Far from Home

This used to be my room.
My bed was right here, with my blanket and my pillow and my Rabbit.

I was sleeping here in my bed when I woke up in the middle of the night and I heard grown-ups talking. “We need to go to a new country” they said. “It’s not safe here anymore.”

We have to leave home” Daddy said.
For how long?” I asked
“A long time,” Mama said “Maybe forever.”

“Are Grandma and Grandpa and at my friends coming?” I asked.
“Not now.” Daddy said. “Maybe later.”
Mama and Daddy tried to tell me why, but nothing they said made any sense.

After the buses and the walking. There was waiting. And then more waiting. And then even more waiting.

*Why did we have to hurry if there’s just going to walk?” I said.
“Please don’t whine,” mama said.

So l zipped my mouth up tight and shoved all the whining down into in tummy, even though it made my tummy hurt.
But the whining didn’t want to stay down It got bigger and bigger, until it was so big I couldn’t keep it down anymore.

“NO MORE WAITING!!!”
Then everyone looked at me.
There was nowhere to hide, so I just hid my face in Rabbit’s tummy.

Somebody touched me on the shoulder. I didn’t want to take my face out of Rabbit’s tummy, but the somebody kept touching my shoulder, so finally I did.

The somebody was an old lady. Her face had millions of wrinkles. But she was smiling so big that even her wrinkles looked happy.