‘I’ve learned a lesson though. We should not let the overheard war break our friendship.’

Friendship across boundaries

'Zahra, fee aman Allah.(be in the safety of God)’ Ma said as she kissed my forehead. 'Oh and take care of your brother.'
'Sure Ma, and Assalamualaikum(may peace be upon you)' I said with the final goodbye. 'Wa'alaikumussalam(and may peace be upon you too),' she replied.
Then I dashed out of my home finding my brother waiting for me.
School today will be the same and boring. But at least I don't get bullied or get discriminated like other kids, for that I'm thankful to God. Breaking away from my thoughts, I just realised I still haven't moved.
'Ya Akhi(oh my brother), let's go.' I called for attention.
Jamal turned around, finally noticing me, 'Okay sis, we shall.'
'So tell me, what are you going to learn at school today?' I asked as we walked. School's not that far so we preferred walking. My brother currently studies in Form 2 and I'm sure everything is a lot easier for him comparing to my tightly packed schedule as I am in Form 4.
'I don't know yet, lots of things obviously.' Oh and I totally forgot to mention, the studies in Hong Kong are very hectic, trust me. Even for my brother. But Alhamdulilah (all praise is due to God), at least we are safe and sound here.
Back in Palestine, I used to see so many people getting shot or wounded by the Israeli air strikes every single day. My dad was one of them. It still haunts me when I go to sleep. We came here with some other refugees last year, yet the effect of remembering all those blood-soaked bodies is still strong. Just thinking about dad makes me want to cry all over again.
I see a hand waving at my direction, 'Hey! You alright?' Jamal asked. His face scrunched up in worry. When Mom asked me to take care of him, honestly it should be the other way around. He's really protective of me, almost as protective as Mubarak, my elder brother.
'Are you thinking about that ukhti(my sister)?' He questioned. He knows me so well.
'It's alright, stop worrying,' I paused to control my rudeness 'Besides, I'm elder than you.' I said, a little less angrily. I didn't want to shove him or shout at him because I know he's concerned about me but he should stop acting like I'm some injured, disabled person.
'Geez, I'm sorry ukhti!' He dramatically waved his hands to show apology.
'It's forgiven' I replied with a smile. We should always smile, that's what our prophet taught us.
Finally, we can see the school building. As we neared the gate, 'Okay bro, be good and pay attention in class. Salam(peace)' I said.
''Kay sis, Salam to you too.'
Suddenly a hand from the back covered my eyes. 'I know its Kath.' I giggled. She's always doing this. She and Nadiva are my best friends. Nadiva arrived a little later.
Kath is from England, Nadiva’s from Indonesia and I’m from Palestine. We’re pretty multi-cultural, aren’t we?
'Hello to you mate!' She chirped.
'What's up? You seem too excited today?' I raised an eyebrow.
'Okay fine, there's a new girl in our form. She's from the Middle East as well! You should totally meet her!' She beamed.
'Wow that's awesome, which class? You've already met her?'
'Our class, nah I'm thinking of meeting her in the class.'
'Oh here comes the Diva!' I said, pointing at Nadiva through the window pane.
‘Well since she’s on the way, let’s go to her.’ Kath offered a hand which I gladly took.
‘Yo-Ho Sup ladies?’ Nadiva greeted, giving both of us a hand shake.
‘Salam bud’ I greeted back.
Suddenly, a girl out of nowhere came towards us. The girl had a pair of piercing green eyes. ‘Do you know where class 4F is?’
‘Wait, are you the new girl that Kath has been telling me about?’ I gave a quick glace to Kath and she nodded back.
‘Well I guess I’m the only new girl today, so it was probably me.’
‘Don’t worry, we’re in the same class so we all can go together.’ Nadiva said.
‘By the way, we haven’t introduced ourselves. I’m Kath, short for Katherine as Zahra already mentioned.’ Kath started
‘Nice to meet all of you. I’m Nava.’ The new girl replied while giving each of us a handshake.
‘Your name is so pretty. What are your electives?’ I asked.
‘Thanks. I chose ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and Combined Science (Physics and Chemistry)’
‘Wow, what do you want to be in the future?’ Kath asked.
‘Architect or maybe a medical programmer at a hospital.’
‘Wow, that’s like two polar opposites. But your electives can work both ways… Oh look! We’ve already reached our class.’ I said, pointing to our class door with the sign ‘4F’.

