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THE UNEXPECTED GIFT
By
Karlene M. Kubat
THE UNEXPECTED GIFT
1
I
In shadow or sunlight, fear thrived in this place. Hurrying away from
a visit to a family in makeshift quarters, she spotted a fluttering hawk-like
bird and thought it must be a kite. Yes, a kite, settling high in the tattered
fronds of a thick-trunked date palm. The sun's intense light gilded the brown
feathers with a gold velvet too striking to disregard. She raised her camera,
clicking twice -- something caught undamaged amid the ruins. She watched
the kite rest a moment then shake itself and pull a long wing feather through
its beak. It was a wary bird, making vigilant pauses between each preening.
Still, it could look down on her foreshortened body without much concern.
She envied its unrivaled perspective, comparative safety. Allow no careless
distraction she reminded herself, even as she watched the kite give a startled
cry and rise into the blue Middle Eastern air.
She was caught wingless in bursts of machine gun fire. Rapid puffs
THE UNEXPECTED GIFT
2
of dust. Bodies scattering, falling, a random few struggling to rise.
Ahead, the protective wheels of a truck. She started forward,
glancing once over her shoulder to gauge the hazard at her back. In that
single glance came a vision she had always seen and would always see: a
weeping child standing in the targeted street. Here it comes, only one or the
other...life or death. Her body curled into a running crouch, not forward,
backward, the safety of the truck gone. Locking camera against chest with
one arm, reaching