Under the Olive Tree

16. Sitta T'Ashar

"I'm sorry!" Reema repeated, throwing her arms around Amani and raising her voice as loudly as she could. "Forgive me! Forgive me, please! I will have to spill my own blood in regret if you don't say you forgive me then I won't get married. Is that what you want? If that's what you want just tell me!"

Amani shoved her off. "Okay, okay! I get it. I forgive you."

Reema pouted. "You're lying."

"Thin line," Amani warned.

The girl rolled back onto the floor. "I really am sorry, baby cousin. I let my judgments be misguided even though you're just my little baby and I love you! If you want to marry Muhsin then he is lucky he caught your eye. I support everything you do to the highest degree from now on. I swear on my life."

Amani rolled her eyes. "Don't let it happen again or your olive leaves get it," she lifted the box off the floor. "I won't show any mercy this time!"

"Ah, rain of blood is scorching my skin."

She snorted. "Dramatic."

"But how do you really feel about him? Now that he's officially come over and Auntie has 'met' Um Muhsin in that way. Are you excited?" She rolled onto her stomach and propped her chin on her hands to watch her cousin pick the leaves apart.

Amani sighed. "I don't know how I feel."

Reema pouted. "What do you mean?"

"With him, it's so simple yet so complicated. I can never tell how I feel because, half of the time, they're feelings that I can't even put a name to. Just this... fullness in my chest, like my heart swelled up three times its size and I'm both energized and drained when I see him."

Reema blinked, her lips parted in a confused glower. "That is complicated. Maybe you're possessed and he gets a reaction out of the spirit haunting you because he's so strong in his faith."

"Helpful," Amani murmured, lifting the freshly packed box of clothes Reema's mother had given her. "Are these all your donations?"

"Why? Should I have donated more?"

Amani's lips parted in shock. "Reema, you still have clothes in your closet after donating all of these? I can hardly carry them when I'm still much less during the walk home."

"Maybe Muhsin can help you carry them," she teased.

"Okay, I'll leave then," Amani rolled her eyes, adjusting the box in her arms on her way out. "You need to enjoy your last night of freedom. I'll see you at the wedding tomorrow."

Reema bounced excitedly, her singing voice reaching into the street for a moment before Amani closed the front door after herself. She groaned under the weight of the clothes and began the path home. On her way, she passed the closed bakery because it was the fourth day of the week and Muhsin spent it in the olive garden. Fayza would be in charge of the bakery on days like this.

Amani wondered where the girl would be. She hoped Fayza wasn't getting into the kind of trouble somewhere. Then again, she admired that about the girl.

But the moment Amjad fell into the street in front of her, she found the siblings she'd been looking for.

Amani let the box in her hands drop as she lowered herself beside him. "Hey, are you alright?" He'd fallen onto his back in front of her and, when Amani looked up at the voice above them, realized why he'd fallen.

Standing over them, an occupational soldier snarled down at the boy who continued to glare at him through his masked fear. "Don't anger me, boy. Did your mother fail to teach you any-."