‘So class, today we have a new student. She’ll introduce herself to everyone,’ said Miss, our class teacher.
‘Hello everyone! I’m Nava Pelemet and you can call me Nava. I’m new to Hong Kong, just came a month ago. I’m from Israel.’
Wait what? She’s from Israel??? Oh no! Ya Allah! (Oh Lord) please make her at least hate the Zionists who are bombing everyone in Palestine. I covered my face and made a silent prayer. Some people started whispering among themselves. Nadiva and Kath made a quick glace towards my side to see me. I caught that and shrugged at them. I felt the knots tightening in my stomach.
She came back to her new seat which happened to be the seat next to me. ‘Hey, are you alright?’ So she actually noticed my sudden action. And yes, now I notice her accent. It felt familiar when she first spoke, but now I could confirm it. It’s the Hebrew accent.
‘I’m great. I’m great’ I reassured. ‘Okay so according to your electives, you’ll be having… Let’s see.’ I tried diverting the conversation. ‘Yep, you’ll have CS, that’s short for Combined Science with me so we can go together and your ICT will be in the next room’ I pointed the direction.
‘Thanks, how about the other subjects?’
‘No worries, it will all be in our class. For Chinese and Math though, they will assign you in different classes according your ability.’ I said. ‘Wait, you had an entrance exam for Chinese and Math, right?’
‘Yep, they gave me a piece of paper today when I went to the General Office to collect my books and everything else. The staff said it was for Chinese and Ma-’ She paused for a second, ‘Wait, I think that was the class arrangement.’ She looked side her bag and fished out a piece of paper. ‘Yep it says I’ll have Math lesson with Miss Ko and Chinese lesson with Mr. Cheung.’
‘That’s awesome! Congrats! You’re in the elite class for Math. But as for Chinese though, you’re in the newbie section. Well you know what?’ I raised my head, ‘That’s totally fine. You’re new to it and you’ll get the hang of it once you’re fully settled.’
‘Also, me, Nadiva and Kath are all in the same class for Math.’ I added.

‘Um guys, Zahra and I will go for prayer, so you guys can go to the cafeteria first.’ Nadiva said, motioning them to go.
‘Alright mate.’ Kath was used to it. ‘Let’s go.’ She turned to Nava.
‘Wait,’ Nava called. ‘I also need to pray, I know Muslims pray five times a day. For Jews, we pray three times a day.’ Then she turned to Kath. ‘Come on.’ You also come with us, you can pray too.’ She actually dragged Kath.
‘Okay, I’m coming.’ Kath laughed. ‘It’s not like I’m going to run away.’

‘So, how was school today?’ Kath asked Nava. We were descending down the stairs as school had finally ended.
‘It’s actually really nice and I feel like I’ve learnt so much comparing to where I’m from. Back in Israel... never mind.’ She shook her head and looked so sad. I could already guess what had happened back there.
‘I totally understand that, I’ve witne-‘ Shoot! I shouldn’t have said anything. Now I’m the one with the attention. I mean, my friends already knew this would be an issue but Nava? She had no idea.
‘What? What were you about to say?’ Nava pulled a panicked-stricken face.
Oh no, this was definitely not going great. I’m not going to lie just because of a friendship break and I also can’t lie because my religion prohibited. Lying is not good either ways.
‘Actually, I hope I won’t break too much of a newly-built relationship. But I have to tell you that I’m from Palestine.’ Done. I’m way over it now.
Nadiva and Kath nodded at me for doing this and Nava looked even more panicked. Almost as panicked as my mother when she knew my dad was shot. Almost.
‘No way! Why are you a Palestinian? If so, why were you so nice?’ Her eyes bulged which made her already piercing green eyes to rip off my face, if that’s even possible. ‘I hate every Palestinian. Because of them, they shot my brother.’ She continued. ‘You must have planned this out right? You wanted to be very close to me, as possible as you can. Getting every detail you can get and then give it to your stupid, filthy Hamas. Am I right?’ She gave a loud sarcastic laugh which turned people’s attention to us.
Okay that was so ridiculous that I felt like laughing and wanted to rip her head off at the time.
Stay calm. Stay calm. Aoodhu Billahi Minashaytaan Nirrajeem (I seek refuge in God from Satan, the outcast). The Prophet taught us to repeat this line to calm ourselves. And it worked.
‘If that’s what you really think, I’m sorry you’re wrong.’ My eyes met hers in a confident way. ‘I was being nice to you despite my problems in my heart. I just wanted to befriend someone from Israel because I know that I would never have the opportunity.’ I started to walk slowly to the gate because I didn’t like the unwanted attention from others. The other girls followed up. ‘Me too, I have suffered a great crisis. I’m extremely sorry for you los-’ I was cut off by her light shove, ‘No need for your pity, after all, it’s your people.’ Then she turned and walked away.
‘Ya Rabb! (Oh Lord) Please guide everyone to the right path and make it easier for me to tell her and give me patience like the Prophet had.’ I prayed. I was totally absorbed into the prayer that I’ve forgotten there were uninvited audience. ‘Guys, let’s just go before I made a fool out of myself ‘kay?’
‘Alright mate. Call me, text me whatever you want or whenever you want. See ya sis.’ Kath gave me a hug. ‘We can talk about it tomorrow ‘kay?’ She whispered. I returned her with a nod.
‘We’ll definitely need a girls’ night tomorrow. We’re all in it right? And the usual place, my home.’ Nadiva asked, giving us a cheery smile. She’s the only one with no elder brothers and her father comes home a little later than usual parents so her home is the only place we can have girls’ nights. We don’t want to deal with guys because in our religion we shouldn’t mingle too much with the opposite sex if they are not from your blood.
‘Like duh. Come on. Zahra said yes too.’ Kath said. Her gaze on me was forcing to accept the deal. I just rolled my eyes.
‘Whatever. Bye Nadiva.’ I said while hugging her. They both lived close to each others’ home but it was a lot farther than my home so they took a bus.
‘Oh there you are! I was waiting for you for nearly 10 minutes. I thought you left.’ Jamal seriously needed to stop scaring the life out of me. ‘Why are you late today? Anything interesting happened?’
‘Nah, there was a bit of a problem on the way. It’s fine.’ I reassured him, and myself too. I hoped the next day would be all fine.

