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There was something under my bed with glowing eyes and fangs dripping with saliva. I tried to escape, but my feet dragged. As though that the gravity increased to the point that my feet had stuck in the concrete. Its teeth were pointed and it was getting closer. I wanted to scream for help, but from fear I was breathless. My only option was to charge and battle this ferocious beast. I stiffened my hands into double steel fists and attacked. Suddenly, I saw the sun’s light shining with all its power. I woke up! It was my seven-year-old brother with a flashlight pointed at my eyes. For a moment, I wanted to scold my brother for waking me up from my deep sleep. But after a couple of seconds, I realized that it was he who had saved me from the nightmare. He whispered, "Follow me, I want to show you something!" I looked at the old electronic clock beside my bed. It was past midnight.
I was still trembling from the impact of my nightmare and I could not make
any sense out of my brother’s untimely invitation to show me something.
What could it be? Why wasn’t he sleeping in his bed? Where were my parents?
What was going on? I became curious and scared.
-- "Matine, what are you doing? Do you know what time is it? Do you think it is time to trade Pokemons? What is your problem?"By then I was fully awake. I thought he was going to show me the Halloween candies that my mother had hidden from us last night. It would be great news, but was it that important to wake me up for? On the other hand, I was little bit scared. Why was my brother whispering? Was he hiding something from my parents? Was I going to be his accomplice without even knowing what was going on? -- "Did you find the bag of candies?"Now, it was serious. If he was going to wake up my father, then I should be awake too. My curiosity increased and I wanted to witness "it" together with my brother. If it were something unimportant, then I would not allow him to wake my dad up. My dad worked hard that day and night. -- "Okay, Matine, I will follow you, but you better show me something interesting."He led me through the kitchen. I could see the fridge and the counter under the dim light of the night lamp. I paid special attention to the hamster, which was in a glass cage in a corner of the kitchen. I wondered whether the hamster died and Matine was going to show me its dead body. Initially, we had two hamsters. Matine called his hamster Lucky and I called mine Rascal. Ironically, Lucky was not that lucky; he unexpectedly died. My concern regarding Rascal was baseless. He was jogging on the wheel, as usual. The squeaking wheel was assuring me that my hamster was alive, well and fit. So, if it was not about Pokemons, Halloween candies, or the hamster, then what it was about? Matine, with his flashlight swinging right and left led me to the living room’s window. He moved the curtain quietly. -- "Look, do you see the lights."Suddenly, an enormous feeling of fear took over me. As if the word bomb had exploded in my heart. My heart started rapidly beating and my legs started shaking. War airplanes? Bombs? I had recently watched the scenes of hijacked airplanes on suicide mission hitting the twin towers of the World Trade Center, and later American airplanes dropping bombs on the mountains and cities of Afghanistan. Perhaps, the Afghan government was retaliating. I looked at the direction where my brother was looking; I was terrified. It was indeed true. Bombs were falling down on the city. I did not hear the noise of airplanes. Perhaps they were far away and far up in the sky. Besides, our windows were closed tightly. "Let’s wake up dad and mom," suggested my brother. Now he was sure that the falling bright objects from the sky were bombs. "Of course, we need to escape from this city as soon as possible," I replied, "This is a terrible news!" We were in a panic.
--"Daaaaaaaaaaady, daaaaaaaaaadddy! Wake up! There is a war! Bombs are falling down! We need to escape!"While running towards my dad’s bedroom, I hit something that shattered when it fell. It was my mother’s antique vase. But, who cared. Soon, our entire home would be in rubble. I saw my father and my mother jumping out from their bed in confusion. They did not know what was going on, but both rushed towards us trying to protect us. It did not take long for them to hear from us the sad news. I was terrified when I heard my father’s painful cry. I rushed to the switch nearby and turned the light on. My father’s foot was soaked in blood. It took me a while to realize that he had stepped on the pieces of broken vase. There was a deep cut under his left foot. He pulled a sharp piece of crystal the size of a scorpion out of his foot and tried to limp towards the window while blood was dripping on our silk Persian carpet. I was surprised that my father would continue walking in that pain. Perhaps he was used to pain. He had been subjected to all kinds of torture for years in Turkish prisons because of his political writings. We were all now by the front window watching the sky in horror. My dad intelligently murmured: "It is a meteor shower you silly boys!
Go to bed"
On our way to bed, Matine was asking me the meaning of "meteor", still holding his flashlight. I was happy that we were safe and sound. But, I felt stupid for contributing in shedding blood and destroying property. Though Matine did not know what a meteor was, he was now sure that it was nothing to worry about. While trying to continue my interrupted sleep on the top part of the
bunk bed, Matine kept showering me with questions about meteors and meteor
showers!
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