Incineration of Innocence - an Israeli short story
INCINERATION
OF INNOCENCE
I stood draped in a
blanket as the rain howled around me, shaking the very foundations of my house.
Angry purple clouds hovered in the sky as the wind whistled through my emaciated
body. Tempestuous waves rocked the fishing boats in the Red Sea to my left, but
for all their valour, not a single fish from the men’s’ catch would go into
their famished mouths. Suddenly, a crash sounded in the living room and I
jerked up. My skin crawled with an ominous sense of foreboding.
My
father rushed out of the house and ran into the balcony, grabbing me roughly by
the shoulder. He was shaking, and blood covered the rags he donned on his frail
body. His scarlet eyes gleamed, and the shadow of a tear crossed his rugged
face. He pressed a few coins into my palms, our savings over the last few
months. ‘Hakim,’ he croaked, his voice barely louder than a whisper. ‘Run away.
Take your mother along with you. You’re man of the house now, you hear me? You
have to keep everyone safe.’ He tried to smile and touched my face. ‘My little
boy. My sweet, little boy. Now a man. You have to be brave, you hear me? Be
brave. For your Baba.’
Without
any sense of warning, he ran to the front and picked up a sharpened blade from
the tabletop. He prayed to God for forgiveness, reciting a prayer in the sweet
tongue of the villagers. Instantly, I understood. The soldiers had come. The
armed Islamists accompanied them, and I moved to the kitchen doorway, hiding
behind the curtain.
I
could do nothing but watch helplessly as they took him. Although they were
twenty in number and he was one, he thrashed and struggled, slashing his dagger swiftly
and skilfully. They were no match for him. But in his starved, weakened state,
he had no choice but to surrender before he collapsed. The sound of a gunshot
rang through the air, and I saw them take him away to a truck filled with other
bodies of innocent civilians, guiltless citizens, honest people who had done no
harm.
There was no time to
wallow in my self-pity, no time to mourn the loss of my beloved Baba. They
would be here soon, the evil, crooked people who were responsible for the
poverty, the starvation, the violence. But I had to be brave for Baba. He had
one last wish, and I would fulfil that even if it meant risking my own life. I
was the man of the house now. I rushed to Mama’s room, where she lay in the
bed. A cup rested on her bedside, and when she saw me, she got up, wheezing,
and coughed into her cup. Blood trailed from her mouth like a river, and
bruises lined her soft, peat-coloured skin. I touched her face with my hand, like
Baba had touched mine. ‘We have to leave,’ I told her. She seemed to
understand, and she got up, took her cup in her hand, and followed me. A
photograph of Baba lay on the table, and she picked it up, held it tightly, and
wept.
Pain wracked my body, and
in that moment, I hated the soldiers so viscerally it hurt. What right did they
have, these strangers in our country, in our home, to knock off those we loved
like they were pieces in a game board? What right did they have to destroy what
had been painstakingly built for years in a few minutes? Someday, they would
face the death they deserved. Someday, they would be mutilated and sullied
beyond repair. It was at that moment, standing beside my mother and watching tears
roll down her fragile skin, that I swore to avenge my father. The tender shards
of my soul lay shattered in the wake of the ruthless monster that had awoken within
me. The monster that was now crying for revenge.
So we set off. We knew not where, we knew not how, but any place other than here was safe. I would not let Mama go, and I would not let myself watch the house that my father had built so lovingly, with his own sweat and blood, burn to ashes. Only God could help us now.
Bibliography –___________________________________________________________________________________
Sahel: End Abuses in Counterterrorism Operations
Sahel: End Abuses in
Counterterrorism Operations (2021). Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/13/sahel-end-abuses-counterterrorism-operations
(Accessed: 9 October 2021).
Comments