A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 100-121)

      After Saidu's death, the six boys traveled through the night in order to make it to the village. This village,  they had been told, was home to the families of the six boys and they were all really excited to get there. Upon arrival in the outskirts of town, the boys ran into an old friend of Ishmael's named Gasemu. Gasemu was harvesting bananas at the time and asked the boys for help. Ishmael and Gasemu had and instant reconnection moment with a nod and a pat on the back. Gasemu reassured Ishmael's desires by telling him that Ishmael's family was, in fact, residing in the village they were taking the bananas back too. They had a long walk still yet ahead. Ishmael with his newly learned knowledge was eager to get back to the village and urged his friends to hurry quickly along. With one more daunting hill to face, the boys raced up the hill. When they got to the top, turmoil.

     Gasemu and the boys peered down the large hill only to look upon utter chaos. Gunshots, screaming, and the ignition of gasoline soaked huts littered the audio of the air. I must admit, at this part I almost cried. Imagine reading 100 pages of chaos, wanting to see the reunification of this guys family only to be 500 meters away and then boom the chance is gone, forever. After the fighting had resided and the rebels had left, the group left the hill and went down into the village. The verisimilitude (like that word usage?) of Ishmael's writing in this upcoming section is absolutely gut wrenching. Ishmael walks down into a "hell on earth" image. The village was completely on fire and he watched a mother and son run out of there hut on fire, screaming. The too ran around hitting practically anything that was in there linear path only to fall to the ground in the fetal position and die before Ismael, or anyone else, could do anything. Ismael was horrified by this scene. Gasemu waved Ismael over to where he was standing, what he came to see was absolutely horrifying. A line of freshly bleeding villagers. Lined up one after the other, all were executed. There were maybe 20 or so people and it seemed every one Gasemu flipped over, some body new. Gasemu eventually pointed Ismael to the hut of his family. Ismael looked once and fell to his knees and covered his head in absolute panic mode. What Ismael saw was a hut burning to the ground, doors locked. Ishmael in a rush of adrenaline broke into the house and found no bodies. He, in and outrage of anger, started punching and kicking the hut to the ground, he felt nothing for his nerves had burnt off his appendages. He raced out of the hut, frothing at the mouth, and jumped on Gasemu and tried to choke him to death. Gasemu threw Ishmael off of him and Ishmael came back with a pestle, which he picked up on his way down, and threw it at Gasemu's face breaking his nose. According to Ishmael it was Gasemu's fault that he didn't get to see his family. All this fighting soon ended when they heard voices at the edge of the village. The rebels had returned, 10 of them to be precise. The pack of boys hid in the cassava fields so close that they could hear the conversation of the rebels. The rebels celebrated the fact that they had let no villagers escape. There command to execute all was accomplished in its entirety. After a couple hours the boys tried to move, this set of the rebels. They all got up and ran for the forest, bullets flew behind them. Ishmael claims he ran for hours into the night, until the moon was shining and the bullets were glowing red as they flew past him. 

     By day break the boys had found refuge. They heard screams, it was Gasemu behind a hut, he was rolling on the ground in pain. To bullets had penetrated him, one in his right leg and the other in his side. By night fall Gasemu had passed and the remaining six boys kept walking. Ishmael doesn't remember how but somewhere along the walking two young rebels ambushed the boys and held them at gun point and made them walk back to the village Yele, the head quarters of the rebel operations. There they were safe ironically. This was probably Ishmael best living he had had up till that point. He did chores till noon and the rest of the day he relaxed. 

     This was the end of my reading. Ishmael safely residing in the home of the people who put him through so much turmoil. The people who killed his family and murdered his friend. I still find my self in shock every time i   pick up this book to read it. The things Ishmael describes and depicts I can not even begin to imagine, let alone comprehend. Absolutely captivating is this book, every word makes me cherish my life as it is.