Category: To Read

Mika liked ice-cream very, very, very much. Or at least he thought he did. Because he only tried ice-cream once in his entire life, when he secretly took a bite of his friend Lisa’s ice-cream. Mom forbad him to Even Think about ice cream because You know why. Mika knew, understood and comprehended. He was a very serious six-year-old man. He wasn’t crying, whining or complaining. He knew – if The Worst Thing happened and he got Sick, his mom would never be able to get over it. His mom has already experienced a Terrible Grief once, and one more...

Saul was the old-fashioned name his mother gave him. It’s a king’s name, she used to say. The very first king of Israel, noble and fearless. A bit strung up though. But great, nonetheless. She used to call him Shaul ha-meleh, her king Saul. He hated that name, to be honest. But he never told his mom, he didn’t want to upset her. Every time he passed Shaul ha-meleh bus stop, he cringed internally, and then got angry at himself for letting such small stuff get to him. A future pilot must be calm and cool-headed, he was telling himself....

“I have to make amends to my mother” – Noa thought, staring vacantly at the empty winter beach. “It’s been so many years. And after all, it wasn’t her fault. Probably. That’s what all the doctors say.” And right away she folded in unbearable pain. No, I can’t, she groaned, damned be that day, damned be her who…- but then she retracted, slapping herself on the lips and asking for forgiveness – from her mother, from the Heavens, from God… “…for the waters have come up to my neck, I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold”...

She came here after a nasty divorce, after losing the job she loved, after the murky swamp of the job she hated and a total and utter change of all of her life paradigm, complete with lack of money. Deception, humiliation and the burning desire to crawl under the covers and have everything return to the way it used to be, the eyes she used to love, and now couldn’t stand – all of it tangled into one rough disgusting blob stuck in her throat, not even letting her draw a breath. Her departure was just like diving into dark...

Nothing made him happy anymore. Not the beach, not his job, not the salary… a pretty decent salary for a newcomer, mind you. He got tired of smiling, clapping on the shoulders of people he hardly even knew, and shouting: Good morning, bro! What’s up, bro? Great, bro, I’m doing great, never better. Bro this, bro that, but when he came down with the highest fever, not a single prick came by or even called… He was tired of spending alone the holidays he failed to make his own, and also the ones nobody here heard of. He started leaving...

If he had to choose just one single memory he could take with him when he leaves – he would have chosen that morning when he was sitting by the piano on his tall chair when a sly green eye peered through the door, then a gap-toothed smile floated in, and right there he was, a red-headed boy with his hands behind his back, solemnly introducing himself: “Andrey Petrovich!” “Huh?” – A six-year-old Shlomic was confused. – “And…Pet…It’s a joke, right?” – He suddenly realized, after totally messing up the third syllable. “Not at all”, - Andrey Petrovich sounded deeply...

She used to say: “The square tower is the most normal one. Four normal parallel walls, four corners, and not this God-knows-what… I don’t get this fancy architecture. Though it looks all right, I guess, pretty nice. On the out-side. Honestly, I wouldn’t survive a minute inside a triangle… “ He used to say: “I love this asymmetric insanity so much, the sharp angles and weird little corners, I really love our trian-gular tower. Those people inside the square must be so bored! Or maybe they are just as boring and square themselves…” She used to say: “What kind of...

They met by those chairs in Meir Park, where they both used to walk their dogs. While the dogs were doing their business, they would sit there and chat relentlessly: about their work and their bosses, cats and dogs, ships and space shuttles, and then about their childhood, and about feelings. They talked about love, too – first hesitantly, with an awkward smile, and then they didn’t have to say a thing anymore, they were both sitting on one chair, whispering sweet nonsense to each other, ignoring all the people passing through the alley. The same alley she was shambling...