A Far Away Home

by Howard Faber

  “Mom, the doctor said he couldn’t help me. What should I do?”

  “You should do just what you’ve been doing. Keep on getting bigger, smarter, and wiser.” Ali smiled for the first time in a long time. He was glad to be home.

  Chapter Two

  Doctors Come to Sharidure

  Shireen came running in. “Mom, did you hear? There’s going to be a doctor in Sharidure. All of the girls are talking about it. We asked the teacher, and she said she heard it, too. Have you heard anything about it?”

  “Yes, I heard there will be a hospital and medicine, too. Someone said they saw a foreigner yesterday, well two of them, a man and a woman. They were talking to the sub-governor and looking at some land near the government office. They were speaking Farsi, so people could understand what they were saying.”

  Shireen and her mom both stopped and looked at each other, both without saying anything, thinking about Ali.

  That’s when Ali came thumping in, happy and singing. “Ali, did I see you up on top of the wall?” It was his mother asking and warning in the same sentence.

  “Well, you might have. I can run along the top without any trouble. I can keep up with everyone.” Ali was proud of his latest trick.

  The word was out. There was to be a hospital, and two doctors were going to come to Sharidure this summer. There had never been a doctor. You had to travel about four hours by truck or bus to Bamiyan. Shireen and her mother did not mention it to Ali so he wouldn’t get his hopes up. Ali didn’t say anything to them, either, but he also knew about the doctors and the hospital before they did. When he heard about it, his heart raced. He did have hopes that this doctor might be able to help his leg, but he didn’t want to get his hopes too high. His life was ok, not bad. He could do pretty much everything, and by now, nobody even mentioned his leg. It was just part of life, but deep inside, he hoped and hoped and hoped.

  ***

  Ali and Shireen were on the edge of town, sitting, talking, looking out from the high ledge that overlooked the river valley below. It was a good place for seeing a long way. It was necessary to climb the hill to get there, but it was a good thing to do on a Thursday afternoon, with no school tomorrow, the weather warm, and a cool breeze from the higher mountains to make it not too hot.

  That’s when they first heard the buzzing sound, coming from the east, down the valley. They couldn’t see anything at first, but they eventually could make out something in the sky. It wasn’t as high as planes they sometimes saw, and it didn’t sound like they thought a plane might sound, but, sure enough, it was a plane. It came gradually closer, then faster as it got closer. It seemed to be looking the area over, circling around Sharidure. It was far enough away that they couldn’t see if anyone was in it, but there must be a pilot. Ali stood up, waving at the plane as it flew their way. It came really close this time, flying over the valley, and since they were up high on the hill overlooking the valley, it was almost at their level. He waved harder, shouting at the plane to look at him. The plane flew out over the valley again, then came almost right at them. “He sees us, he sees us!” shouted Ali. The red and white little plane flew right over their heads, over the hill, and circled back again over the valley. As it flew over them again, the plane waved at them, dipping its wings side to side.

  “It did see us. It waved at us.” Shireen seemed surprised and not sure, but still sure that it had indeed seen them and waved back at Ali. “Ali, it waved, I’m sure it did. I wonder why a plane would be looking at Sharidure?”

  “It was flying really low. I saw the pilot through his window and he seemed to be looking for a place to land. I wonder if he needed to land. Where could he land? He could land on this hill because it’s pretty long. I wonder how big of a place he needs. His plane isn’t too big. Shireen, did you know I want to be a pilot? I always have, but now I really want to be a pilot. I want to fly like a bird and go to far away places. No one will know one of my legs is bent. It won’t make any difference when I am flying.”

  “Well, when you are a pilot, I want to go with you to those far away places. Our teacher told us about the pyramids of the kings of Egypt, and there were pictures in our book of those pyramids. She also told us about a tower in Paris in France and how you could go in a lift all the way to the top. There was a picture of that, too.”

  “First you have to see the Buddhas in Bamiyan and the tall buildings in Kabul. We can go there by bus. I don’t think you can go on a truck, but let’s go find out about the plane. Maybe someone will know. Maybe dad or mom will know. Come on.” Shireen and Ali ran down to town. Their world had just gotten bigger.

  ***

  Tent Hospital • By Unknown

  They came in a bus, but it wasn’t like a normal Afghan bus. It had a place for sleeping, not very many seats, and lots of boxes and packages. Ali found all that out from his friends and from looking himself. It also had people, outsiders (foreigners). They seemed busy, setting up several tents. Now, tents weren’t anything new in Sharidure. Every year the Afghan nomads set up their tents outside the town, where there was grass for their goats and sheep. These tents looked a little different.

  Ali wondered about the tents. Were they for these people to live in for a while and then move on? He heard the doctor would stay in Sharidure, not move on. Why were there tents? Tents were for people who moved all the time, like the nomads.