I opened the door to our home and we gave Salams (Islamic greeting) to Ma and to Sara, my elder sister. Sara had finished her Secondary school and was now doing her studies online. She stayed with Mom and helped with chores as well. Mubarak, on the other hand, went out to play football with the friends he had found. He too, like Sara, had finished his secondary. But he’s more interested to be a footballer so he went to his practices from time to time and sometimes participated in real matches too. I had been to some of his matches and honestly, he really was a great footballer. Insha Allah (If God wills) he could make it to a higher level and achieve his dream.
I went to our room. There are two rooms in our flat, one bigger and one smaller. Me, Ma and Sara shared the bigger one while Jamal and Mubarak shared the smaller one. It’s nothing fancy or big but it’s good enough for us. And may Allah (God) reward those people who had helped us to a safer place, a safer haven.
‘Ya ukhti! (Oh my sister)’ Sara exclaimed when she saw me. ‘Guess what?’ She asked a little too excitedly. ‘I’m going to have my exams in two weeks time and I’ll be going to the library for better place to study. You know what that means?’ She paused to get my answer.
‘I don’t know, you tell me.’ Then I returned to remove my scarf.
‘It means you can have the room to yourself!’ She exclaimed. ‘Mom too but she only comes when she needs it so you know, most of the time you can have for yourself.’ She added.
‘Wow, that’s great! And I really hope you’ll get good results. Insha Allah you will. I know you will.’
‘Thanks ukthi.’

‘Ma, tomorrow night I’m going to Nadiva’s home for sleepover. It’s okay right?’ I asked for her permission after telling her our plan when we were having our dinner.
‘It’s fine with me, but…’ She glanced at Mubarak to agree as well, ‘ukhti, you can go.’ He flashed a smile.
Wow, he must have had some good news today. He looked like he was over the moon.
‘But,’ he continued. Alright, not exactly over the moon, but still. I looked at him to let him continue, ‘You need to return home on Saturday before 2pm.’
‘Um, why is that so?’
‘Because, guys... ‘He turned to look at all of us, ‘We’ve got into the semi finals for this tournament and I really want you guys to be there.’ He flashed us a proud smile.
Ah so no wonder why he was too cheery today with all those smiles. I mean he smiled all the time but today it was just a bit more than usual.
‘Congrats akhi!’ Jamal and I said in unison.
‘Masha Allah, (God willed it) ibn Haleema (Son of Haleema)’ Ma said.
Don’t take it wrong – It’s actually a custom for parents to say this when they felt really proud of their kids.

