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and we were escorted through a mile of such places, booths and tents and parked automobiles and horses grazing. Everyone stared at us. Some of them spat or cursed us. There seemed to be no women. Only soldiers for the longest time.
    Someone is coming. Later.
    July 3rd
    I am very tired. So is Father. But he keeps telling our guards that they must turn away from wickedness to good and they hit him or spit on him. I wish he would be quiet. They haven’t hit me because I am unimportant. Just a boy and there are lots of boys here. We are in a shell-damaged camping place. It has half a roof and the floor is covered with rubbish. I have cleared a place for us to sleep. They have taken away our packs but my diary was in the gas-mask case under my shirt and they didn’t notice it. They don’t seem to know what to do with us. The biggest guard, Mehmet, a thin man with greedy eyes, says that we can’t be sent to a prisoner-of-war camp because we aren’t soldiers. He says that it would be easier just to shoot us. But he is not cruel. He shared the leftover food from our packs with us. He also gave Father back his Bible. Father spends all day reading it aloud. Mehmet stole all the other things away to sell. I am not supposed to hate people but I hate Mehmet. Thief. Beast. The Turkish army is as poor as ours. There isn’t a lot of food and he says that the peasants are hoarding. I wouldn’t have said that there is a lot to hoard. This is a dry sad landscape. Everyone is hungry. Even the animals. It is strangely peaceful here. The guns are far away. I can still hear them, though. I have no idea where we are. I wonder if Major Western has noticed that we are gone? Mehmet says that if we are returned Father and I will be shot as traitors. It looks like I will be explaining myself to God very soon. And I do not want to die. What will happen to Father if I die? I feel like weeping but that would make the creature Mehmet laugh. He thinks we are infidels. One knows another, I say. Soldiers keep coming to the doorway and staring at us. Aunt Euphie had a bird in a cage. If I live through this I will never have anything in a cage again.
    July 4th
    Nothing happened. Mehmet gave us some bread and bean soup, which was just water with a few beans in it. Father read the Bible. An officer came and looked at us and went away again. I am not allowed out of the camp. I wandered around a little trying to scrounge some food. I have a fortune around my waist but I cannot see any way of using it. Some boys surrounded me but they did not want to fight. They asked about Father. I told them he was a holy man devoted to peace. They nodded and asked me to ask him to pray for them. One gave me a sweet called rahat loukoum . At home we call it Turkish delight. Only sort of delight in this camp. It tasted of rosewater. I put a piece in Father’s mouth and he quoted, ‘I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.’ He isn’t talking to me at all. I don’t know if he knows that I am here.
    July 5th
    Today was exactly like yesterday without the rahat loukoum .
    July 6th
    I think we are going to be shot. Mehmet isn’t talking to me. He turns his head aside as though he cannot see me. He said we are going to be sent further inland. But he isn’t sure when. Lots of soldiers came through this morning, going towards the battle. I got one of the boys to talk to me. He is afraid of being sent to the front. He asked me if it was as bad as they said. I said it was. I told him about Abdul. He said he would try to find Abdul for me. That was nice. I seem to be able to hear better. The boy was whispering. Dinner was bean soup and bread again.
    July 7th
    I’ve got lice. I asked Mehmet to return one tin of the lice powder he had stolen but he had sold it all. He gave me some powdered herbs. They smell like tansy which is fleabane so maybe they will work. Having lice is disgusting. No wonder the soldiers were so pleased