  Boys Getting Medicine • By Rex Blumhagen

  Soon he found out. The tents were for seeing sick people, whoever needed to see a doctor. There was a men’s tent, where the men saw a male doctor, and there was a women’s tent, where women saw a female doctor. That was a good way, an Afghan way. There was another tent where people got medicine. Shireen and Ali wondered if medicine could help Ali’s leg. They doubted it could.

  Later that summer the work would start on a hospital. Now that would be something great. Imagine, a hospital in their town! Ali wondered if it would be huge, like the hospital in Kabul. It didn’t look like it, from the work so far.

  One evening Ali ran into one of the doctors. He had been playing with his friends on the edge of town, and the doctor was running on the road into town. Ali saw him and ventured over to get a closer look. The doctor stopped and waved to him, so he waved back and went closer. They shook hands and exchanged polite greetings. Ali never talked to an outsider before. He was glad this visitor spoke his language. They asked each other what their names were. He found out the doctor’s name was Doctor Hagel. That was an unusual name, but Ali didn’t say that. He just smiled and said it to himself so he could remember it.

  That night when he told his family about meeting Dr. Hagel, his father said he too met the doctor, and they talked about working on an airfield for a plane. Shireen and Ali both interrupted him to tell about the plane they saw up by the hill, and how they thought the pilot was looking for a place for an airfield. Father thought they were right.

  What the doctor wanted was for the people of Sharidure to build an airstrip for the plane, so it could bring medicine to town, or take really sick people to Kabul. He said the plane could fly to Kabul in one hour, though it took fifteen hours by road. Dad said the site the pilot picked out was on the hill on the edge of town, just where Shireen and Ali saw the plane. The pilot was coming to Sharidure tomorrow to lay
out the airfield. He would need help to put marks at the edges and to tell someone how to start making it smooth. He also needed to get the word out to the people in the area to do the work on the airfield. Dad said he was telling all the shopkeepers in town. The police chief was sending soldiers to all the people in the nearby area to come help on the airfield. Everyone was to bring a shovel or pick to loosen and level the dirt. Ali was trying to think of a way he could help. So was Shireen.

  Chapter Three

  An Airfield and a Hospital

  The next day, just as promised, the pilot came in a pickup truck. He had a big iron drag in the back to make the ground smooth. Ali was one of the first to meet the pilot, and quickly told him that he and Shireen had seen the airplane last week. He asked if the pilot waved the plane’s wings. The pilot said that he saw them on the hill and that, yes, he waved his wings. Ali laughed and danced around because he was right, the plane waved at them. The pilot asked what his name was, and Ali asked what the pilot’s name was. It was Dan, an easy name to say. Dan asked if Ali could help him.

  “Yes, of course, I would be glad to help. What can I do?”

  “First, could you ride with me to show me where that hill is?” Ali climbed into the pickup, pointed the way, and they drove away. All of the other boys were envious and wished they were riding in the pickup, so of course, ran along behind. When they got up on the hill, Dan stopped the pickup and got out. Ali climbed down and followed along to the edge of the cliff. It was a long way down to the valley below. Dan started putting out marks of chalk as he walked back up the hill. He told Ali that the chalk would wash away if it rained, so he asked if someone could put stones along the edges to mark out the airfield. Ali couldn’t believe that he would get to help on the airfield. By then, the other boys of Sharidure made it up the hill. Ali told them about marking the edges with stones, and he would show them where the edges were. They were impressed and started calling him “boshee,” or boss. He just laughed and suggested they could get the stones from where the airfield would be, because the stones would have to be removed anyway.

  The pilot was leaving tomorrow for Kabul. He marked out the airfield and told Ali more about how to work on it, and that he would come back when it was almost finished to inspect it to see if it was smooth enough to land and take off. He explained the “drag” could be used to level off and smooth the dirt. He said it could be pulled by horses. Ali didn’t say anything, but he was thinking there were almost no horses here in Sharidure, and they only were used for riding. The pulling animals here were cows, used for plowing or threshing the wheat.

  ***

  The next day some men came to work on the airfield, maybe ten or twelve, bringing shovels and picks, and worked a while on the upper end. Ali marked out the outside edges with stones. The process was to fill in holes with stones and dirt. It was going to be a long job. They hadn’t realized how big the field needed to be. It was about as long as their whole town. They talked about how big it was, and they couldn’t believe it needed to be that long. Most had never been in or near a plane, only seeing them flying high overhead, so high no one could really tell how big they were. They also didn’t really believe doctors were going to stay in Sharidure, but they hoped it was true.

  The next day only five men came, so Ali was worried the field would never be built. He tried to tell the men that the doctors would really stay and that the pilot and his plane would come if the field was finished. The next day only three men came to work on the airfield.

