The Wall (21 page)

I look down at the soil and say nothing. My feet are bare, toe to toe with Liev’s black leather shoes, which are freshly polished, but coated with dust and sand.

‘ANSWER ME!’

I don’t move and don’t speak.

‘Where are your shoes? Who do you think you are?’

I look up into his eyes, which I had always thought were grey, but out here, in the sunlight, they seem green. His pupils are tiny dots, a full stop in the middle of each eyeball. For a moment I think I might, in this place, find the strength to defy him, but he stares me down with a gaze of such vibrant, blazing intensity that I sense he might lose control. At moments like this, one to one, away from my mother, I can see how much he hates me. If he unleashed himself on me out here, if he allowed himself to hurt me, I have no idea how far he would go, and whether he’d be able to stop.

‘WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES?’

I point at the entrance to the grove. Neatly, side by side on the path, are my trainers.

‘Put them on and come home at once. This nonsense is over.’

I walk through the gateway to fetch my shoes, and as I bend to pick them up a flicker of movement at the corner of my eye makes me glance down the path. Leila and her father are approaching, moments away from entering Liev’s field of vision.

I freeze, frantically scanning my brain for a way to turn them back without alerting my stepfather. Leila smiles and waves at me. I give her a small shake of the head. She either doesn’t see or doesn’t understand, and carries on walking towards me.

I shake my head again, more clearly. She halts, stopping her father with a gentle tug, but it’s too late.

‘What are you doing?’ barks Liev.

I turn and attempt a casual shrug. ‘Putting my shoes on,’ I say, squatting down to block the narrow exit from the grove.

Liev rushes towards me, barges me aside, and runs down the path towards Leila and her father, who are now walking briskly away. Liev darts ahead and stops him with a hand on the shoulder. ‘Who are you?’ he snaps. ‘Why are you here?’

Leila’s father doesn’t answer. He looks infinitely weary. After a long silence, he speaks in his quiet, heavily accented voice. ‘This is my olive grove.’

‘Oh, it’s yours, is it?’ says Liev, with heavy sarcasm.

‘It is. It is mine, and it was my father’s and his father’s.’

‘We’ll see about that,’ says Liev. ‘Where’s your pass?’

‘I’ve been through the checkpoint. I’ve already shown my pass.’

‘Are you refusing to show your pass?’

‘I have shown my pass.’

‘This is the last time I will ask you,’ says Liev, his right hand moving to his belt, where it undoes the popper on the leather holster which holds the gun he wears when he ventures outside Amarias.

Leila’s father reaches into a pocket and hands over his pass. Liev holds it contemptuously between thumb and forefinger, as if to minimise the transmission of germs, and examines the text. Leila’s father snatches a quick glance in my direction. I give an apologetic shrug, which meets with no response. Leila just looks at the ground, as if she’s trying to make herself invisible. Her face seems terrified and calm at the same time.

‘You are responsible for these fields?’ says Liev.

‘Yes,’ says Leila’s father.

‘Does anyone help you?’

There’s a momentary pause before he answers. ‘No,’ he says.

‘No one? You come once a month and you look after the grove on your own.’

‘Yes.’

‘Does my son help you?’

Leila’s father blinks. ‘I do not employ anyone else to work here.’

‘Does he help you?’

‘How can I know what happens when I’m not here? You must ask him.’

Liev swivels towards me. ‘Do you work for this man?’

‘No!’

‘Do you help him?’

‘No!’

‘Why are you here? Why have you been coming here? To sleep?’

‘I just came here. I found it and I liked it. Sometimes I put some water on the trees. He hasn’t asked me to do anything.’

‘You know that if he is employing illegal labour here, this land can be confiscated. I’ve seen you coming home with soil under your fingernails. I knew you were up to something.’

Leila’s father speaks up, his voice thin and high. ‘I haven’t employed him. I’ve never paid him anything. I didn’t even know he was here!’

‘So what’s this?’ says Liev, brandishing a piece of paper out of his back pocket. I recognise it instantly. It is the map Leila’s father drew for me, which I’d stashed at the bottom of my wardrobe. ‘I’ll tell you what it is,’ continues Liev. ‘It’s Exhibit A, that’s what it is. And the next time you’re going to see it is in court.’

‘Leave him alone!’ I shout, my voice filled as much with anger towards Liev as towards myself, for not having thrown away the evidence. ‘He hasn’t done anything!’

Liev grabs me by the T-shirt and pushes me hard against the wall of the grove. A sharp stone jabs into my spine and my neck snaps backwards. However angry you get with Liev, he can always outdo you. ‘Don’t you DARE tell me what I can and can’t do,’ he says, his voice icy and crisp. ‘You don’t understand anything here. You have no idea what you’ve done.’

‘I haven’t done anything! I’ve just watered some trees.’

‘Those aren’t just trees, Joshua. Nothing here is only a tree. Just because you feel cosy and secure in the home I’ve made for you, that doesn’t mean we’re safe. This is a war zone. We are surrounded by people who hate us and want to take our land and kill us, and every tree and rock that belongs to our enemies is a potential launchpad for a missile that can kill you or me or your mother. Or take out your entire school with every single child still in it. Hundreds of people are plotting to get us, right now, this minute and every minute. Do you understand me?’

With this, he lets go of me and takes a step back. His cheeks are flushed and his breath is short. Two off-white curls of foamy spittle have settled in the corners of his mouth.

I pull the fabric of my T-shirt into shape, push my shoulders back, and stand up straight. For once, I’m not going to let him bully me into silence. Leila and her father are watching. I have to be strong.

‘It’s not a launchpad,’ I say. ‘It’s an olive grove.’

