The Siege Read Online Free PDF Page B

we left this place is still here. You can watch movies or read your books or play your video games. You can still play basketball.
         “I know how cool it is for you to run and play outside, because you weren’t able to do it for so long. But you’ll get to do those things again, I promise. Just as soon as it’s safe again.”
         “Safe from what, Mommy?”
         They’d been careful to shelter little Markie from the ugliness of the situation. He knew the basics, of course – that bad men had chased them out of their new compound. But he didn’t understand the whys and hows.
         Maybe it was time he did.
         “Well, honey, we’ve always taught you that you have to be careful in life, because not all people are friendly and good, right?”
         “Right.”
         “Well, some of the people who aren’t friendly and good saw that we had a nice place to stay at the compound. They saw that we had chickens to chase, and cows to look at, and that we grew lots of yummy things to eat.
         “And these bad people, well, they got jealous. So they didn’t ask us if we would share with them. Instead they just decided to take everything away from us.”
         “That wasn’t very nice, was it?”
         “No, sir, it wasn’t. Especially when they used guns and shot at us, and shot Sami in the shoulder.”
         “I love Sami. She’s nice and she always lets me win at checkers.”
         “Yes, honey. We all like Sami. She is a wonderful woman. That’s why we’re so mad at the people who shot her.”
         He seemed to sense that she was carefully selecting her words, and gave her time.
         “These bad people, Markie, they won’t just leave on their own.”
         “Not even if we tell them we don’t like them, and they have to go away?”
         “No. Not even then. We tried asking them nicely to leave, but they won’t.”
         “So how do we get them to leave?”
         A tear formed in her eye, but she tried to hide it.
         “We have to make them leave, honey. We have to use guns and other things, just like they did, to make them go away.”
         “Are we going to shoot them, like they did to Sami? That wasn’t very nice, when they shot Sami.”
         “Well, we might have to, honey. Sometimes, with some bad people… well, you have to be mean to them back.”
         “Will they shoot Sami again?”
         “Oh, honey, I hope not. But… well, it’s possible that some more people we love will get hurt too.”
         Markie pondered the thought.
         “I hope not, Mommy. I love Sami and everybody else here. But especially you and Daddy. You and Daddy won’t get hurt, will you?”
         “I hope not, little sailor. We’ll try our best not to.”
         “Mommy, can I ask you a question?”
         “Sure thing.”
         She braced herself for what she was sure was going to be a question about death, or dying, or angry men. But he surprised her.
         “How come you call me little sailor? I mean, I read books, and sailors have boats. I don’t have a boat. I’ve never even been on a boat, or seen the ocean or even a lake. So how come you call me little sailor?”
         She smiled, glad for the break in the tension.
         “Well, a long time ago, right after your Daddy and I first met, I was very much in love with him, but he didn’t know because I kept it a secret.
         “But he was trying so hard to make me fall in love with him. So this one time, not long after we met, he asked me if I wanted to go sailing. He was trying to pretend that he was a great sailor, but he really wasn’t. He was just trying to impress me.
         “When we were in the middle of a big lake, he stood up in the middle of the sail boat, just as the wind changed direction. The sail swung around and knocked your Daddy right off the boat and into the water.”
         Markie