It's the first day of Eid. I did not have any intention to celebrate it because of what happened to Jill. I decided to go to work.
Like every Eid, I kissed my parents on their cheeks hoping that in the next year they go for Haj in Mecca. Then, I had breakfast with them and prepared to go to work. I opened the outside door and was surprised to see a man in his forties wearing kaffiya and a grey dishdasha [Arabic traditional dress].
"Oh Oh!! He looks like an insurgent," I told my father. I did not go out immediately because I was carrying my laptop bag. I did not look like someone celebrating Eid. Instead, I looked like someone going to work. I was afraid this man might see my bag and then guesses where I work.
"Who is that man? I haven't seen him previously," I asked my father. He said, "These are our new neighbors." I was surprised. "What happened to Um Abbas and her handicapped son?" I wondered. Simply, my father said that she died and her son wasn't her real son. Inheritors rented the house to these new people and no one knows where they came from. But they look like they came from Falluja or Ramadi, my father said.
That was another bad news I heard since I arrived from United States. These days, people in my neighborhood are concerned of the fact that many people form Anbar province, where most of the military operations and the kidnapping and killings happen, started moving from their cities to my neighborhood which is considered a very Sunni neighborhood.
What happened to Jill and Alan made think of any stranger in the street as an insurgent. It is so easy to be killed these days and nothing would be changed even if you are killed. It's only the US army that is working for Jill's rescue while the Iraqi government is busy. And do not ask me with what they are busy because since they formed the government last year, they were busy fighting for new positions in the coming government. They did not even denounce the assassination of Alan. Of course not. How come? They will never do it because it would be a public announcement of their failure in maintaining security in the country.
Anyway, let's stop talking about the cowards and stick to the subject. When I returned back home at night, I asked my parents about the new neighbor who looks like an insurgent. They told me that this new neighbor came last month with his family whom nobody knows very well. They are not so friendly with people. Even my mother said the only time she saw a woman in the house was last month when they first arrived and that's it. Other neighbors told my father that they are also worried and they are afraid that these people might be insurgents or at least hiding an insurgent in their house.
I began to be really worried because the number of people from Anbar is increasing and everybody knows that people from those areas strongly support insurgency.
I'll try to monitor this new neighbor. My concern is if I discover he is really an insurgent, I don’t know what to do. Should I inform the police or army? If so, will my fate be like the fate of others who informed about insurgents and then got killed. It's a difficult situation. I hope I am wrong and my new neighbor is NOT an insurgent.
