Free Home Is Beyond the Mountains by Celia Lottridge Page B

exactly the same, square with mud brick walls and one small
window that gave a glimpse of the bare yard and the wall with the tops of
the mountains beyond it, far away.
    Elias ran up to her. “There
is a roof and windows just like you said. It’s a house for us.”
    Samira looked at his grubby,
shining face and thought, “He can’t remember a house with rugs on the floor
and cushions and an oven to make it warm. He only remembers tents.”
    When they were back outside
she looked around the empty yard and asked Miss Watson, “Why is everything
so bare? People lived here, didn’t they?”
    â€œDuring the war these were
barracks where soldiers from India lived. They were part of the British army
and they went home when the war ended. The buildings have stood empty for
the past four years. Finally the army has decided to give them to us to use
for the orphanage.”
    She sighed. “We would have
liked to have the orphanage inside the city walls where there’s a school and
a hospital, but Hamadan is crowded with thousands of refugees. They ran away
from the war, too, and they’re still stuck here. There is simply no place in
the city to put all of you. We’re lucky to have these buildings, and it only
takes half an hour to walk into the city.”
    â€œThe camp was better than
this ugly place,” Anna said stubbornly.
    Miss Watson frowned a
little. “When I come back to visit I’m sure everything will look very
different.”
    â€œYou aren’t going to stay?”
    â€œOh, no,” said Miss Watson
briskly. “I have to go back to Baghdad. I came to help you make the journey.
But I’ll leave you in good hands. The new director will arrive soon and get
things fixed up. In the meantime, Mr. Edwards will be here.”
    As the children sat on the
ground eating their noon meal, Miss Watson told them that five buildings
would be used as dormitories. The girls would have three buildings because
some of the smallest boys would stay with them.
    â€œTwo or three to a room,”
she said. “I’ll assign the rooms after you eat and then you can get
yourselves settled. I’ll come by later to see that everything is in
order.”
    Getting settled took only a
few minutes. Samira and Anna unrolled the sleeping mats, spread out the
quilts and arranged the clothes bundles against the wall, as usual.
    When Miss Watson came in she
looked at the three beds. “I suppose that soon Elias will go and live with
the boys. Do you know how old he is?”
    â€œHe was a tiny baby when he
came to the camp at Baqubah,” said Samira. “He was there for three years,
like us, and then he was at Kermanshah.”
    â€œSo he’s about four years
old,” said Anna.
    â€œOf course,” said Miss
Watson. “All of you have been in camps for four years. I knew that but I
never thought of a child spending his whole life in camps. And you girls
were quite young when you had to leave your villages. You must remember very
little of your lives before you came to Baqubah.”
    Samira and Anna didn’t say
anything. Why should they tell her what they remembered?
    Miss Watson glanced around
the room again. “You’ve made it very neat but that floor will need more
sweeping. I know the relief people tried to clean this place before you came
but it really is disgracefully dusty.” She shook her head and went off to
check the room next door.
    Samira made sure that Miss
Watson couldn’t hear her before she said, “Miss Watson doesn’t know anything
about dirt floors, does she?”
    â€œAlways dusty,” said Anna.
“We need rugs, not sweeping.”
    â€œI guess we remember
something about our lives before Baqubah,” said Samira. “Now let’s find
Elias. It’s bedtime.”
    The next morning Miss Watson
left and Mr. Edwards arrived.
    â€œI’m your director