10/08/2026
PLEASE, DON’T TELL THEM I HAVE HIV…
PART ONE — THE SECRET
The evening was slowly settling over Gwallameji.
Shops were closing. Students were returning from lectures. Traders were counting the day’s sales while the usual sounds of generators filled the air.
Then he appeared.
He walked toward me slowly.
Something was wrong.
This was not the young man I knew.
He was usually cheerful, always ready with a joke, a greeting or a smile. He served actively in church and often spoke about his plans for the future.
But that evening, he couldn't even look me in the eyes.
He sat beside me.
Silence.
One minute passed.
Then another.
Finally, he whispered:
“Please… don’t tell them I have HIV.”
I froze.
I looked at him.
His eyes were filled with tears.
“What happened?” I asked.
He looked around as if someone might be listening.
“I found out recently.”
He lowered his voice.
“I've been tested.”
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then he said something that I will never forget:
“I'm not afraid of dying. I'm afraid of what people will say about me.”
That sentence broke something inside me.
He told me how everything had changed since the diagnosis.
He had stopped sitting close to his friends.
He avoided eating with people.
He stopped attending some gatherings.
Even when people laughed around him, he wondered if they were laughing at him.
He was afraid that one day someone would point at him and say:
“That's the guy who has HIV.”
Then he asked me:
“If they know… will they still call me brother?”
I didn't immediately have an answer.
Because I knew what he was really asking.
Not whether people would know his diagnosis.
He was asking whether he still belonged.
Whether his friends would still accept him.
Whether his church would still welcome him.
Whether his dreams were still worth dreaming.
I placed my hand on his shoulder.
“You are still you,” I told him.
He looked at me.
But before I could say anything else, his phone suddenly rang.
He looked at the screen.
His face changed.
He slowly stood up.
“Who is it?” I asked.
He didn't answer.
He simply stared at the phone.
Then he whispered:
“They know…”
TO BE CONTINUED…
PART 2
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What did they know?
And who had told them?
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