He jumped the hospital wall as soon as his vision returned. Off he went to find his father and mother but his home had evaporated and in the rubble lived a trio of kids his age. Two beggars Asif and Musa and a limping little prostitute they called behna, sister. They took Hashim in who never told them why he came and taught him how to get high on glue and flirt with older men to pick their pockets and run before they penetrated. A year of meandering till a kind-eyed man named Abdulfazil spotted them. He visited every week. Sometimes he brought mithai and other times savory treats. The comfort of food got conditioned with Abdulfazil's oily hair and red beard and three lost boys and a limping little prostitute they called behna began to like him a lot. Abdulfazil convinced them to join a school where food was free and books about astronomy plenty they followed like ducklings the scent of his olive oiled hair into the school that turned out to be a suicide bomber training camp. After six months of training it was his turn to blow up in the morning assembly of St Joseph's Academy and lace his fellow students with the marrow of his bones. He decided not to do it and concocted a plan of escape. He slipped through the gate like a snake and accomplished a feat that no one had been able to so far. Except as soon as he reached the tree where he was supposed to meet Behna, Asif, and Musa the flood of fear let itself loose in his mind and Hashim went blind.
Squint. Do you see?
Hashim hiding behind a tree.
The first time Hashim lost his vision was when he was five years old and he heard his father raise his voice and his mother's crying for the first time.
"No one made you elope, begum, it was a choice, a decision made by you as a seventeen year old baligh woman!"
He heard his mother sob like child. It sounded like she was being suffocated by the angry words building up inside the closed room so he timidly crept closer to the door and turned the knob to help her breathe.
His father saw him and lost it.
"Zaleel! Baighairat!" he ran after Hashim. His mother ran behind the angry man to stop him from hurting Hashim but it was too late. Hashim had blanked out mid way through his flight and flattened his Jewish nose on the living room's glass door.
Squint. Do you see?
Hashim hiding behind a tree.
The first time Hashim lost his vision was when he was five years old and he heard his father raise his voice and his mother's crying for the first time.
"No one made you elope, begum, it was a choice, a decision made by you as a seventeen year old baligh woman!"
He heard his mother sob like child. It sounded like she was being suffocated by the angry words building up inside the closed room so he timidly crept closer to the door and turned the knob to help her breathe.
His father saw him and lost it.
"Zaleel! Baighairat!" he ran after Hashim. His mother ran behind the angry man to stop him from hurting Hashim but it was too late. Hashim had blanked out mid way through his flight and flattened his Jewish nose on the living room's glass door.
