The Orange Grove Read Online Free PDF

thought.”
    Soulayed wrapped his arms around the two boys.
    â€œYou didn’t know that with every step you took, you could have been blown up by a mine. You didn’t know that, did you?”
    Soulayed stroked the boys’ heads.
    â€œA miracle is what really happened that day. God broke your kite string and God guided your steps on the mountain.”
    They returned to the road in silence. Aziz felt like throwing up because of the cigarette Soulayed had given him.
    Back at the jeep, Soulayed burst out laughing. He picked up a bottle of water lying at his feet. It was half-full. He opened it and poured its contents over his head. The water washed over his hair and his beard and wet his shirt. His laughter frightened the boys. He turned to them with a big grin. His white teeth were beautiful, perfect. He started the motor. Amed didn’t dare say that he was thirsty too. He searched with his eyes to see if another bottle was lying around. There was no other. Soulayed drove faster than he had on the way there. He said in a loud voice, speaking over the noise of the jeep and the wind: “Do you see now what you’ve accomplished? You found a road to lead you to that strange town. You’re the only ones who’ve done it. Others who’ve tried to do so were blown to smithereens by the mines. In a few days, one of you will go back there. You, Aziz, or you, Amed. Your father will decide. And the one who is chosen will wear a belt of explosives. He will go down to that strange town and make it disappear forever.”
    Before leaving them, Soulayed said again: “God has chosen you. God has blessed you.”
    Amed took refuge in the house. For a long time, Aziz stood watching the cloud of dust stirred up by the jeep’s departure.
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    While the boys waited for Soulayed to return, time became strangely long. Minutes stretched out as if made of dough. One of the brothers would be going off to war to blow up military installations in the strange town, as Soulayed had called it. They talked about it all the time. Who would their father choose? Why one rather than the other? Aziz swore that he wouldn’t let his brother go off without him. Amed said the same thing. Despite their youth, they were aware of the honor Soulayed was conferring on them. Suddenly they had become real fighters.
    To kill time, they played at blowing themselves up in the orange grove. Aziz had stolen an old belt from his father that they weighted with three tin cans full of sand. They took turns wearing it, slipping into the skin of a futuremartyr. The orange trees also played war with them. The trees became enemies, endless rows of warriors poised to launch their explosive fruits at the slightest suspicious noise. The boys worked their way between them, crawling and scraping their knees. When they activated the detonator—an old shoelace—trees were uprooted by the force of the explosion, shooting into the sky in a thousand fragments, falling back down onto their shredded bodies.
    Amed and Aziz tried to imagine the impact of that fatal moment.
    â€œDo you think it will hurt?”
    â€œNo, Amed.”
    â€œAre you sure? And Halim?”
    â€œWhat about Halim?”
    â€œThere must be little pieces of Halim all over now.”
    â€œI guess so.”
    â€œDo you think that’s a problem?”
    â€œWhy a problem?”
    â€œFor going to heaven.”
    â€œThink, Amed. It doesn’t matter what happens on earth. The real Halim, the whole Halim, is already in heaven.”
    â€œThat’s what I think too, Aziz.”
    â€œThen what are you worried about?”
    â€œNothing. Yesterday I had a dream. Our father had chosen me. Before leaving, I gave you my yellow truck.”
    â€œWhat yellow truck?”
    â€œThe one in my dream.”
    â€œYou never had a yellow truck.”
    â€œIn my dream I had one. I gave it to you. And I left with the belt.”
    â€œAnd