediately turned my eyes to Aoba. "So how? What information did you get from a man named Khair?" my many.

"Mohamed Khair Al - Hussein. He's an alumnus of Egypt's Al-Azhar university. A social activist who died two years ago. He was one of the originators of the anti-government movement that became the beginning of this civil war. He and dozens of other young men were arrested while performing orations demanding the government to step down immediately. They were then imprisoned and tortured for months."

I remember the history of conflict in this country. Yes, I heard that time there was indeed the arrest of a number of activists who brought public protests. It turned out that one of the activists was Ameena's husband.

"At the insistence of the people, he and his friends were released. But after the liberation it again made the separatist movement widespread throughout the country. The government used all means to repel the action, one of them by recapturing Khair and his friends. They were then executed for involvement in anti-government deployments" Aoba explained.

"And after his death, there was a civil war as we see it today" I slowly tried to connect the interlocking pieces of the puzzle.

"Yes, the revolutionaries thought they should continue the struggle of their fallen friends, while the regime would not back down." Aoba's rough breathing wafts.

"Is there any more information?"

"I heard that the man had just gotten married before being caught again and received the death penalty. Miris is his wife!"

"Are you also finding out information about his wife?" many quick.

Aoba shook her head. "I thought you just needed information about him."

I'm stunned. Spontaneously, my memory seemed to fly back as he learned the fact that Ameena was a widow.

"Not shameless! Who do you want to take him away? She's the wife of our late comrade-in-arms. You should thank him, if it wasn't for him pleading with our chairman, you wouldn't be breathing like now! In addition, our chairman also considered you to have saved him. We took her to fulfill the mandate of her late husband."

The words came back to my ears. There's no doubt, he's the Khair I'm referring to. Ameena's ex-husband. Aoba would have been surprised to learn that Mohamed Khair Al-Hussein was Ameena's husband. But I decided not to say it.

"Arigatou, Aoba-san."

"Hum ... about Ameena, do you remember which way they took her?"

"From where I was dropped off, they drove north."

Aoba opened the map on his phone. "See from the map, there is a possibility that they took him to remote towns bordering Turkey."

Aoba's guess is pretty reasonable. The area bordering Turkey has become a safe haven from war. Yes, I forgot Turkey as an important supporting actor who fell most deeply into this civil war. The Turkish government has since expressed support for the rebel group. In fact, it was the Turkish National Intelligence Organization that trained a special rebel army called the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

"If Ameena is in a safe place, then that would be the best option for her" I said, looking blankly ahead.

Yes, after hearing information from Aoba about Khair, I have now come to understand why Ameena would rather join the rebel group than be with me.

I looked back again. The boy and the woman are no more. Just disappear. They are not refugees in this place. Here it looks quite a lot of volunteers who come to bring donations in the form of food and clothing worth using.

My friends and I went back to where we were camping when the sun started to sink. I stood on the edge of the hill with one hand that tipped the backpack over the back of my shoulder. I put my head up, staring at the twilight shade that began to envelop the earth.

"Mina-chan, now I'm starting to feel relieved. I don't know .. but I'm sure you must be in a safe place. A place where you can see the sky without any fighter aircraft ruining its beauty. Thank you for the short and memorable meeting you had in my life."

Even if I don't see him again, at least the sky can replace him. Looking at the bright blue sky, like looking at the face of Ameena who smiled cheerfully. Looking at the twilight sky, like seeing his blushing face. Looking at the night sky is like looking at his sleeping face. Looking at the overcast sky that spewed rain, like seeing it sad and crying.

Yeah, that's my imagination ....

Suddenly someone came crashing down my back and hugged me tightly. I gasped for a moment, looking at the snow-white hand with the wiggly fingers around my waist.

"Yuna-chan, you surprised me!" I cried while looking at him.

"Kei-kun, let's be together tonight!" Yuna whispered in my ear.

"Eh?" I'm aghast.

"Don't joke!"

"I'm serious! Don't we need to let go of the miss? I'm going to borrow a tent for both of us" he said as he moved on.

I immediately pulled his hand. "Yuna-chan, we're not here for an excursion. After all, there's Yoshizawa here. Are you sure he won't report to your father about us?"

"You're overreacting. What if Dad knew! He also knew we were dating!"

Yuna always hid the fact that her father didn't like me. In front of me, he always portrayed his father as if supporting our relationship. I can understand the dilemma he faced.

"Then you'll have to carry me to my tent!" he said while holding it behind me.

"You're just there!" I shake my head while squatting. I put him on my back, then walked quickly to the special tent of the medics.

"Don't move much. Here are a lot of rocks, if I slip we can fall!" my lament.

Yuna ignored my words. He even continued to move while stretching out his hand as if he was flying. His joy made me not have the heart to ruin his mood. I accelerated these footsteps to get to his tent.

Arriving at the medical tent complex, my feet seemed to be glued to the sight of Yoshizawa who seemed to be waiting for us. I dropped Yuna off my back.

"Yuna, your father called me. He asked me to look for you, he said he wanted to talk to you but you didn't take the call" Yoshizawa said.

"Did he think I was on vacation here?" Yuna responded with a wrench.

"Please tell your father!" Yoshizawa gives her phone as if asking Yuna to talk to her father.

"I can call him on my phone!"

"Then do it!"

Yuna gave her lips, then snorted. He pulled over and took his phone out of his pocket. Yoshizawa and I stared at each other without speaking. To be honest, I was a little distracted when Yoshizawa called my lover by her first name. Doesn't that indicate that the man who used to room with me in the dormitory wasn't just Yuna's father's favorite soldier?

I don't know ....

At night, I started creating a personal blogspot using the username "Khai" as my pen. There are several social media applications that have been launched, but do not yet have many users. So, blogs are still a haven for writers and devotees of freedom of speech. I hope, the blog I created will be a container of my writing that may not be able to be published in the news media. Yes, not many know a writing has a hidden mantra and every word holds magical powers that people rarely realize.

The first article I wrote was titled "The Beauty of the Sky that is Always Missed". In the article, I wrote a narrative about the war dead longing for the fresh air without chemicals from the bomb blasts and the blue sky decorated with white clouds without the hail of bullets from the warplanes. This line of writing, of course, was inspired by the words that Ameena had thrown.

Along with the article, I uploaded a photo of a Syrian boy I took a few days ago in a refugee camp. If a piece of writing is able to open the eyes and mind for those who read it, then a photo can convey various emotional meanings in it. I'm sure the photo will stir the hearts of anyone who sees it.