Akhun

By early March we had left Aleppo and were making our way south toward Qusayr, where we had heard Hezbollah fighters were crossing the border from Lebanon. Pha’ris had somehow convinced a commander in the FSA to take us—that my reporting would glorify their cause—even though I told him he shouldn’t have said that.

“You worry too much,” he told me, that day near Rastan. The shelling was thunderous in the distance, and the sky was black with smoke.

“I’m a realist,” I said.

“You’re afraid.”

We were packed into our four-by-four with six rebels. Another truck, winding its way through the burnt-out cars ahead of us, held six more. There had been a third in our convoy just a week earlier, but they’d tripped an IED by Maarat al-Numan, and we’d spent the greater part of a day collecting body parts for burial. Hell yes I was afraid.

The man in the driver’s seat said something and the others began to laugh.

“What?” I asked. Pha’ris smiled.

“I think the American translation would be ‘candy-ass’,” he said.

We rode on as night gathered. The shelling slowed and eventually stopped, the air grew colder. The men drifted in and out of sleep.

“Don’t worry, akhun,” Pha’ris said as the silence deepened. “If we’re captured, just let me do the talking. I’ll work it out.”

I had a knot in my stomach, then, Mr. Arav. Something about that word, akhun, and the way your son said it…

I must have fallen asleep because it was hours later when Pha’ris shook me and I realized we had stopped. The doors were open and the men were in the road with their guns drawn.

I don’t know how to tell you the rest. The ambush was too fast; there was no talk. They saw my white skin, they saw a ransom. They shot the rest. I thought it was up to me to tell you.

He said, “akhun,” Mr. Arav. He called me brother.

Another week, another story for the Trifecta Writing Challenge. This week, the word was Ass. I thought I’d try something a little different with the form, so I’m interested to know whether or not you think it worked. Let me know in the comments below!