Before that it had been submerged by day-to-day events.The violence going on at the minute has prompted local and international radio networks to keep mentioning them because the area called Al-Dahiya where they’re being held is ablaze now: Amal and Hizbullah are pointing the finger at each other; Hizbullah says Amal are traitors for calling them troublemakers, and Amal says that Hizbullah’s turned Al-Dahiya into a no-go area. Our house is near Hirj Beirut, close to Al-Dahiya. We always maintain it’s on the outskirts but actually it’s part of Al-Dahiya these days.What scares me is that they’ll be forgotten, and as the kidnappings mount up, people will grow accustomed to the idea. I used to think of you every time his name cropped up, or I saw your picture, or heard you talking on the news, hoping for a glimmer of information about him. I wished I could help you. I thought of you as I went through the backstreets of Al-Dahiya and saw alleyways like mazes, never-ending like a shaggy-dog story, or dark like the inside of a whale, and when I heard rumors that the hostages were in a certain apartment or garage.
