Land Mine

I'm waiting for my friends and I throw rocks to buy some time. I aim at some rusty plane debris, clang. Direct hit. Time passes and I’m wondering why they are taking so long and I’m still throwing rocks. I hear footsteps, it is Bibi. I throw one more rock and she watches the rock hit the plane debris and spies something that makes her move towards that direction. Before she gets far I say, “Bibi, could you help me up?” She stops and comes to help me up. After she helped me up she started to walk back in the direction of the wreck. I follow her and I’m wondering what she is doing. She steps on a bit of metal and stands dead still. LAND MINE! I hop my quickest to reach her, “Stand still on that leg and I’ll help you stay balanced.” Once I got in the position of holding her foot down I yell for Jamal to tell him that Bibi stepped on a land mine. Jamal finally comes with the soccer ball and shouts at me, “Why didn’t you keep an eye on her!?” Now I feel very unhappy. Jamal apologises and reminds me that the government was supposed to have cleared all the land mines close to the village. “That’s what they said seven years ago,” I mutter. Jamal tries to calm Bibi down. If she can’t control herself it’s ‘boom’ for all of us. Right now I don’t want to have another leg blown off. I apologise but Bibi says, “It’s my fault.” She explains that she wanted a chunk of the rusty debris I was throwing rocks at earlier. I whisper too quiet for anyone to hear, “Whoops”. There is silence for a while but Bibi says, “What are we going to do?” I agree, what are we going to do? Jamal inspires her but then says the wrong word. Bibi cries and yells, “Don’t say hopeless, you camel poop!”
Jamal says, “Slide your foot off the metal plate while I slide my foot on.” We look dumbfounded. What is he talking about! I remind him that if the plate pops up it goes BOOM! He says to us he’ll be okay and tells Bibi to slide off her foot, Bibi in a way says no. Jamal tries to persuade her and asks me a silly question, Bibi is staring at where my other leg would be and refuses again. Jamal is still going on while I sit and think. Finally Bibi agrees. They start to shuffle about until Bibi is off the mine and Jamal is on. It hasn’t blown, yet. He tells me to go with Bibi to get help. We run, or hop, off towards the village to get help. But Bibi starts to cry and runs back. I chase after her but I can’t catch her. She runs towards Jamal yelling, “I can’t”. She runs and runs until it’s too late. She collides with Jamal and the both tumble off the mine, I wait for a loud BANG but nothing comes. It’s a dud. Bibi again uses her rude language to insult the mine, she was really infuriated. As I reach Jamal we both give a sigh of relief. Everything is alright.

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