Where The Nightmares Are Cherished

Sanaa was having a nightmare. In her nightmare she saw the dentist drilling into her teeth. The drill made an irritating buzz that kept getting louder until it woke her up. The buzzing continued regardless, and that made Sanaa feel sick to her stomach. It must have been early, Sanaa thought; the chanting from the mosque would have woken her up. That was a good time for her, since she got to pray side by side with her father and mother.

The sound was coming from the bathroom. Sanaa got out of the bed and followed the sound. The bedroom window was left open for the night and the air smelled brisk. In the dark Sanaa stepped on a praying mat that was left open. Father must have prayed without me, she thought, and that made her feel worse. She knelled down to fold the mat, and at that angle she was able to get a glimpse of the bathroom. The bathroom door was ajar; a vertical ray of light ran from her head to her knees, across her eye, and cut through the dark of the room.

The bathroom was clustered with strange men, her father was in the center, and one of the men was using a machine, a barber’s machine, to cut away at his beard. After the cutting another man fitted him with a suit and a tie. Sanaa stayed still and watched her father become a different man. Once the reshaping was done the men opened the bathroom door and proceeded to leave when they discovered Sanaa, prayer mat in hand, kneeling on the floor. Sanaa didn't blink, something wasn’t right, and she suddenly desired to take a good look at her father. Taking it all in as if it weren't to last. He approached her, walking slowly, he knelled down by her and for no reason Sanaa felt the urge to cry. The next time Sanaa blinked, tears rolled down her cheeks and glittered in the bathroom light.

Sanaa's father was about to say something when her mother entered the room and began to shriek as if a knife was thrusted into her chest.
"No, No... Not you." Sanaa's mother kept repeating in torturous anguish.

"Woman...god is calling...god is calling." Her father stood up and walked with determination towards the main door, as one of the strangers fought hard to keep the mourning woman from grasping onto him.

Sanaa's father was handed a suitcase, he then got into a waiting car outside, and left for the Green Zone, Baghdad. Sanaa let her thoughts drown in the sound of her mother’s screams.