The Boy from Aleppo Who Painted the War by Sumia Sukkar Page A

UFO came and destroyed everything.’ I don’t realise I am crying until Yasmine tells me to calm down and stop crying. She continues to play with my hair because that’s the closest I will let her come to me.
    â€˜Did you see that yesterday Habibi?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Don’t go to the marches outside, you might get hurt.’
    â€˜Khalid took me out, I get lonely at home.’
    â€˜We are going to the beach to have fun, come on, get up!’ Yasmine pulls me up and pushes me to the bathroom. We both start laughing and I have energy because I made Yasmine ruby again.
    We all get ready in half an hour and I put my cap on for the sun, I love holidays. There is a taxi waiting outside for us and we all get in and start singing road songs all the way out of our city. The moment we leave, I can see the sun again and my heart feels like a blooming rose. I hope the sun lasts for the few days we are away. We stop at a petrol station on the way and I run around the car 17 times before I get dizzy and get back inside. I am already having so much fun. I wish things could always be this fun. The boys and Baba are smoking outside the window so I close it before the smell suffocates me and I am strangled to the ground. I put my hands around my neck and pretend their smoke is strangling me. I knock on the window with my elbow so they can turn around and see me. I love making people laugh.
    We get to the seaside in two hours and 23 minutes, southwest all the way. It’s warmer here.
    â€˜Yasmine put sunscreen on me.’
    â€˜Wait till we get to the house.’
    â€˜Whose house is it Yasmine?’
    â€˜Aunt Rana’s house.’
    â€˜Is she going to be home?’
    â€˜No Habibi, she lent us the house for a few days.’
    â€˜Yayyy!’ I run to the house where Khalid is standing outside smoking and the driver and the boys are taking the bags into the house.
    The house looks very different to ours. The sun is shining on it and for a moment I forget there is a war back home. I run upstairs to look around the house. I decide to stay in the room that overlooks the beach. Then I change my mind. I don’t want to imagine sea monsters at night when I look down. I settle for the small room next to it. I can still hear the waves from here. The smell is like a shell mama once bought me when she came here to visit her sister. This makes me think of mama but I run downstairs and shake my head before I get sad.
    I tug at Yasmine’s dress and ask her when we are going out to the beach. She says we have to eat first. I can’t wait to go swimming. Baba used to take me to our neighbour’s swimming pool every week when I was young. I love being in the water, I feel so free. It’s the only time I can ever be myself and laugh till I can’t any more. The water on my skin reminds me of a story I heard about a prince who thought that the sea was a magical place. He built a palace on top of the water and learnt to live underwater because the water against his skin understood him more than any other person ever had. The water is my best friend because it plays with me for as long as I want.
    Baba goes to the shops around the place and brings us two roasted chickens ready to eat. After I have eaten I change into my swimsuit and run to the beach. The sand under my feet makes me shiver. It is hot but the sinking feeling makes a shiver run down my spine. I jump into the water and start clapping and singing a nursery rhyme mama used to always sing when we used to go swimming. The boys come running to me and all jump into the water at the same time. It’s like a waterfall of their perfume and water. The three of them come up from underwater with their hair soaked and stand around me. I feel like I’m drowning in a rainbow of perfume. All of them have different perfumes on and I can smell them all so distinctly. But when I’m not paying too much attention the smell attacks me as