She sat up, clutching her blanket, her heart pounding. Should she run? Hide? Had the Samaritans attacked? The terrifying cries came from the tent right beside hers—from Zaki’s grandfather. Abba leaped out of bed to go see what was wrong, and so did everyone around them, it seemed. Yael heard the mumble of voices as Iddo reassured everyone that he was fine and sent them back to their beds. “He had a nightmare,” Abba said when he returned a few minutes later. “Go back to sleep, Yael.” He lay down again. It seemed like a long time passed before Yael’s heart stopped pounding. Her skin still had a funny, tingling feeling from being frightened half to death, as if ants were crawling all over her. As the camp settled down again, she could hear Iddo and Dinah talking softly. “All the way here, three long months of traveling and I never had a single nightmare,” Iddo said. “I’m so ashamed . . . I-I don’t understand it.”
