“He looked at me and I could see in his eyes that he had given up hope. I begged him not to leave us. His lips were about to utter something, but they stopped shaking, and he was gone. …I still held my uncle in my arms, tears running down my face. My entire body had gone numb. I couldn’t move from where I sat. Mohamed and Allie came in and took Uncle away from me and put him on the bed. After a few minutes, I was able to get up. I went behind the house and punched the mango tree until Mohamed took me away from it. I was always losing everything that meant something to me.
My cousins cried, asking, Who is going to take care of us now? Why did this happen to us in these difficult times?
Down in the city, the gunmen fired off their guns.”
(Page 208)
This scene just ripped my heart out. His uncle, his only blood relative left in his life, was taken from him. He has already lost so much! He is angry that he lost the important things in his life. Just as things were getting better again, the war caught up with him and he lost his uncle. He just can’t seem to get away from tragedy. This made me mad because I felt he deserved the good things that were happening to him after all that he had been through in the last few years.
I found this moment memorable also because he finally reacted to death in a ‘normal’ way since being rehabilitated. He use to except death as easy as breathing as a soldier. Now he is crying, punching things, and worrying. He is grieving for the death.
I have never experienced much loss during my life let alone witness it. I can’t imagine what that felt like. I have had my heartbroken by my dog before but that’s about as close to his experience I can relate. That’s not close. I am not saying I want to relate to him though. That’d be so scary and sad. I don’t know how he is so strong.
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