The guns fell silent but the all-clear was not sounded. The silence lasted for a long time, and so did the people’s patience. They all pricked up their ears to hear a slow, calm droning sound like rains coming from far away. The buzz grew in volume, as if swarms of killer bees were coming to the city, like a storm gathering on the horizon to overrun the desert, or armies of locusts homing in on green plants: ZZZZZZZ. That was sound of the German and Italian planes coming in for their targets in large formations, coming in close to the city and close to the ground. The sounds of bombs and explosions and the flashes of lightning passed quickly in front of the closed windows, penetrating the shutters and the glass.

“Open the windows so we’ll know what’s happening,” Dimitri exclaimed. Magd al-Din was close to the window so he opened it. In front of them the night looked like daylight, white and red, and engulfed in a river of blue smoke. The sky was burning to the north and people on the opposite side of the street screamed as they saw the smoke. Magd al-Din, Dimitri, and the women watched the light come in from the north and burn bright into the south, like a sword brandished by a celestial warrior. Magd al-Din began to recite the beginning of Sura 36:

“Yasin. By the Wise Quran, verily you are among those sent on a straight path, a revelation of the Mighty, the Merciful, to warn a people whose forefathers had not been warned, so they are heedless. Already the word has proved true of most of them, for they are not believers. Verily We have placed yokes around their necks to their chins so that their heads are forced up. And we have put a bar before them and a bar behind them and so We have covered them up so that they cannot see. God Almighty has spoken the truth.” Then he repeated, “And We have put a har before them and a bar behind them and so We have covered them up so that they cannot see.” He repeated the verse, his voice growing louder, and as he swayed the moonlight revealed him to everyone, though he was completely oblivious.

“And We have put a bar before them and a bar behind them and so We have covered them up so that they cannot see.” Zahra began to repeat after him, and his voice kept getting louder. Sitt Maryam kept repeating, “We ask you God, the Father, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,” while Dimitri repeated with her, “We ask you God, Our Lord, lead us not into temptation, which we cannot endure because of our weakness. Give us help to avoid temptation, so that we might extinguish Satan’s fiery arrows.” His voice and Sitt Maryam’s voice grew louder, “And deliver us from evil Satan by Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.” Magd al-Din raised his voice even louder, “O God I ask you to lift every veil, to remove every barrier, to bring down every obstacle, to make easy every difficulty and to open every door. O God, to whom I appeal and resort in hard times and in easy times, have mercy on me in my exile. Amen, Lord of All Creation.” Magd al-Din, still swaying, began reciting the Quran again after his prayer. Dimitri continued his own prayers. The words intermingled in such a way that one could only make out that they were the prayers of sincere souls devoting every bit of their being to God, the Savior:

“By the wise Quran, ”

“O God, our Lord, ”

“… on a straight path. ”

“.. lead us not into temptation.. ”

“… a revelation of the Mighty. ”

“. deliver us from evil. ”

“. whose forefathers had not been warned. ”

“. because of our weakness..”

“. true of most of them, for they are not believers. ”

“… us from evil…”

“… and we have put a bar before them…”

“… that are Satan’s…”

“.. that they cannot see.”

Amen. Amen.

Voices come from the street, men, youths, frightened women, and crying children.

“Where’s it coming from?”

“The searchlights or the bombs?”

“The bombs.”

“From Mina al-Basal, Bab Sidra, and Karmuz.”

“All the bombing is in Karmuz — the houses are shaking.”

“The searchlights are not stopping. The guns in Kom al-Nadura, Kom al-Dikka, Maks, Qabbari, and Sidi Bishr are all going at the same time. More than a hundred planes!”

“The sky is full of the blue flies of death!”

“Where has all of this been hiding, so that it appears all at once?”

“Khawaga Dimitri, get out, the houses are going to collapse,”

a voice came from outside.

“Who’s that?”

“Ghaffara.”

The voice was nearby and muffled. Ghaffara looked in on them from the window. The women had gathered in a corner close to each other. As soon as Camilla and Yvonne saw him, they screamed, “Mama!” They heard a muffled voice coming from behind the fez-mask that he had tied on his face.

“Have no fear, ladies. This is Ghaffara’s anti-air-raid mask. Khawaga Dimitri, Sheikh Magd al-Din, please forgive me. I know you, and I was friends with the late Bahi. The houses in Karmuz are falling down and they are shaking here. You’d be better off coming out and standing in the street.”

He was looking from behind his glass eye-pieces at Lula’s arms and shoulders gleaming in the dark as if they had black covering in the daytime. Dimitri and Magd al-Din came out but the women did not.

Zahra had said, “No one dies before his appointed time. If we die here, at least we’ll be protected from the eyes of strangers.”

Khawaga Dimitri liked this logic, and he asked his wife and daughters to stay with Zahra. Lula of course stayed with them.

“Merciful God! Most Merciful! The fire is burning in the sky!”

The sky over the buildings to the north was red with thick clouds of smoke. The planes were buzzing and circling over the city like wasps as the searchlights followed them over Bab al-Karasta, Kom al-Nadura, the harbor, Manshiya, Qabbari, and all around, with bursts of gunfire following closely. People assembled on the sidewalks shouted, “God protect us,” when they saw the numerous planes dropping their bombs, and they covered their ears as the sounds of nearby explosions were heard. They shouted, “God is great!” when the guns hit a plane and it fell down quickly in the distance, filling the sky with black smoke. The whole place smelled like a colossal fire.

Lula’s husband, his hair disheveled and a cigarette in his hand, had joined the people on the street. A young man rushed up and hit Lula’s husband’s hand, knocking the cigarette to the ground, and gave him a strong look. Lula’s husband apologized, scratched his head, and said, “The confusion made me forget the civil defense instructions.”

Suddenly it felt as if the earth and everyone on it rose up, then fell, and their hearts dropped. The houses had also risen and fallen, or at least they thought so, but because they were low and small they did not collapse. They heard the sounds of houses collapsing in Karmuz, though.

“That’s a bomb that just hit Karmuz!” a man shouted, and the earth rose and fell again.

“Another bomb! God have Mercy!” another man shouted.

Cries resounded at the entrances of the houses, then the whole place rang out with the screaming of women. Women, children, and men were now out on the street, as the earth shook and the anti-aircraft guns poured fire into the sky. The huge black planes dropped phosphorous strips over the city, making it look like a nighttime celebration. Everything was now very visible. The planes circled over the city in calculated maneuvers that seemed never to end. Every time a plane went down, another joined the formation. Many of the planes came very close to the ground and hit their targets dead on. Terror reigned.

Ban Street was now filled with people running aimlessly to Sidi Karim then rushing to Karmuz Bridge. As they approached the end of the street and saw the open space extending in front of Rlaghib Street and Karmuz Bridge, they were horrified by the extent of the fire north of Mahmudiya over that well-known neighborhood. The fire had reached Raghib and Masr Station, and the world was a giant trap, filled with screaming, fear, and tears. Zahra’s strength was the only reason Sitt Maryam, Camilla, Yvonne, and Lula stayed in the room in the house, even though it did not stop shaking, and the ground did not stop moving. Yvonne was sobbing quietly, but Camilla had lost consciousness in her mother’s lap. She had stretched out on the floor, placed her head in her mother’s lap, and slept — or so Sitt Maryam thought. The truth was, she had fainted a long time before and only came to in the morning after the raid was over. There were dozens of women and children who had fainted in the streets and alleys, and neighbors were kept busy taking care of their neighbors, until that long night that no one thought would ever pass, had passed.