Hate

In a year after the war was over Basil el-Shawaa came to visit me at my new
apartment in Allepo. We hadnt seen eachother in one year time. The whole day
we drank Arak and we talked about everything that happened not too long ago,
and all the things we still remember today. We sat around the table and I started
up my laptop and opened a folder with maybe hundreds of photographs. I wasnt
sure how Basil would respond when I would show him all the memories. There
were pictures of Haj Badr and Issam Shabbam and Rashed El-Youssef, all of us
together. We looked exhausted from fighting and frightened of losing. At a
moment, I remember, we stopped at a video of Hisham Bakdash. Halfway
through the video I saw Basil becoming more and more frustrated. He said that
he could never forgive ISIS for Bakdashs death. It was something that would
never leave his mind, he said, almost yelling. I shook my head and told him he
had the right to be upset but he should let things go at one point. He calmed
down and after a while we continued looking through all the pictures and videos.
Since Basil was still a little agitated, I decided we should put away the alcohol
and get ourselves a good cup of tea. It improved the atmosphere but sooner or
later Basil started acting out his frustration about some of the horrible event that
had happened in the past againhave. How Issam lost his whole family due to the
war, the way Haj used his last bullet to save his daughter but got shot himself
afterwards. The clock ticked twelve and we both decided that it was enough with
the tea and that we needed something stronger than that, so we switched back
to the Arak. After a few drinks my mind decided it was a good idea to look up an
old photograph of Nadia. I dont understand why I thought it was a good idea to
show him that. Basil gave me a furious look. Dont you remember?! he yelled
at me. He couldnt restrain himself and just grabbed my laptop and smashed it to
the ground. The whole screen shattered to pieces. I thought you deleted that
picture on your phone while we were still there?. I couldnt look him in the eye.
Do you still have it on your phone? Or you want me to break that as well?!. I
told him that I removed it ages ago and it was nowhere to be found. Basil let out
a silent tear and stared down at the smashed laptop. He shrugged and told me
he was sorry. You miss her, dont you?. He nodded and told me that she was
the only thing he lived for during the war. When he was off duty for a week they
used to visit family together and play some music with them on buckets with
wooden sticks. Nadia was studying to become a teacher. A good one to help little
children to become successful in life, just like herself. She used to wear bright
coloured head scarfs and the children loved it. She could never get married or
have children because her life was taken away by ISIS. She was so positive about
life and her life ended in such a negative way. She didnt deserve it. While talking
about her he chuckled a bit. He told me about the first time they met. That there
was a bench in a park just across the street at his parents house, and there she
was sitting. They ended up having a chat and she fell in love with his deep brown
eyes straight away. Of course Basil was over-romanticizing it, but it was pleasant
to listen to. You saw him forget about all the troubles from the past. Though he
didnt like me mentioning her name, he finally had peace with it. Yet the peace
was soon disturbed as he moved on to another story about Nadia involving Samir
Gozem, the person she had loved before him, had turned out to be a terrorist. He
became furious again, this time not about me but he was angry at ISIS. He was
swearing and crying at the same time. I calmed him down and in later
conversations I made sure to avoid any story about Nadia or ISIS. Once the night

was almost over, I started cleaning up the living room. I looked down at my
broken laptop once again and then I got a pat on the back. Dont worry man, Ill
get you a new one.. Basil put on his coat and walked towards the door. Before
he left I said to him that I was interested in writing a short story about tonight, for
a new book. About me? he said. He gave it a thought and nodded at me.
Sounds good. he said. Maybe it will do some good for me once I read it.
Maybe reading it would do me some good to process the past.. Good." I said.
He got onto his bike and put his light on. "could you make me look like a though
guy? Courageous yet calm, you know it. The best friend ever.". I saw he wanted
to say something more. He shrugged and said: "And do me a favour. Please dont
mention anything about" "No," I said, "I won't."
906 words

Rationale
For this written task I decided to focus on the book The Things They Carried as we
discussed this thoroughly in class. We look at the book specifically on part 3
literature texts and contexts. I decided to write a pastiche of one specific
chapter (love) to show how different the story could be once you place it in a
different time and place. So hate is placed into a different context. The text
focusses on 2 ex-soldiers who fought against ISIS in the Syria war and the pain
that comes along with reliving the memories. The intended audience is people
unfamiliar with the pains of war.
I chose the chapter Love because it talks about all the subjects I wanted to put
into the pastiche: friendship, hate, love, and pain. The chapter Love is on the
American soldiers who fought in the Vietnam war. Hate is more relevant for today
since it tells the story of Syrian soldiers who fought against ISIS. Love takes place
in our past whereas Hate takes place in our near future, since the war is still
going on, but the story still is being told as if it is in the past for them.
I tried to look for a contrast with Love and therefore I called it hate. Love in TTTC
has multiple meanings in the chapter and so does hate. Basil has hate for ISIS for
killing his girlfriend but he also feels hatred for the fact that his friend showed
him the picture of her while he wasnt ready for it.
260 words