3. Blind Mines

The car stops and Ala hears the driver yelling at them to get out. She lifts her arm and feels around herself to find the door handle. Once outside the car she stops and listens. But instead of the expected bustling noises of a city there is only silence. Where are they?

“You need to walk that way,” the voice of the driver sounds like he is laughing about something. Ala hears the door slam and the engine howling once.

“Oh, before I forget. This is a minefield. So, stay close to the middle of the road, then you should be okay,” says the driver and then drives back the way they came.

“Are we in Türkiye mother?”, Ala asks hesitantly, too afraid to hear the truth. This is the third time they have tried to cross the border from Syria, and it would be the third failure.

“No, honey. We are still in Syria,” her mother answers and Ala can hear the defeat in her voice.

“We need to start walking,” she says, but Ala cannot move.

The driver’s words are echoing through her whole body. A minefield. The fear is spreading through her limbs, and she cannot breathe properly. She can only stand there like a statue, too afraid to move one foot, because this might mean being blown apart by a mine.

“It’s okay, honey. I will guide you. We have to move, it is too cold outside, we will freeze to death,” her mother encourages her, and Ala can feel her mother’s hand on her arm.

“I am going to die,” Ala says.

“No, you will not, we will make it. I promise, just do small steps, I will be at your side the whole time,” her mother’s grip around her arm grows stronger and Ala takes her first step.

Ala listens to every small noise, the movement of the bodies of her family, the sound of footsteps, fabric against skin, the intake of breaths, and she expects the loud bang at any second. She listens because she is blind. She went blind when she was eleven and the war in Syria started. It was a shock to her core and the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to her. Her whole world shattered into little pieces. There was only darkness left for her. She is always listening for the missiles and bombs.

The scariest thing for her is the fear that her family won’t be able to take her with them if they have to flee. What if someone starts shooting, she will be alone in the darkness. Is there someone standing directly next to them with a gun pointed at them? What if one of them steps on a mine and the hand of her mother leaves her. What if she is standing alone in a field of mines, how will she find her way out of it? She shuffles her feet and does not lift them in the air, too afraid to lose the solid contact to the road. Then she concentrates on her future life across the border in safety without death and fear every second of her life.