‘Hey, you can come tonight right?’ Nadiva asked when Kath and I met her in the morning.
‘Yep, Mubarak was in a good mood as well.’ I said. ‘His team got into Semi final so he wants me to be back at home by 2pm tomorrow. You guys wanna come?’
‘Well I think I can come. If I can’t, I’ll squeeze my schedule anyways.’ Nadiva winked.
This girl had an obsession to footie like my brother but she loved watching more than playing. That’s the difference between them. I also knew she liked watching my brother play footie. But I’m never going to tell her that.
‘And you Kath?’ I turned to her. She’s actually really quiet today. Where’s her bubbly self?
‘You okay?’ Nadiva voiced my thoughts.
‘I’m great mate.’ Okay she’s definitely not okay. And she’s telling us she’s great? Don’t even think about that.
‘Obviously not. Come on, tell us what made you shut you bubbly self today?’ I asked, looping an arm into hers. Nadiva did the same on the other side.
‘Well I...’ She looked everywhere but us. ‘Well you see I was on the lift going up to my flat. Wellshewastheretooandthatmeansshelivesthereaswell!’ She rambled off the last bit quickly.
‘What?’ Nadiva asked
‘Well when I was going back home yesterday after school, I saw her going back to her home as well. She was actually in my building. She lives there.’ Kath frowned.
‘Who she?’ Nadiva asked
‘Ah come on bud, she’s talking about Nava. Duh.’ Someone else spoke.
When we turned to see who that was, oh no! That was no other than herself, Nava Pelemet. ‘Sorry guys- especially sorry to Zahra. I really didn’t mean it. I know I was pretty angry and I didn’t realise what I was saying. I hope you can forgive me. I told my parents about you and trust me, they were angry with me for flipping you off like that.’
I tried to see if she’s fooling around, but she actually looked genuinely apologetic.
‘I’ve learned a lesson though. We should not let the overheard war break our friendship.’
She gave a small smile. But I didn’t miss her guilty look behind that smile.
‘It’s forgiven.’ I said with a smile. I then went forward to take her hand and shake it.
Nava also went to Kath and Nadiva and shook their hands.
‘Okay so both of you give me a treat because I brought both of you back.’ Kath looked expectantly to both of us.
Ah that bubbly self came back. See? I knew she would come out eventually.
‘Nah Kath, but you can get a free autograph of my brother and his teammates for your brother. His birthday is coming up so you can give him that.’ I loop back my arm with hers and went to loop Nava’s as well.
‘Well yeah, both of us just literally knew we live in the same apartment yesterday.’ Nava laughed.
‘So Nava,’ I turned to her.
‘Mmhm?’
‘We planned to have a girls’ night tonight and of course with a sleepover included. Do you wanna join?’ I looked at her waiting for her answer.
‘Oh it will be at my home. Kath can bring you there.’ Nadiva added
‘Well-’ the school bell rang cutting off what Nava was going to say.
‘Let’s talk about it at recess.’ Kath said

‘Yo!’ I scared Nava from behind.
‘Argh!’ She shrieked out.
I know it’s very childish but it’s always funny to look at people’s reactions.
‘Hahahaha!’ I let out a fit of laughter.
‘You, bad bad girl.’ She imitated the scolding of parents when we were kids.
‘Okay, so you’re coming right?’ I looked at her. ‘Duh. That face tells you’re coming.’ I concluded by myself and then dramatically waved my hands to no one in particular. ‘Guys, you’ve heard. She’s coming.’
‘Zahra, ahahah.’ She threw a fit of laughter. ‘Okay okay, I’m coming.’ She finally said. ‘God, it’s so hard to say no to people like you.’ She smiled.
‘And that’s because I’m awesome.’ I flashed my trademark smirk.
‘Okay, let’s not inflate your ego anymore.’

