As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow

About six months earlier, Salama lost everything. A bomb destroyed her home, leaving her with a concussion and her mother mortally wounded. Salama fell unconscious as she reached for her dying mother. Dr. Ziad, currently her coworker at the hospital, stitched her up. Later that day, Khawf appeared for the first time; Salama thought he was a hallucination born of her head injury and medical drugs, but he never left.

Now, Salama faces Khawf, who chastises her for not asking Am about a boat to freedom. Instead of focusing on her and Layla’s freedom, Salama saved a young boy from sepsis that day while his younger sister bled out from a sniper. Khawf gives voice to her fears, snapping at her about how she promised Hamza she’d keep Layla safe, that her guilt over leaving will cost her and Layla their lives, or lead to them being sexually assaulted or tortured by soldiers. He forces Salama to relive some of her worst nightmares, including when Hamza and Baba left for war and the day her mother died. She can’t save her family, as they turn to bloody, screaming monsters. Khawf ends the torture but asks if she wants to be the next to die.

Still conflicted over whether or not to stay in Syria, Salama heads to work; Layla stays home to avoid snipers. Dr. Ziad, who sent his family to another country, became a necessary leader at the hospital—though he used to be an endocrinologist, he now performs life-saving procedures. Salama admires how calm Dr. Ziad is as she pushes through another day of gruesome treatments. When Hamza himself was attending medical school, and she was supposed to become a pharmacist, “I wasn’t made to cut into bodies, stitch wounds, and amputate limbs, but I made myself become that person” (28). Though they lack resources, their hospital is better than those in the Free Syrian Army’s control.

A bomb brings 17 injured people to the hospital. Under Dr. Ziad’s direction, Salama does her best to save them, bandaging people, resetting bones, and more. She spots Am, who advertises bringing people to safety, and thinks of Layla and Khawf requesting her to find information. Salama shyly approaches Am, and he reveals safe passage to Italy will cost her and Layla 4,000 dollars—and there is a wait list. When she pleads that Layla is pregnant, Am lets her skip the wait list, but she still needs more money. Khawf stares at her with wicked eyes.

Salama sits and cries while she stares at two dead girls around age seven. Dr. Ziad comforts her, telling her that she must not work to the point of exhaustion. She states there are more patients, but he tells her to go home: “Your life is just as important as theirs” (39).

At home, Salama shares Am’s price with Layla. They feel sick that he is earning wealth from others’ suffering. Layla suggests they sell their family’s gold, but Am only wants money and Salama can’t imagine selling their generational gold. After daydreaming about their past, when Layla wanted to go to Norway to be a painter and Salama wanted to travel the world finding herbs and plants for medicine, Layla says she trusts Salama with her and her baby’s life. She then states she and Hamza will name the baby Salama if it’s a girl.

That night, Khawf asks Salama about her plans to procure money for Am. She doesn’t know what to do, and Khawf insults her. He pushes her again to survive, to avoid the horrors he will show her. He reminds her that he never tires, that she can’t fight him because she can’t fight her mind.

At the hospital the next day, Salama tries to save a six-year-old boy, Ahmad, with internal bleeding. Dr. Ziad states the boy cannot be saved, as his brain is bleeding. Ahmad asks for his mother and if he’s going to die, which breaks Salama’s heart. She comforts Ahmad as he dies, promising he will see his mother soon. She prays for his soul.

After Ahmad’s death, Salama weeps, staying beside him and holding his cold hands. A man about her age rushes in screaming for help for his younger sister, so Salama suppresses her grief and attends to him. The man, Kenan, pleads with her to come to his house, since his younger sister Lama had surgery from shrapnel in her stomach the day before and is doing terribly the next day. Salama follows him and finds Lama in pain, barely breathing and malnourished like many others. Kenan soothes Lama while Salama calmly attends to her. She surgically removes leftover pieces of shrapnel from Lama’s stomach and stitches her up. Kenan and his younger brother, Yusuf, mute from PTSD, weep happily. They thank Salama over and over.

Kenan offers to walk Salama back to the hospital, but she declines. She’s attracted to him but suppresses her romantic feelings. When she tries to leave, snipers’ gunshots ring out. Kenan insists she can’t go outside, and Salama recalls Layla having a close call with a sniper. She worries about Layla, but Kenan assures her that Layla will be fine. She stays at his house and checks on Lama.