DAY 951 - OCTOBER 15, 2013
You make eye contact with Emad, for maybe the last time. It's the look that a mother gives to her son when she knows he is finally all grown up. There is nothing you can do to stop him. He has made his choice. If he is to come back to you and Yara, it will be under his own adult will, not yours. You say all of this somehow, in that last look to your son. Slowly the look fades away and you turn, walking one foot in front of the other, smoothly away from Emad. It isn't long before you hear the bike start up again and noisily tread away and it dawns on you just how hardened you've become since this revolution began nearly three years ago.