  That night Ali went to talk to the doctors about the airfield, waiting until they finished their work and an evening meal. He knew they often took walks in the evening, and pretty soon they came out to walk. He went quietly up to them and greeted them, “Peace be with you.”

  “And peace be with you,” they answered. “How are you? Are you well? How is your family?”

  “We are fine, thank you,” answered Ali. He didn’t want to bother them, but he was worried about the airfield, so he told them about how the pilot, Mr. Dan, had shown him how to work on the airfield and how there were fewer men coming to work on it each day, and it might never be finished.

  “So, Ali, what should we do to get more people to work?” asked the lady doctor.

  “Could the pilot fly over the field to show the people that he really is going to fly here? Then people would know he really is coming.”

  “That’s a good idea, Ali.” Both doctors talked about it in their language, so Ali couldn’t understand what they were saying. “Ali, we have a radio to talk to the pilot, and will call him tonight to see if he can fly here. Come on, walk back to our house, and we’ll call him.”

  ***

  As they walked they asked him about his family. Ali told them his dad was a carpenter, how good a cook his mom was, and how his sister was really good at school. He noticed they were looking sideways at his leg. He told them his leg was ok, and that he didn’t mind if they asked about it or looked at it. So, they stopped and asked him if he hurt it and how it got that way. He told them he was born that way. He also told them how he and his dad went to Kabul and saw the doctor, and how the doctor couldn’t help him. They said they would like to look more closely at his leg, so he pulled up his pant leg, and they examined it. They talked some to each other, again in their language, so Ali couldn’t tell what they were saying.

  “Can you straighten it more?”

  “No, it always stays just like this.”

  “Ali, we would like you to come to see us in our bus hospital when you can. We’ll take a closer look at it then.”

  Ali smiled a shy, hopeful smile. He hoped, maybe ....

  They went in their bus - house, inviting him to climb the steps inside. It was a strange, wonderful place, full of things he knew and things he didn’t. They went to the radio and talked into it. Soon, he heard a voice that sounded a lot like the pilot. The talking went on for a while. “Ali, he’s coming in the morning, flying. He thinks it’s a good idea, too.”

  ***

  When Ali went back home, he couldn’t wait to tell his family. They were surprised and not sure the plane would really come. Like everyone else in Sharidure, they weren’t ready to believe that their town really would have doctors and medicine and even an airfield. Shireen did believe and assured Ali that her friends would be out there to watch for the plane and, maybe, their families.

  The doctors said the plane would come in the morning. When Ali and Shireen got to school, they told their teachers the pilot and plane were coming that morning, and their parents had given them permission to go to the hill (airfield) to wait. Their classmates overheard and begged to go, too, so their teachers asked the principals and they agreed the children could go, because, after all, an airplane had never come to Sharidure before. All of the students in both schools (Ali went to a boys’ school and Shireen went to a girls’ school) were allowed to go. It was a true field (airfield) trip. History was being made.

  The ten men who were working on the field and all of the children and teachers and two principals waited for the airplane. They talked about how big the plane would be, how high it would be, how fast it would be going, and how a plane could fly. Nobody really knew the answers, though one of the principals tried to explain how a plane could fly. Someone shouted, “I can hear it!” Everyone was quiet, hoping
to hear something that might be a plane.

  Soon everyone could hear a buzzing noise, gradually getting louder. It was coming! It was coming from the east, so it was necessary to squint into the sun to see it. Then, a shape came out of the sun, lower than the sun. It was coming! First it flew high over them, then circled back, lower and lower. Because they were up on a hill, it wasn’t much higher than they were. It was red and white, with two wheels on the front. (Actually it also had a small wheel on the tail, but they couldn’t see that yet.) The wings were as big as the middle. Someone shouted that it was going to land, but Ali knew it couldn’t land yet, because the runway was too rough. It was going to fly low over the airfield. It came from the valley, over the end, low enough to see the pilot waving at them. He dropped something out of his window as he zoomed past them and up over the high end of the runway. One of the men working on the field picked up whatever he dropped. All of the students, teachers, and principals were waiting at the edge of the runway. Ali told the teachers they shouldn’t go onto the runway because the pilot wanted it to be smooth and not a pathway for people.

  Just then the plane approached again from the valley end, even lower than before. People shouted he was going to land. He didn’t but waved again. He seemed to be sort of trying out the airfield, getting used to it. When he flew on past the field, the man brought the rock and papers (that’s what the pilot dropped) to the principals. One of the papers was a letter to the doctors. It was from America. On it were the words “Air Mail.” Being dropped from a plane was truly “air mail.” The other paper was a letter to, you guessed it, Ali. It was from the pilot, in English. Ali’s principal read it to Ali, because he could read English. It said the airfield had a good start, and asked Ali and other volunteers to keep working on it. As soon as it was ready, he would fly in and land.