The Day of the Pelican

In March 1998, on the Plain of Dukagjin in Kosovo, a region of the former Yugoslavia where ethnic Albanians live under increasingly oppressive Serbian rule, nearly twelve-year-old Meli Lleshi takes in the wash at her family's home. Her younger brothers, Isuf and Adil, play war games in the garden, arguing over who gets to be a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighter and who must be the Serb policeman. Their father, Baba (Hashim), who owns a small grocery store, disapproves of such games. Meli's older brother, Mehmet, thirteen, idolizes the KLA, while their mother, Mama (Sevdie), manages the household along with the youngest sibling, four-year-old Vlora.

Baba's brother, Uncle Fadil, arrives with his wife, Auntie Burbuqe, bearing alarming news: Adem Jashari, a prominent KLA leader, and seventy members of his family have been slaughtered by Serbian forces. Uncle Fadil urges the family to move to his farm, but Baba refuses, citing obligations to his store, the children's school, and neighbors who depend on him.

Weeks later, Meli and her best friend, Zana, are kept after school for misbehaving. Because Meli is detained, Mehmet walks home alone and never arrives. Baba searches desperately, but the Serbian police refuse to confirm whether Mehmet is in custody. Meli stops attending school, consumed by guilt. Around her twelfth birthday, Mehmet appears at the kitchen door, emaciated. Police beat him, dumped him in the countryside, and left him for dead. KLA fighters found and nursed him, warning that the family's home is no longer safe. He insists they must leave immediately.

Baba arranges for a cousin to mind the store. Mama insists Meli retrieve her parents' framed photograph, her only keepsake from childhood. Uncle Fadil drives the family in his old Lada to his farm, but Auntie Burbuqe warns that paramilitaries, irregular armed groups allied with Serbian forces, are nearby and that Mehmet's presence makes the household a target. The family continues into the hills to a KLA camp, where they settle into a tent barely big enough for seven. Daily survival is hard: no electricity, limited food, only a stream for water. KLA soldiers teach Mehmet to shoot, deepening the rift between his militancy and Baba's pacifism. By late August, Serbian President Slobodan Milosević launches a new offensive, and defeated KLA fighters return wounded.

One night, Mehmet slips away to the KLA military camp. Baba retrieves him, but Mehmet vows to fight at fifteen. Fearing they will lose him, Mama persuades Mehmet to start a school for the camp's children while Baba leaves to fetch Uncle Fadil. When Uncle Fadil arrives, the family descends to his farm.

The farmhouse is crowded: Granny, Baba and Uncle Fadil's elderly mother, is there along with Auntie Burbuqe and Uncle Fadil's daughter, Nexima, who has come with her toddler, Elez, and infant twins. Nexima's husband, Hamza, is absent, which Meli understands means he is with the KLA. Life on the farm is busy but happy. Meli considers this her happiest time.

Through the radio, the family learns that peace negotiations have failed. Bombing by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) begins in March 1999. Refugees stream past the farm. Late one night, Hamza arrives with a coded knock, warning that Serbian forces have destroyed nearby farms and the family must flee. They plan to drive to Macedonia, but the Lada is stolen overnight. Before they can leave by other means, five masked paramilitaries burst into the house, steal money, identification, and jewelry, and order them out at gunpoint. As the family flees, the farmhouse goes up in flames.

They walk east toward Macedonia, pushing Granny in a wheelbarrow and carrying the children. Their only food is two loaves Granny hid under her clothing. In eastern Kosovo, Serbian police herd the refugees to a rail station and force them into a freight boxcar, where they stand crammed in darkness through the night. At dawn, Hamza spots Nexima in the crowd and calls out. Nexima tries to go to him, but Meli grabs her arm, keeping the family together. A single gunshot rings out. They never learn whether Hamza was killed, but they never see him again.

Macedonian border guards refuse entry until buses transport the refugees to a camp surrounded by barbed wire. Granny, burning with fever, is taken to a hospital tent. Camp life is monotonous but safe. Meli recognizes a growing hatred within herself and struggles to suppress it, knowing it is the evil Baba has always feared.

When Milosević surrenders to NATO, Baba, Uncle Fadil, and Mehmet return to Kosovo. The apartment and store have been looted; the farmhouse is destroyed. Only a small fragment of Mama's photograph survives. Baba announces that Uncle Fadil's family will return to the apartment and reopen the store, while the Lleshis will emigrate to America, sponsored by a church in Vermont. After a tearful farewell, the extended family separates.

Letters from Kosovo confirm Hamza's death and report that Granny is bedridden. In September, the family flies to the United States, arriving in Vermont, where welcomers from the church greet them. A translator named Adona helps them settle into a second-floor apartment.

Meli and Mehmet start high school in ESL (English as a Second Language) classes. The younger children adapt fastest, picking up English from playmates. Baba finds work as a dishwasher, but the pay barely covers expenses. Cultural clashes arise: Baba initially forbids trick-or-treating on Halloween, associating masks with the paramilitaries. By Meli's fourteenth birthday, she understands English well. Mehmet is invited to try out for the high school soccer team by Coach Marcello, the boys' coach. When the girls' coach, Mrs. Rogers, invites Meli to try out, Baba reluctantly agrees with Mama's advocacy. Meli discovers a talent for the sport, playing forward and feeling free for the first time. Then a dreaded letter arrives: Granny has died. Baba sobs, grieving that he was not present.

On September 11, 2001, Meli learns that terrorists have attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. When it emerges that the attackers were Muslim, the family's world shifts. At soccer practice the next day, no one passes Meli the ball. In the locker room, Brittany, the goalkeeper, pressures Meli's only friend, Rachel, to confront Meli about being Muslim. Meli confirms her faith but insists she is not a terrorist. Brittany tells her to go back where she came from. Meli quits the team. Outside, she finds Mehmet with a bloodied nose from his own beating. At home, he declares he hates America.

Baba insists both children return to school and their teams, arguing that if they quit, the terrorists win. That evening, Mrs. Rogers, Coach Marcello, and Adona visit the apartment. The coaches want to remove the students responsible, but Baba urges them not to, explaining it will only breed bitterness. He recounts how Mehmet survived a Serbian jail as a child and asks that the teams play together. Mehmet agrees, saying one man does not make a team.

The next morning, Rachel apologizes, admitting she reported the incident to Mrs. Rogers. Meli forgives her. Mehmet grows less arrogant on the field and begins coaching a youth team for the younger children. Meli sees Baba's gentleness emerging in him. She realizes she no longer thinks of returning to Kosovo. America is imperfect, but it is home. She still feels homesickness for Granny, for Auntie Burbuqe, and especially for Zana, whose letters have gone unanswered. One night she dreams of encountering Zana on an American sidewalk. The homesickness passes. The family has held together. America is home now.