she shouted, and Avi reached out to her but she continued to shout, what is it, is it a bomb?
People started to run, phoned the emergency services, their friends, parents, who knows what occurs to people in such moments. Others poured out of the surrounding restaurants and stood in the streets, calling to each other, but it quickly became clear what had happened, for the air was full of screaming, howls of agony, and sirens were ringing out through the December night. Which way should we go, Hagar asked Avi, she turned to him, clutched his wrist, which way should we go, Avi, she shouted, and in that moment another person entered the restaurant, a young man, moving against the people who were crowded around the door of the restaurant. Avi saw him, he looked at him, registered something but ultimately nothing, there was a child that he saw there, he had dropped his teddy bear and was reaching back to it, but his parents were pushing towards the door, and then there was nothing, nothing that Avi remembers, only that any last remaining person in the restaurant—those people who were making their way towards the door, gathering their belongings as people do in such moments, the boy reaching for his teddy bear, the boys’ parents, the young man with the bomb strapped to his chest—was blown apart, the window blasted outwards, towards him, towards Hagar, and dozens, hundreds, thousands, who knows, who has a quantity for these things (other than the person who assembled the device, of course) of ball bearings and nails were streaking through the open space that once was a window, piercing his body at various entry points, weaving a path through his body, blazing through his flesh.
How easily the human flesh succumbs to these burning weapons. He remembers nothing after that.
After that, there is only what I’ve seen on the news, read in the newspapers, in the time I’ve had to watch the news and read the newspapers. After that, Hagar died, immediately, she never had a chance—her vital organs were severely damaged, and she went immediately into a deep sleep, out of which she never came; in fact she was buried two days ago.
I have not told him.
What do you say? Perhaps when you come you will help me to find the words and the manner, or perhaps I will already have found the courage to tell him by then, after all, he is conscious more often now, and he has started asking for her. I’m afraid I have not been particularly noble in this instance, I’ve turned away and pretended that I don’t understand what it is he is trying to say. He tires easily, these conversations do not last for long.
I did not know her; she is a part of his life of which I know nothing. I do not know what she was, what they were, and therefore I do not know what he has lost.
If you could perhaps call prior to your arrival and let me know of your expected arrival time, I shall try to meet you at the airport. In the meantime, I have booked a guest accommodation for you on the kibbutz, an entire apartment in case you decide to bring the children. I wish you a safe journey and I will do my best to assist you upon your arrival here.
Daniel
C HAPTER 18
I t is your next army leave, the final one, for soon you will finish your three years with the army. Evening and, because summer is coming, the heat of the day lingers in the air, and the smell of jasmine is all around the yard. They have moved the chairs from the kitchen outside: Grandmother, Father, and Uncle Sabri, who is older now, his hair is white, his jawline thicker than you remember. They sit on the plastic chairs, and there is only the noise of your grandmother cracking sunflower seeds between her teeth. None of them speak. Occasionally Uncle Sabri springs up and examines one of the pieces of machinery in the yard, turning it up to the light, for the ground is covered with rusty instruments, parts of old cars, cracked flowerpots, a dirty sink. Your father nods at you and you stand there for a
People started to run, phoned the emergency services, their friends, parents, who knows what occurs to people in such moments. Others poured out of the surrounding restaurants and stood in the streets, calling to each other, but it quickly became clear what had happened, for the air was full of screaming, howls of agony, and sirens were ringing out through the December night. Which way should we go, Hagar asked Avi, she turned to him, clutched his wrist, which way should we go, Avi, she shouted, and in that moment another person entered the restaurant, a young man, moving against the people who were crowded around the door of the restaurant. Avi saw him, he looked at him, registered something but ultimately nothing, there was a child that he saw there, he had dropped his teddy bear and was reaching back to it, but his parents were pushing towards the door, and then there was nothing, nothing that Avi remembers, only that any last remaining person in the restaurant—those people who were making their way towards the door, gathering their belongings as people do in such moments, the boy reaching for his teddy bear, the boys’ parents, the young man with the bomb strapped to his chest—was blown apart, the window blasted outwards, towards him, towards Hagar, and dozens, hundreds, thousands, who knows, who has a quantity for these things (other than the person who assembled the device, of course) of ball bearings and nails were streaking through the open space that once was a window, piercing his body at various entry points, weaving a path through his body, blazing through his flesh.
How easily the human flesh succumbs to these burning weapons. He remembers nothing after that.
After that, there is only what I’ve seen on the news, read in the newspapers, in the time I’ve had to watch the news and read the newspapers. After that, Hagar died, immediately, she never had a chance—her vital organs were severely damaged, and she went immediately into a deep sleep, out of which she never came; in fact she was buried two days ago.
I have not told him.
What do you say? Perhaps when you come you will help me to find the words and the manner, or perhaps I will already have found the courage to tell him by then, after all, he is conscious more often now, and he has started asking for her. I’m afraid I have not been particularly noble in this instance, I’ve turned away and pretended that I don’t understand what it is he is trying to say. He tires easily, these conversations do not last for long.
I did not know her; she is a part of his life of which I know nothing. I do not know what she was, what they were, and therefore I do not know what he has lost.
If you could perhaps call prior to your arrival and let me know of your expected arrival time, I shall try to meet you at the airport. In the meantime, I have booked a guest accommodation for you on the kibbutz, an entire apartment in case you decide to bring the children. I wish you a safe journey and I will do my best to assist you upon your arrival here.
Daniel
C HAPTER 18
I t is your next army leave, the final one, for soon you will finish your three years with the army. Evening and, because summer is coming, the heat of the day lingers in the air, and the smell of jasmine is all around the yard. They have moved the chairs from the kitchen outside: Grandmother, Father, and Uncle Sabri, who is older now, his hair is white, his jawline thicker than you remember. They sit on the plastic chairs, and there is only the noise of your grandmother cracking sunflower seeds between her teeth. None of them speak. Occasionally Uncle Sabri springs up and examines one of the pieces of machinery in the yard, turning it up to the light, for the ground is covered with rusty instruments, parts of old cars, cracked flowerpots, a dirty sink. Your father nods at you and you stand there for a
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