Rehearsal

Drawing by Syrian refugee child in Jordan

An ill-lit ground-floor apartment in Jordan near the border with Syria. About seven Syrian refugees are packed into a space with sweat-shined upholstery. Two of them inhaled a strange gas in the Syrian war; neither of them died; one of them got better.

A boy who looks four strides importantly and tensely through the apartment. His mother quizzes him about the leader of Syria; the litany has been repeated many times and the boy knows the answer.

“Who kills children?”

“Bashar.”

“Who kills mothers and fathers?”

“Bashar.”

“Who kills us with poison gas?”

“Bashar.”

In 2013 and for always, the boy knows the answer.