War is an ugly duckling

War is an ugly duckling

Akh, Badik.  His birth name was Armen—but no one called him that. “Duckling.” I don’t know how he got the nickname. I was too young to question it. Badik was my first crush. Always had a way of making kids feel safe. That is, until Luso.  She lived in the fifth-floor apartment of my uncle’s building. Summers were spent throwing a ball at swirling bodies in gorts-na-gorts—what we called ducks and hunters. The girls huddled behind the bisetkas to …