Time Out by Leah Spiegel, Megan Summers Read Free Book Online Page A

hundred and fifteen pounds, it took two guys and me to hold him down and keep him from escaping the clinic or at least that’s what we had originally thought, but I kept hearing him repeat the words, ‘Min fadlik ’ which means ‘please’ in Arabic, ‘ Tawa-qaf ’ which means ‘stop,’ ‘ Ahk ’ which means ‘brother’ and then ‘ Quatl ’ which means ‘kill.’”
    “So I asked, ‘Is your brother also hurt?’ But I could tell that he didn’t speak or understand English any more than I did Arabic, but I knew we would have found his brother if he was still alive so there wasn’t anything I could do.
    “I was in the middle of checking his stats when he suddenly grabbed my arm, Aussie, another doctor went to intercede, but I held up my other hand to let him know that I was okay. 
    “And I told the kid, ‘It’s okay, your brother’s going to be fine.’ I tried to find any way I could to console him because I knew the wounds he had sustained were beyond our help.
    “But that’s when he did something strange. He turned my hand over where I had the drawing of the sun and the moon on my palm and he began to draw the letter X overtop of both of them.
    “Then he started mumbling ,‘Min fadlik … tawa-qaf … ahk … ma’as-salama ,’ in between gasps as he drew the X over the sun and the moon again. ‘ Min fadlik … tawa-qaf … ahk … ma’as-salama .’”
    “Finally I figured it out, ‘Please…stop…brother…kill. Please…stop…brother…kill.’ I remembered muttering the words to myself when I finally understood that the kid was trying to protect us. They call those clear moments of clarity right before something tragic is about to happen ‘slow motion perception’ but I call it really damn good instincts.
    “Fortunately for my crew and me, we only had to evacuate ourselves because this sixteen year old boy had been the only survivor they had brought in. Still, I knew someone was going to get hurt even if it wasn’t us and as a doctor that just wasn’t something I could live with.
    “Once I was out on the street, I remember scanning the crowd outside the clinic looking for anyone who didn’t seem to belong, even among the rest of the other villagers. I knew I was looking for someone who didn’t really want to die; someone who just wanted to avenge his brother’s death - or possibly the rest of his family’s death too.
    “I knew he’d probably be emotional, given the time frame, and I searched among the faces at the nearby market. That’s when I saw him. He was a guy in his early twenties standing at the open of an ally way not far from our clinic. There was this blank expression on his face like he couldn’t see the crowd of people around him. His cheeks were strained with tears and his fists were clenched so tight.” She made fist to show us. “You could almost see it on his face that he was building himself up to go through whatever he had planned.
    “I hadn’t exactly thought out what I was going to do. I guess you could say it was a rookie mistake—”
    “Ha! You can say that alright,” Warren interjected with a shake of his head.
    “That it was a rookie mistake—because when I stepped forward his eyes snapped up to mine and I found myself staring down the barrel an AK-47.”
    “I went to say, ‘brother’ in Arabic when he sputtered, ‘Don’t you dare mention my brother to me!”
    “For a second, I couldn’t say anything because everything I was taught in the field had suddenly come back to me now that I knew he could speak English.
    “Establish a connection. Make them see you as a person. Help them remember that they are a person. Talk them down. Give them a reason out. Fight for your life.
    “I’m Guinevere Warren,” I told him. “I work at the medical clinic over there. We treated your brother—”  
    “What did I say?” He rammed the gun closer to my face. “Don’t mention my brother to me.”
    “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that, sir,