Ground Zero(57)

Her mother wrapped Reshmina up in a hug so tight it hurt.

“That was a very brave and very foolish thing you did,” Mor told her.

Taz stood behind them both, smiling.

“What happened?” Reshmina asked him.

“A big boom,” Taz told her. “That wall you hid behind took the worst of it. The mine blew a hole in the outer wall just big enough for us all to climb through. Too tight for me to make it with my battle belt on though.” The belt he had worn with all the pouches on it was gone, and he tucked his thumbs into his beltless pants. “Had to leave it behind.”

One more artifact for the shrine to failed conquerors, Reshmina thought.

She sat up suddenly. “What about the others? Zahir, Marzia, Anaa—”

“They’re all right,” Reshmina’s mother told her, and Reshmina saw now that there were other American and Afghan soldiers among them, treating the survivors for cuts and bruises. Taz was bandaged up too. Reshmina put a hand to her aching head. How long had she been out?

“Your eyes—” Reshmina said to Taz. He was cleaned up and looking directly at her, and for the first time she saw that his eyes were a brilliant blue.

“Oh, yeah,” he said with a smile. “I’m beginning to see the light.”

Anaa, Marzia, and Zahir crowded around her. Reshmina’s grandmother, sister, and brother squeezed her hands and touched their heads to hers.

“Baba!” Zahir cried, waving at someone behind Reshmina.

Her heart leaped, and she turned. Coming around the bend in the road was her father, along with other men from the village. Baba was alive! Marzia and Zahir ran to hug him, and after Reshmina was able to get to her feet, she and her mother followed.

“Baba! I was so worried about you!” Reshmina cried, giving him a hug.

“And I you, Mina-jan. We couldn’t find you, but then we heard the explosion.” Baba looked around. “Where is Pasoon?”

Reshmina felt the blood drain away from her face. Pasoon. Had he been with the Taliban during the gunfight? Was his body lying on a hillside somewhere, filled with American bullets?

“Pasoon went to the Taliban,” she told her father.

Baba sagged against his crutch. “Yes. I worried he might.”

“I tried to stop him, Baba. I followed him. Tried to talk him out of it.” Reshmina fought back her tears. “Nothing I said would change his mind.”

Baba put a hand on her head. “I know, Mina-jan. I know.”

“I wanted to do the right thing,” Reshmina said, “but all I did was lead everyone to their deaths! Everyone in the village is dead because of me!”

“No, no, Mina-jan,” Baba said. “Come and see.”

He took her by the hand and led her around the bend, where dozens of villagers had come out of the front entrance to the cave. The cave-in had only separated Reshmina and the others from the rest of the villagers, not killed everyone on the other side!

“A few died, yes,” Baba told her. “To God we belong, and to God we return. But many more survived, and thanks to you.”

Reshmina buried her face in her father’s tunic to hide her tears.

“We are safe now,” Baba said. “The Americans are clearing the village of the last of the Taliban.”

Reshmina turned around. Taz had been standing off to the side, and now three more American soldiers came over to join him. One of them playfully swatted the little brown stuffed animal strapped to Taz’s vest. The white strip on the soldier’s vest said his name was CARTER. He wore his body armor over a jacket with the sleeves cut off, and Reshmina saw the word INFIDEL tattooed on one of his muscular arms. Infidel was what the mujahideen called anyone who didn’t follow Islam.

Carter shook his head. “What a mess, huh, Taz?”

“I know,” said Taz. “And today of all days.”

“Oh,” Carter said. “Right. Jeez.”

Reshmina remembered Taz saying that exact same thing when she’d first brought him home. “What do you mean?” she asked him. “ ‘Today of all days’?”

“Today’s 9/11,” Taz said, like that meant something.

“I don’t understand,” Reshmina told him.

“Nine-eleven,” Taz said. “Nine for the month, eleven for the day. September 11th. Today’s the anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center.”

Reshmina shook her head. “I don’t know what that is.”

“Are you serious?” Taz asked. “The Twin Towers? The airplanes?”

Reshmina still had no idea what he was talking about.

Taz frowned, and he and Carter shared a confused look.

“How could you not know about 9/11?” Carter asked Reshmina. He was almost angry about it.

“9/11 is … it’s the whole reason I’m here,” Taz told Reshmina. “The whole reason any of us are here.” He ripped open another Velcro pouch on his vest and pulled out two pieces of paper. One was a thin, glossy page from a magazine. It showed a photograph of two gray, rectangular buildings, each twice as tall as the other buildings around them. Black smoke poured from both, blowing sideways in the wind.

Behind the buildings was bright blue cloudless sky, like today.

Taz showed her the picture like it should mean something to her, but it didn’t. She’d never seen these buildings in her entire life.