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 through right now – blinded, frozen, numb with pain. Without thinking, without feeling a thing. Somewhere at the very edge of her consciousness his gaze still stung, blank and irritated. Unbearably cruel. Just as were his words – and what are you doing here? And his hand, stroking someone else’s shoulder.

A couple of very young teens looked taken aback upon seeing her face.
“We’ve got to help her” – The girl said, – “She looks awful”. – “But what can we do?” – The boy asked. The girl didn’t know.

While she was pondering, a man passed them by running. He caught up with the woman, grasped her by the shoulder, made her turn around, clasping her in his arms.

She looked into his gray eyes, refusing to believe. Those warm beloved eyes filled with tears.
“Forgive me, please forgive me” – He kept pleading again and again.
He didn’t know what else to say, how to fix it, how to explain this stupid, stupid haze that evaporated as soon as she left that coffee shop, walking like a wooden dummy.

She wavered, and suddenly something cracked in that ice cap, and a warm sliver of hope slithered in.

“Let’s sit down” – He started fussing and made her sit on the familiar chair. He himself knelt on the ground, burying his face in her lap without saying a word, hoping for a miracle of forgiveness.

“Get up, it’s cold” – She said in a rugged voice. She put her hand on top of his head, gently clasping a lock of his hair.
“It’s okay” – He mumbled, overwhelmed with joy, “I’m fine right here. It’s fine, everything’s going to be fine now”.

 

Translated by Diana Shnaiderman-Pereira

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