Dog Blood

“What?”

“Your daughter…”

“You found her?!”

I can’t hide my sudden interest and emotion. Please tell me something…

“No,” he says, shaking his head. “You’ve got to understand, Da

“Tell me!”

He sighs and takes a deep breath, drawing it out as long as he can.

“There’s good and bad news.”

“Give me both.”

“The bad news is there are no records of her anywhere.”

“So how can there be any good news?”

“Can’t you see, that is the good news. It means she might not be dead.”

“She might not be dead… that’s all you can tell me?”

“Be thankful for small mercies, Da

He slams the door shut and locks it.

vi

SIX A.M. SANDWICHED BETWEEN two heavily armed military jeeps and chaperoned by columns of soldiers and militia fighters, several hundred displaced refugees were led out along Arley Road. With no regard for personal preferences, friendships, partners, or relatives, specified numbers of individuals were filtered off toward each building. No one resisted or complained. They were too tired and too scared to show any defiance or opposition to what they were being told to do. Their choices were stark: put up with it or fuck off and take your chances on your own. And anyone who dared show any resistance to the military would be on the street with a bullet in the head. Public order had to be maintained.

“But there’s no more room in here,” Mark protested, blocking the door of room 33. “I told them last night-”

Uninterested, the soldier shoved him out of the way and forced his way in.

“What’s the problem?” Kate asked, getting up from the end of the bed and standing in his way, instinctively wrapping her arms around her pregnant belly, cradling and protecting her unborn child.

“There’s no problem,” he answered quickly, his tired, gruff voice muffled by his face mask. “New roommate for you, that’s all.”

“But that’s crazy! We don’t have enough space as it is. How are we supposed to-”

The soldier put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back down onto the bed, then turned and walked back toward the door again, pausing only to sidestep Mark. Mark knew there was no point trying to argue; at best he’d just be ignored, at worst he could be accused of being a Hater and “removed.” Kate chased after the officer, far less concerned about the potential repercussions of her outburst. Behind her, her parents sat up to try to see what was happening. Her father, weakened by age, fear, and malnutrition, simply lay back again when he couldn’t see anything, too tired to care. Her mother, once an intelligent, demure, and gentle woman, balanced on the end of the bed half naked, screaming like a banshee.

“There’s enough of them in here already. We don’t want more. You take them and find somewhere else for them to go. You can’t…”

Kate ran back to silence her, leaving Mark at the door to placate the soldier.

“Gurmit Singh,” the trooper a

“Don’t understand,” he said, desperate to shut the man up. “Speak English.”

“No English,” he snapped back, then continued his rant in Punjabi.

“He can’t stay here,” Kate’s mother screamed from the bed. “We can’t have his type here…”

Singh pointed at her, or was it at the bed? He rubbed the small of his back, then thumped his hand on the mattress and raised his voice to an ever louder, even more uncomfortable volume. Mark tried reasoning with him, desperate for him to be quiet. Singh ignored him, then picked up his bag and angrily sat down in the armchair in the corner of the room, still yelling furiously and pointing at the bed.

Kate stood by the hotel room door, her hands over her ears, desperately trying to block out the endless, directionless noises coming from both her mother and Gurmit Singh. Mark tried to hold her, but she pulled away from him, almost recoiling from his touch.

“I can’t stand this,” she sobbed. “Either they go or I go.”

“None of us can go anywhere. For Christ’s sake, Katie, that’s the problem, there’s nowhere else to go.”

“I don’t care. Kick them out. Throw them out on the street if you have to.”

“Who are you talking about now?”

“You know exactly who I mean. It’s too dangerous. We’ve got to think about ourselves and the baby and just screw the rest of them-”

“I can’t. You know I can’t-”

“Then I will. I mean it, Mark, if you don’t get rid of them, I’ll leave.”

“Katie, there’s nowhere for them to go. Please, sweetheart, just calm down and-”

“Don’t patronize me. Don’t tell me to calm down. How can I calm down when-”

“Shh,” he begged, putting his hand up to her mouth. “Please don’t shout, Katie, they’ll hear us. Don’t do anything that’ll give them any reason to come back in here. You know what’ll happen if they do.”

“Maybe I should,” she said, pushing him away. “Maybe that’s exactly what I should do. Maybe if they knew what was going on here they’d help. They’d come up here and get rid of-”

“Shut up!” he hissed angrily, covering her mouth again.

Gurmit Singh, who had just started to quiet down, suddenly exploded into life again, startled by the appearance of Lizzie, who emerged from the bathroom.

“Who the hell’s this?”

“Mr. Singh,” Mark answered. “He’s just been delivered.”

“But we don’t have any space-”

“We can’t have his kind here,” Kate’s mother yelled, reaching out and grabbing hold of Lizzie’s arm and pulling her closer. Lizzie shrugged her off.

“Too many here,” Singh yelled back, suddenly switching to English. “Back bad. Need bed.”

“Oh, you can do the language when it suits you, then,” Kate sneered at him.

“What’s going on, Mark?” Lizzie asked.

“Nothing we can do about it,” he began. “We don’t have any say-”

“We can’t go on like this,” Kate interrupted, desperate tears welling up in her eyes.

“We have to-” Mark started to say.

“Tell me what I’m supposed to do, then, Kate,” Lizzie snapped angrily. “I heard what you were saying. I know what you want-”

“Then do something about it!”

“Where else am I supposed to go? What do you want me to do?”

Another outburst from Singh interrupted the argument. He got up from his seat and pushed between them, still gesturing toward the bed. Furious, Lizzie shoved him back down again.

“Back off!” she spat before turning to face Kate again. “Put yourself in my shoes, Katie. What would you do?”

“She can’t stay here. It’s not safe. You’re putting all of us at risk.”

“Look around, we’re already at risk. Everyone who’s left alive is at risk, for Christ’s sake.”

“Calm down, both of you,” Mark whispered, trying unsuccessfully to separate the two women, worried that their noise would bring the soldiers back.