‘If that’s all you see here, then you are blind,’ he says. ‘You see hills and fields? Fine. You’re very lucky. Because what I see all around us is a battlefield, and anything that isn’t ours is an enemy outpost.’

‘If that’s what you think, then why did you bring us here?’

‘To do the Lord’s work! He gave this land to our people, and no one is willing to fight for it except us! We’ve been in exile for two thousand years and only now are we fighting back, taking what is ours. If you can’t take pride in that, you’re a weakling and a traitor.’ His eyes are sparkling now, radiant with passion. ‘Do you still not understand what this is for? How long we’ve waited? Can you not even see that at long last, after all this time, we’re winning! Bit by bit, we’re winning! And if it takes another thousand years, and we have to fight inch by inch, so be it.’

‘You can’t fight for a thousand years. You’ll be dead.’

‘The next generations will carry on the fight.’

‘I’m the next generation. And I think you’re crazy.’

His lips pucker into a thin crease as he takes three long, slow breaths through his nose. The skin around my eyes tenses, a minuscule flinch that I try to suppress.

‘You think you can disrespect me like this? You think you can carry on saying these things?’

I shrug.

‘You think you’re smarter than me?’ he barks, jabbing me hard in the chest with his index finger.

I shrug again, lowering my face to the ground.

A shuffling sound emanates from below, as Leila’s father begins to edge away. Liev swivels and grabs his arm. ‘What is it you want here?’ he says. ‘What are you playing at?’

Leila’s father holds his gaze. ‘What is it
you
want?’

‘I want you to leave my son alone.’

‘I’m not your son,’ I say.

Liev spins on his heel and raises a hand above his head. In the fraction of a second before his fist comes down to strike me, I see Leila’s father’s arm stretch forwards to block the blow, then withdraw again as he changes his mind. Liev’s knuckles strike me between the corner of my mouth and my jaw, knocking me off balance. I stagger and fall to my knees in the dust. When I dizzily raise my head, Liev isn’t even facing in my direction, but is squaring up to Leila’s father.

‘This path is closed. You’ve seen the razor wire.’

‘These are my fields.’

‘This access route is deauthorised by military order. You know that as well as I do.’

‘I own those fields.’

‘If I ever see you anywhere near this path or my son again, I’ll have you arrested.’

I scramble back on to my feet.

‘I’m not your son,’ I say.

Liev turns to face me. His eyes are wild and red. ‘Are you
trying
to provoke me? Do you have any idea what I’ve done for you and your mother? Do you know where you’d be right now if it wasn’t for me?’

‘Not here, that’s for sure.’

‘Are you mocking me? How dare you mock me? After everything I’ve done for you.’

‘You’ve done nothing for me!’ I shout. ‘I hate it here! I wish you’d left us alone!’

‘You have no idea how much damage you’ve done.’

‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’

‘You were sent to hurt me. You don’t even know what a destructive force you are. Everything you touch –’

‘I haven’t done anything!’

‘Why do you think you don’t have any brothers and sisters?’

‘What’s that got to do with anything?’

‘If you weren’t so selfish, you’d know.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I’m not saying any more.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You are a very confused young man. One day you’ll realise . . .’

‘Realise what?’

‘What you’ve done to me and your mother. The damage you’ve caused. WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING?’ Liev pushes me aside and barges towards Leila’s father, who has quietly walked around us and into his olive grove.

‘I have work to do.’

‘I told you to leave!’ shouts Liev.

‘I don’t think you did.’

‘Well I’m telling you now.’

‘Under whose authority?’

‘Mine.’

‘I have a pass. I’m only allowed here once a month.’

‘I’m telling you to leave.’

‘I’m afraid I can’t do that.’

‘You can’t?’

‘I have work to do.’

With that, Leila’s father turns away and walks into the olive grove. He takes a hoe from under his tarpaulin and begins to work the soil.

Liev follows him into the grove, pulling the gun from its holster. He raises it fast and points it at Leila’s father.

‘You love to try our patience, don’t you? You just can’t resist pushing everything to the brink.’

Leila’s father ignores him.

‘OK, big guy,’ Liev says. ‘This is your last warning. I’m telling you to leave now.’

You can hear the click as he undoes the safety catch on his gun.

Leila’s father doesn’t even look up. His work doesn’t quicken or slow down. With his back to Liev, he carries on turning the soil. Leila still hasn’t moved from her spot on the path.

‘There really is only one language you people understand, isn’t there?’ says Liev. His hand is trembling now, the gun jiggling at the end of his stiff, tense arm.

I know I ought to intervene, but my body refuses to move.

The air seems to thicken as Leila’s father continues to turn the soil, with Liev’s pistol trained at his head. The gun tracks his movements as he works slowly back and forth. High above, the drone is still buzzing away. I sense that an invisible thread between the two men is being pulled tighter and tighter. Any second, it will snap.

With a swift movement, Liev’s arm swivels towards the nearest tree. The report from the gun hammers through my skull as Liev’s bullet tears a fist-sized lump out of the trunk, exposing ragged splinters of pale wood. This sight unlocks my paralysed muscles. I leap at Liev, but he pivots out of the way, brushing me aside before spinning back into position and burying another bullet into the tree.

I spring forwards again, this time not at Liev, but towards the tree. I flatten myself against the wounded trunk, and stare down the barrel of Liev’s gun.

His hand is steady now, his nerves seemingly calmed by having fired off his first two shots.

‘Get out of the way, Joshua,’ he says. ‘This is none of your business.’

‘I’m not moving.’

Liev lets out a forced chuckle. ‘Er . . . I think you are.’

‘Mum knows you followed me here, doesn’t she?’

‘Yes.’

‘So you can’t touch me. If I get hurt –’