"The girls grew up — and with them, the space that once held laughter began to keep secrets. What was once spoken aloud in the courtyard was now whispered into notebooks or across school benches."
The years passed quickly. Dalal and Nadia blossomed into young women who filled the courtyard with grace and life. Each was a mirror of the other — in their laughter, their dreams, even the rhythm of their steps.
The women of the neighborhood would whisper playfully,
"So… whose son will she marry? Dalal or Nadia?"
But the heart never follows such comparisons.
Bahaa, Dalal's younger brother, had long looked at Nadia with a tenderness that no one failed to notice. Their story began one morning on the way to school: a stray dog charged toward Nadia, and Bahaa stepped in front of her, shielding her bravely. He was bitten on his left hand, but she was safe — and from that day, his name became forever tied in Nadia's heart to the feeling of safety.
As time passed, love grew between them like an almond tree in the valleys of Bethlehem — silent, steady, its roots deep in the earth. Every morning, Bahaa would walk both girls to school, teasing them, carrying their books when they tired. Yet his eyes always lingered on Nadia a moment too long, betrayed by a shy smile.
In the small wooden hut their fathers — Faisal and Sami — had built for them as children, the stories of their youth deepened. One evening, Dalal sat beside Nadia and whispered:
"I heard you might study in Canada after high school… is that true?"
Nadia smiled hesitantly.
"Maybe… but Bahaa matters more. He wants to propose after graduation. I don't want to lose what we have."
Dalal laughed, clapping her hands.
"So you'd give up university and travel for love?"
"Love isn't something small, Dalal… it's what keeps us going here."
Dalal didn't fully understand love then — but she knew that Nadia and Bahaa were writing a story different from any other, one that would leave its mark on everything that followed.
Outside, clashes with the soldiers never ceased. Stones flew through the streets; smoke from burning tires coiled into the cold sky. Yet in the courtyard, life refused to surrender — small celebrations bloomed in the cracks of hardship: a wedding, a new birth, a child's success at school.
And so, amid fear and fleeting joy, the love of Nadia and Bahaa was born — a love like a wildflower growing between the stones.