alive is asked for what crime she was slain; when the records of menâs deeds are laid open, and heaven is stripped bareââ
The whispers crackled and sighed and warmed up until the whole upper deck was quietly murmuring.
ââwhen Hell burns fiercely and Paradise is brought near: then each soul shall know what it has done.â
His fatherâs voice faded and vanished into the blue. Nura stepped lightly over the supine boys towards him.
âDonât mind Dad. He sees Judgement Day in everything. We are going to the West and he thinks itâs the end of the world!â
Dhurgham laughed. Dad did, he really did. It was so funny!
Nura dropped down next to him.
âWhen the embargo ends, letâs travel the worldââ
âAnd the Two Seasââ
âWeâll go to Americaââ
âAnd see bearsââ
âAnd Russia, France and Australia. Letâs go to uni in a different country every year, and wear different clothes in each place. Chic clothes.â
âWeâll go on roller-coasters.â
âWeâll have two freezers that canât break down.â
âWeâll have a garden that never withers because it will have a spring, and itâll be full of birds of every colour!â
âWatered by running streams; eternal are its fruits and eternal are its shadesââ
The boys around him listened closely, murmuring sibilantly with the slap of the water against wood. Now their murmur swelled:
ââthere shall be two other gardens of darkest green. Which of your Lordâs blessings would you deny?
âA gushing fountain shall flow in each. Which of your Lordâs blessings would you deny?
âEach planted with fruit trees, the palm and the pomegranate. Which of your Lordâs blessings would you deny?â
A boy staggered onto the deck and said in Arabic, then in Dari, âWe are sinking.â A few boys clambered to their feet. Dhurgham felt a faint breath of annoyance at them for moving, then nothing again. He sought out the verse again and rode it onward to its conclusion.
He felt utterly still.
The great grey Australian ship neared. Dhurgham felt for a moment that his peace was broken. Then he felt relief and, slowly, slowly, in drips and drops, elation. The boys around him broke cracked lips open and waved, it seemed to him, far too fast. The shipâs inflatable dingy bumped against the Hibiscus , jolting its rhythm, breaking its endless hovering, its eternal motion.
He stood, slowly, his back bent, supporting himself with one hand against the gunwale. âItnashr yawm!â someone croaked, weeping. Yes, if he thought about it, he knew they had been at sea twelve days. But he had lived a whole life in his head and there really was not much need for more.
The beautiful navy officers, their faces shocked, tried to hug him and to carry him, but once he had stood up his body hurt too much to be touched.
The bus slowed into a small village just after dawn and turned off the highway. A fortified camp was visible in the distance almost straight away, but before it there was a very high metallic barrier across the road. This was soon clear as a set of gleaming double gates standing in the middle of nowhere, topped with coils of prison-like wire. No fence stretched to either side. These fortified open wings, standing there alone, marked an invisible border, a gateway to nothingness. A-I-D the sign said. And underneath: Australian Immigration Department . Then, in big block letters: WELCOME TO MAWIRRIGUN ALIENS PROCESSING CENTRE . Along the bottom of the sign was a cryptic imperative in a nicer, slanting font: Advance Australia Fair . Dhurgham saw that rolls of jagged wire lay at periodic intervals on the ground to either side, marking out a new perimeter fence line. Steel pylons lay in heaps, gleaming against the red earth, waiting to be erected. It was a half-built place and had something
The whispers crackled and sighed and warmed up until the whole upper deck was quietly murmuring.
ââwhen Hell burns fiercely and Paradise is brought near: then each soul shall know what it has done.â
His fatherâs voice faded and vanished into the blue. Nura stepped lightly over the supine boys towards him.
âDonât mind Dad. He sees Judgement Day in everything. We are going to the West and he thinks itâs the end of the world!â
Dhurgham laughed. Dad did, he really did. It was so funny!
Nura dropped down next to him.
âWhen the embargo ends, letâs travel the worldââ
âAnd the Two Seasââ
âWeâll go to Americaââ
âAnd see bearsââ
âAnd Russia, France and Australia. Letâs go to uni in a different country every year, and wear different clothes in each place. Chic clothes.â
âWeâll go on roller-coasters.â
âWeâll have two freezers that canât break down.â
âWeâll have a garden that never withers because it will have a spring, and itâll be full of birds of every colour!â
âWatered by running streams; eternal are its fruits and eternal are its shadesââ
The boys around him listened closely, murmuring sibilantly with the slap of the water against wood. Now their murmur swelled:
ââthere shall be two other gardens of darkest green. Which of your Lordâs blessings would you deny?
âA gushing fountain shall flow in each. Which of your Lordâs blessings would you deny?
âEach planted with fruit trees, the palm and the pomegranate. Which of your Lordâs blessings would you deny?â
A boy staggered onto the deck and said in Arabic, then in Dari, âWe are sinking.â A few boys clambered to their feet. Dhurgham felt a faint breath of annoyance at them for moving, then nothing again. He sought out the verse again and rode it onward to its conclusion.
He felt utterly still.
The great grey Australian ship neared. Dhurgham felt for a moment that his peace was broken. Then he felt relief and, slowly, slowly, in drips and drops, elation. The boys around him broke cracked lips open and waved, it seemed to him, far too fast. The shipâs inflatable dingy bumped against the Hibiscus , jolting its rhythm, breaking its endless hovering, its eternal motion.
He stood, slowly, his back bent, supporting himself with one hand against the gunwale. âItnashr yawm!â someone croaked, weeping. Yes, if he thought about it, he knew they had been at sea twelve days. But he had lived a whole life in his head and there really was not much need for more.
The beautiful navy officers, their faces shocked, tried to hug him and to carry him, but once he had stood up his body hurt too much to be touched.
The bus slowed into a small village just after dawn and turned off the highway. A fortified camp was visible in the distance almost straight away, but before it there was a very high metallic barrier across the road. This was soon clear as a set of gleaming double gates standing in the middle of nowhere, topped with coils of prison-like wire. No fence stretched to either side. These fortified open wings, standing there alone, marked an invisible border, a gateway to nothingness. A-I-D the sign said. And underneath: Australian Immigration Department . Then, in big block letters: WELCOME TO MAWIRRIGUN ALIENS PROCESSING CENTRE . Along the bottom of the sign was a cryptic imperative in a nicer, slanting font: Advance Australia Fair . Dhurgham saw that rolls of jagged wire lay at periodic intervals on the ground to either side, marking out a new perimeter fence line. Steel pylons lay in heaps, gleaming against the red earth, waiting to be erected. It was a half-built place and had something
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