The nurses are rude and nasty, and all the other girls are mistreated. It looks like a hospital, but there are bars at the window, and she is handcuffed to the bed. When she awakens, she isn’t sure where she is. A soldier shoots both her and her mother at a checkpoint. Rima was content with her life in their neighborhood in Damascus, despite the raising tension she could sense between her brother and mother, and the faint sound of far away explosions she could hear from time to time. Rima draws skillfully, and her favorite stories are Saint-Exupery’s “Little Prince” and “Alice in Wonderland”. It will not utter a word or scream when she wants it to. Rima is a hungry reader, continuously nourished by the friendly and generous school librarian, but she refuses to speak and her tongue has a mind of its own. The rope was long enough for her to explore the entire room, but it was short enough to ensure she would never leave it. When she got a little older and her mother couldn’t take her along anymore, Rima was tied to her bed at home, this one room where she lived with her mother and brother. Or, when her mother was busy cleaning the school, she was confined to the school’s library under the supervision of the librarian. Because her mother was always afraid of losing her, Rima grew up tied to her wrist by a thick rope. This strange characteristic has determined her life. She has no control over her legs that are automatically set in motion the moment she is free to walk. Rima is a girl from Damascus who cannot stop walking.
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