Amena found out about the war when air raid alarms woke her. Hossein first heard it when fighter jets blew up a radio station as he listened to it. Jad found out about it on the news, two hours before the bombs fell on his neighborhood. And the parents of several volleyball players found out when their daughters were pulled from the burning wreckage of a school gym.
Most Americans have fortunately never seen war firsthand, and most of those who have were troops sent to fight far away. War in your hometown is a strange experience, especially a modern air war without front lines. Things you take for granted, from electricity to the freedom to go outside, disappear. Life's soundtrack becomes sirens and explosions. The danger feels distant until it isn't. Death comes seemingly at random.
