Green Zone

The first thing they built was the walls. It took them no time at all; they were fast when they wanted to be. Like everyone else in Baghdad they put broken glass on the tops of their walls. It sparkled a bit in the sunlight and we liked to watch the light divide when we shifted our gazes. But unlike Iraqis, they added barbed wire; for us glass is cheaper and easily cracked.

I watched the construction from far away. Even kids like me couldn't get close. If we tried we might be shot at. It happened to my friend Ali who I challenged to try and ask one of the guards for candies; he always did what I said, he was younger than me. The guards wouldn't even let him close to the gate. Watching from around a building, I saw him approach the guards and them lifting their guns to fire into the air. He ran away. Children can't be martyrs. Didn't these guards know that?

From the roof of my uncle's house, you could see all the tall cranes protected by the walls and their broken glass and sharp wire. It was very dusty. They were moving lots of earth, burrowing deeply. My older brother said that that meant they were building tunnels to connect the new building to Israel. When it was finished, Jews could then come in through the tunnel to reinforce the Americans. Only they would dress like American soldiers so we couldn't tell. I'd never ask them for candy if I knew they were Jews.

My father thought that story was crazy. For him the construction was like the dictator was still in power. His palaces would spring up almost overnight. I wondered what the building would look like when the Americans were finished. Would it be like a palace? Or maybe would it be all underground. This was a foreign place, we all felt it. Tall white people with black sunglasses would walk around inside one day, protected. Under the dictator these men and women had been free to move around Baghdad. Now they needed thick walls like we need thick skins.

There wasn't much to do, that's why I watched the construction. Some men had come to my school a few months ago and beaten up the principal for teaching girls with boys. I liked having girls in my class. They didn't. The principal didn't come back. I heard he went to Syria. Now the school is closed because the other teachers, especially the ladies, are worried that they might come back and do something worse. So I have no more classes and just watch the cranes move around the sky slowly like giant birds digging in the dust for worms.

I had asked my uncle, Ali's father and therefore not my real uncle but uncle nonetheless what they were building. He would know, he had been an engineer who had built bridges before.

"Ah, the Americans are building something called an embassy. Do you know what that is?" I shook my head. "Embassies are where governments meet and talk. Countries become friends there, trade things."

"If they want to talk to us and get to know us why are they putting broken glass on the walls and shooting at kids when they go too close." We had been there that day. I neglected to mention that I had pushed Ali to approach the guards. Despite his kind explanation, my uncle would have been furious and might have beaten us.

Just then Ali's brother's wife rushed in with some of her family. I quickly got out of the way and stood against the wall with Ali. This was not a moment for children like us. She was crying and my uncle held her hand. I overheard her explain that her husband hadn't come home as usual this evening. He was looking for work and was never late. He was the oldest, responsible, reliable. Ali was the youngest and was crying at the news. His mother held him tightly. I knew that there was little hope. None of my family had been taken before. But Ali's was like family.

I quietly snuck out being superfluous. The sun was setting and there was a brilliant, bloody, red sunset. The long necked birds still swung their heads about and stirred up dust. They would work all night and day. I needed sleep, they didn't.

The wall looked forbidding, I guess it was designed that way. I wished that Ali's brother had had so strong a wall to save him. I wished my family had one. I wished the wall had been there to protect my school. I broke into a run, suddenly feeling very much alone and scared. My house felt miles away and the route uncertain.