Qassem arrived that first hour. Young, in his early twenties, I think, but it was hard to tell. He was confident but also hesitant, as if always reading every situation for clues. He pulled up a chair near to where we sat at the table. He surveyed me for a moment.

“I have heard that you’re a storyteller,” he said.

“I’m a writer,” I replied quietly.

He nodded, pausing for a moment. Then without me asking, he began to speak to me about their mountain. He and his sister had spent nine days together on Mount Sinjar, fleeing Daesh, or ISIS, who was pursuing them and trying to kill them. Later, they had spent twenty-nine days trying to escape from Iraq to Germany.

A Yazidi refugee details the journey of his flight.