‘Nava, tell us how you came to Hong Kong.’ Kath said.
We were playing truth or dare after a movie marathon. Nava chose truth because apparently, she wanted to be ‘safe’ from embarrassing dares.
‘Well, do I actually have to tell?’ She looked hesitant. She turned to look at me. ‘I hope you don’t mind anything I’m going to say.’
‘Well no, I don’t think I’ll mind much anymore. We’re friends and besides I really want to hear from your point of view.’ I smiled at her.
‘Okay then. Here is it. I used to live in Sderot, a city very close to the border of Gaza Strip. Since it was near the border, it always looked like a battlefield. So many shots, it was easy for people to die there. But I’m sure it was worse the other side.’ She turned to look at me for a while. Then she continued, ‘We were in a great danger and there was this day Morshe..’ She stopped to wipe the tears and returned back ‘Morshe, my brother, a 10 year old went out to buy something from the bakery and suddenly got shot.’ She eyes watered. We inched closer to comfort her. ‘Despite the bad news, my parents were still optimistic and had hope. They then searched a place called Hong Kong which was a very safe place and pretty much a neutral place for wars and we shifted back after 2 months. Those two months, I grieved so much. I was actually so scared to leave my home everyday to school.’ Her eyes shone with the tears. Nevertheless, she looked optimistic compared to earlier, ‘God has surely helped to save our family. I can’t be more thankful for that.’ We all went to her hug her.
‘It’s okay, alhamdulilah (All praise is to Allah) you’re safe now.’ I felt the tears in my eyes brimmed.
‘Did you just use Arabic?’ Nava chuckled lightly.
‘Well as a Palestinian, duh.’ I replied, playfully hitting her stomach.
‘So, now is your time to reveal. Because yesterday when we fought, you mentioned something about suffering a great crisis.’ Nava motioned me to speak
‘Ah nah, it’s not a big thing that you have to know.’ I shrugged it off.
If I start telling them, I’ll probably end up having a pool and maybe Nadiva’s parents would kick me out even before my appointed time back home.
‘Nah, you have to tell us. We’ve been with you for almost a year and we deserve to know.’ Kath said.
‘Well then, today is our day of confession isn’t it?’ I said, causing the others to giggle.
‘Miss Suspense, enough with your suspension already and tell us.’ Nadiva said rubbing her palms together in an excited way.
‘Alright, just saying, you’ll probably need buckets because I’m just that emotional mess.’ I cautioned them. They rolled their eyes and motioned for me to continue.
‘So two years ago, our family was quite fine – actually much finer than most of the other families. Almost every family that I knew of, someone – at least one member of the family was shot and died from the war. My parents used to own a shop selling cloth and garments.’ I paused, remembering I forgot to mention earlier,’ Wait, I used to live in Beit Hanoun, in the northern side of the Gaza Strip. My house used to be next to a border as well.’ I looked at Nava, ‘Where was Sderot exactly? Near which part of Gaza Strip?’
‘I think northern. Yeah. It’s northern side.’ She held my hand excitedly, ‘So that means we lived close!’ She exclaimed.
‘Wow, that’s pretty awesome.’ Kath commented. She and Nadiva looked bored in a way.
‘Sorry guys, we just met long-lost-meant-to-be friends.’ Nava said, looking cheery.
‘Yeah, okay so like I was saying. My place was also pretty much scary and many people die each day. I’ve even witnessed some with my own eyes. So there was this day, just like any other, when the prayer was going to start, everyone shut all their business and went to pray in congregation. Only the men did it because it was very unsafe for the women to go as well. Women went back to their homes to pray at the period. And so, just like usual, Mubarak and dad closed the shop and went to pray and the thing is,’ I paused for a while and then continued, ‘My mom, of all days, chose that day not to go because she wanted to take a rest. What actually happened was that, the Israeli attackers sneaked into our shop and put a suicide bomb.’ My eyes started to well up in tears. ‘Obviously, it was deserted at that time so no one saw what they did. My dad would also be one of the first people to go and reopen their shops, the way he always did. And whe-when he... um, when he opened the shop,’ I stopped to let myself cry. I know I’d be crying and I just can’t help it. ‘Sorry guys,’ I whispered shakily.
‘No I think that’s enough if you don’t want to talk about it.’ Nava said, sniffing. Then I realised everyone had teary eyes too.
‘Nah, I’ll complete it.’ I wiped the tears and my nose. ‘So then, when he opened the door, he was shot there. Right on spot. And Mubarak was lucky because he wasn’t with dad when they left the mosque. Mubarak came a little later. He saw what happened when he was walking to the shop. Alhamdulilah, he had no injuries or whatsoever.’ I raised my chin to summon a little confidence. ‘As a believer of fate and destiny, I believe it was all a fate for my dad to die that day and may he gets into the Paradise.’
‘Ameen.’ Nadiva said.
‘Amen to that.’ both Kath and Nava said.
‘Then we were transferred to a refugee camp at a UN school and we stayed there for a year. Then some helpers told Mubarak about moving to Hong Kong. And that’s how we ended up here.’ I finally finished.
‘I’m so sorry for what happened there. I can understand so well and I feel guilty just representing my nationality. I mean I still won’t deny my people are smart,’ She smiled a little, trying to ease the tension in the room. ‘But some people – okay, most of the people are quite cruel and what happened to your dad was really saddening. I’m really sorry.’ She blew her nose.
‘Hey it’s alright. I know you hated the other side but that’s because of propaganda. But knowing what had happened and what is still happening, while having feelings about it was already something great. I mean you weren’t the cruel people who did anything anyway.’ I said, hugging her. ‘And besides, I also get to know the situation there and I’m really sorry for your brother.’
‘Yeah, after all, I believe both sides have good and bad. And it’s really wonderful to have met both of you.’ Kath said, coming to hug both of us. ‘All thanks to God he gave both of you to meet in Hong Kong.’
‘And that to become the best of friends.’ Nadiva said, closing the group hug. ‘With me and Kath as well of course.’ She added with a laugh.

THE END