An Uncertain Journey

Part 1

The road was bumpy, and Amal was tired. She had been carrying Juwariyah for three hours and her back hurt. She had long since finished her water supply and she needed to rest. Yet there wasn't time for that, she had to press on until she reached Turkey. With a determined face, she picked up Juwariyah and plodded along the bumpy road.

                                                                                                      ~

Juwariyah wouldn't stop crying. Amal tried desperately to calm her by singing one of Mama's lullabies to her, but it was no use. People passing by glanced at them curiously, but no-one came to help. Eventually, a woman who looked in her forties came and asked if she could help, and Amal gratefully handed Juwariyah over to the woman. As Juwariyah calmed down, the woman told Amal that her name was Maryam and that she worked for a charity that funded refugees. She asked Amal what a young girl and a baby were doing in the streets of Istanbul and where her mother and father were. Hearing this, Amal broke down and in between sobs explained how she had lived in Aleppo until her mother and father were killed in an attack on their home because they had worked for the government and how she realised it wasn't safe to live in Aleppo anymore, so she had packed their bags and left.