"The bomb landed and we, we," she shook her head a little.
"Did you bump it?"
"No, I, we, I can't hear yet."
"We'd run along the barricade on the road until it bottlenecked. People with rugs and goats. We sort of spilled into the desert."
"There it is!" The car had been pulled and then pushed into a line of (i)leaving(i). "I can get it open." A man in Afghani clothing and boots opened a hatchback. Broke a tripod into two parts and used the single leg to pry open the door. A sachel was retrieved. And a light sweater.
"There's no place to go! Go home! The road is ruined!" The man shouted in three different languages to all the people just waiting. He got quiet as we approached a pick up with surface-to-air rocket guns. People put whatever they could on their heads and formed wavy lines of stragglers on the other side of the cement. Until nightfall.
Weeks go by. Just chaos.
"Nobody cry or let on."
"We had to bring Pearlman home."
"And they went through his shit."
"You mean, his body?"
A slight nod and a hand involuntarily to cover a mouthful of response turned into a forehead scratch. "We had to look in his journals. No one knows where half of your stupid, stupid age group of people are."
"(i)That(i) is what you two should focus on. (i)NOW!(i)" Forcing the breath to breathe and the words to come out. Curving the wills into orders.
"It's not that easy to explain. What we know is that," eyes scanning passers by, searching for a Higher Power to help explain this and everything else. "That it's more like a Corporation at the moment."
"That must be why. Some diplomatic people were sent with Private Security."
"There's like a bend."
"Waxing poetic?"
A slight nod of the silk head scarf had it slipping to reveal trembling lips. "I'm told there was in World War II."
"She's not a historian."
"As the Allies occupied on top of other layers of occupation, there was a bend of forces," choosing words like choosing the most delicate scallops in a potful. "We have to be careful not to use military words (i)except(i) when quoting them."
"I must bring them now."
"Where?"
"You all stay here. To the embassy."
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