Rashed, my friend

“I don’t want to hear anything. Go home.”

“Just listen to how we want to do it.”

“No.” “If they take Shafiq Bhai to the military camp then they will inhumanly torture him to death. Inhuman torture−” Doctor Shahib stopped me and said, “Don’t play with fire. Go home. I have a lot to do.”

Doctor Shahib stood up and so did I. I was almost crying with anger and disappointment. I stopped my tears and tried one last time. “Doctor Uncle, now a time has come which has never come before. No one quite knows what to do now. Just because you are grown up and we aren’t doesn’t mean you know more than we do−” Doctor Uncle was a bit startled. I said again, “Just because we are young doesn’t mean we don’t understand anything. You were also young once.”

I paused for breath then said, “If we don’t do anything then they will kill Shafiq Bhai today or tomorrow. We have to save him now. If you help it will be easier. If you don’t it will be harder. That’s the only difference. “ I was leaving when Doctor Shahib stopped me, “Wait a minute.”

I turned and said, “Yes?” “Let me hear your plan.”

I explained the plan to him. Truth to tell, he listened to it all then started to laugh a little near the end. He asked, “Whose idea is this?”

“We have a friend, his name is−” About to say his name, I stopped. I shook my head and said, “But I can’t tell you his name. I don’t have the permission to.”

Doctor Shahib widened his eyes. “You don’t have the permission?”

“No. We don’t tell anybody anything that isn’t absolutely necessary.”

“That’s not bad.” Doctor Uncle paused then said, “I just want to know one thing.”

“What?”

“Suppose you get caught. Then they’ll beat you up and say, ‘Who was with you?’

What will you say? You’ll say Doctor Uncle was. And then what? You’re just kids, they’ll probably beat you up and let you go. But what about me? They’ll shoot me on the riverbank. My body will float on the river and get eaten in two days by dogs and foxes and vultures. I have two children and a wife, they’ll get kicked out of the house onto the street. Am I right?”

I frantically shook my head. “If we get caught we’ll never say your name. Never.”

“You don’t know what torture is. You don’t know how people are tortured. If you get caught, not only you, you father will also tell them everything! You cannot even begin to imagine what will happen when this Shafiq boy is taken to the camp. Do you understand? I would like to give him a lethal injection. Do him a favor.”

“But you won’t have to do that. We will−” “That’s what you think. I heard it all.” Doctor Uncle laughed mysteriously and said, “I don’t agree.”

I had thought that I had convinced him. But he had backed out again. I stammered, “But- but- ” “Do you know what adults do when kids act crazy?”

“What?”