Vahan Kenderian Timeline and Summary

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• Vahan's living an ordinary life in Turkey with his family, until one day his dad is taken away by police officers for no reason at all.
• Worried and confused, Vahan asks his family about what happened to his dad, but no one's sure. Pretty soon this is the least of their worries though, as Vahan's brothers are shot right in front of him, and he, his mom, sisters, grandma, and brother Sisak are taken to Goryan's Inn.
• There, Vahan and his family are starved and forced to go on "marches" where people are killed. His sister takes poison since she's afraid she'll be chosen next to be raped, and his grandma dies on one of the marches.
• Vahan's mom begs him and Sisak to run away so they have a chance to survive—they do, but they lose each other in the shuffle.
• With nowhere else to go, Vahan runs to his buddy, Pattoo's place. Luckily Pattoo and his mom are still there, but the rest of their family has been killed too.
• After a week, Mrs. Altoonian tells Vahan he needs to go because she's worried about their safety; with nowhere to turn, he finds an empty house and crashes there for a bit.
• One day he sees Sisak's body on the streets, and tries to help him, but it's already too late—his brother dies, and Vahan heads to the streets to beg for food.
• Eventually Vahan figures he's not going to get fed or be safe spending time on the streets, so he heads back to the Altoonians'. He stays there for a little over a week before they tell him to leave again, but this time, they've arranged for him to stay with Selim Bey.
• Vahan is scared at first, because he's heard rumors about Selim murdering Armenians, but he actually finds the guy quite likeable; he takes care of the horses and stays in the stable.
• He stays with Selim for a while, even moving to different cities with the governor as he moves around. One day, a girl named Seranoush shows up.
• Vahan is excited to finally get a friend, but this quickly turns to anger when he sees that Seranoush is there for the soldiers to take advantage of, not spend time with him.
• After Seranoush dies, Vahan moves with Selim again, and begins to feel more and more threatened, so he decides to make a run for it.
• He groups up with Turkish refugees by pretending to be deaf and mute—he's got to find a home somewhere—and they let him eat and stay with them, in exchange for him taking care of the sheep.
• Vahan sees the Turks kill an Armenian, and realizes that he's not safe, so he runs away, and this time he meets up with an Armenian guy named Ara.
• He stays with Ara for a week and feels at home there, mainly because Ara reminds him of his own fam.
• It's not safe for him to stay with Ara though, so he moves on to an orphanage, where he pretends to be a girl so no one suspects that an Armenian boy is roaming around.
• After three months, he goes to visit Dr. and Mrs. Tashian, who are looking for a male servant.
• He moves into their house, where Vahan quickly feels more like a son than a servant, and even meets a cute girl next door, named Seta.
• She's the German consul's companion, but she and Vahan become besties in no time; when the consul learns she's pregnant though, he kicks her out (even though he got her pregnant).
• Vahan offers for her to stay with them, and the Tashians agree.
• When Seta has the baby, she gets a fever and dies—the Tashians offer to raise the baby, but the consul takes him away.
• Mrs. Tashian is so sad that she dies too, and Vahan starts to feel empty and angry with God for losing so many people in his life.
• He decides to join the Turkish army so he can get to Constantinople, and away from this mess.
• Vahan pays a guy for a boat ride to Constantinople and gets sick on the journey there. Once he arrives, he's not sure if he's actually free—but luckily he is.
• After a while, he starts going to school again and working at the Armenian newspaper in Constantinople.
• Vahan is safe and free, but he misses his family a lot.