Page 22 of Caleb
I think.
Miss Murphy nods twice, wordlessly asking me to carry on.
“You know, terrorists back home enjoy picking special Jewish holidays to carry out their agendas. It can be as simple as blasting Molotov bombs on a crossing terminal on Shabbat to more elaborate schemes like a double suicide bombing on Hanukkah, like last December.”
Miss Murphy is shaking her head, and the look on her face is filled with disgust. But she looks engaged in the conversation, so I keep going.
“The Tel Aviv-Yafo area was being heavily patrolled by the military because there’d been talk about certain threats being made by both the PFLP and the Fatah-related Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. But threats are made on a daily basis by them and other organizations, and since it was the first day of Hanukkah, we thought it didn’t hurt to be extra cautious.
“The minute the sun went down, we heard the first explosion. We got radio confirmation about the detonation happening at a bus stop at the Geha Junction, near Petah Tikva. My team, Yon included, and I weren’t far from the area. And when we got there, it was a mess. We parked our vehicle near the blast zone and quickly realized that about twenty Israeli civilians were severely wounded and needed immediate medical attention. We later discovered that four people were killed in that first attack.”
It’s tough to reminisce but talking about this feels better than expected. And the tricky part is coming up, but I will try to condense it as much as possible because I am wary about the feelings that might arise when I mention Yon’s death. That is, if Miss Murphy’s not thrown aback by the whole situation before I even get to that. So it’s best to double-check.
“How are we doing?”
“Oh, I’m fine,” she says with a slight shake of her head. “Don’t worry about me. You can keep going.”
I secretly wish I could reach for my cigarette box inside my jacket pocket and light one up. It’s one of those conversations.
“Anyway, we were all busy getting the situation under control, cordoning off the area—focused on the task at hand—when Yon saw a suspicious man in the distance and immediately pointed him out to me. He was wearing a loose, brown robe, and the lower half of his face was concealed under a black piece of cloth that ran all around his neck. He was fast approaching a convenience store on the other side of the street, not far from where the first explosion happened, and something just didn’t feel right. So Yon and I let our team know we were going after him. They stayed behind, keeping the situation under control, helping out, and waiting for medical assistance and backup, which was underway.
“The moment the man saw us closing in on him, he lifted his robe with one hand, holding what seemed like a homemade detonator while pointing at us with a gun with the other. And by the time he revealed the explosives attached to his waist, Yon and I were already pointing back at him with our X95s.”
“What’s an X95?”
“It’s—an assault rifle.”
She manages to keep a straight face, so I carry on, hoping she can stomach the rest of the story.
“The man started shouting at us in Arabic, so we didn’t understand what he was saying. And from what I could see from where we stood, there weren’t many people inside the convenience store, but it wasn’t empty.
“The man lifted the hand that held the detonator over his head and started chanting a prayer, so we knew this guy was getting ready to push the trigger. But out of nowhere, Yon turns my way, and two shots are fired. One from Yon and another from the suicide bomber.
“It took me two seconds to understand what was happening, and another second to notice a dead man behind me, dressed in the same type of robe as the suicide bomber. Next thing I know, Yon’s falling to his knees beside me, the right side of his neck bleeding heavily. And one beat later, the suicide bomber detonated the explosives inside the convenience store.”
Miss Murphy took her hands to her mouth and gasped. I took a few seconds to pull in a deep breath before carrying on.
“My ears were ringing, and I couldn’t see much from the smoke and dust. We were far enough that the blast didn’t hurt us, but I felt the heat wave from the explosion rippling our way. I lifted Yon from the ground and moved him further away.” I swallow hard at the memory. “He was alive and somehow trying to apply pressure to the wound, but he seemed weak, and I wanted to get closer to the paramedics who were already on site.”
This is not “condensing” the story. If anything, I’m virtually reliving it as I’m going, but there’s no way for me to stop now. I’m even remembering little things—details that I’d decided to forget. But it’s my selfish need to get this off my chest that’s keeping me going. And Miss Murphy’s cheeks are still rosy. She’s not paling, nor does she appear to be bored with the conversation. On the contrary, she seems immersed in it.
I keep going.
“The scene was chaotic. The police and military reinforcements arrived, ambulances wailed in the close distance, and paramedics carted the wounded away. And amidst the chaos, I saw Yon moving his lips, probably mumbling something that I couldn’t hear, so I put him down and applied pressure to the wound myself. I kept telling him everything was going to be okay as I looked around and desperately tried to get him medical attention, but he grabbed my wrist and made me look at him.Fuck—”
I lay my hands on my knees and let my head hang for a moment. I take a deep breath and shake my head, feeling the injustice of it all burning me whole.
“I’m—shit—I’m sorry about the fuck,” I say. “And the shit.” I look away and smile, but I’m sure she can tell it’s laced with sadness and grief.
She snorts and shakes her head, her bright eyes filled with compassion, making me feel like having cursed in front of her is the least of her concerns.
“I’m so sorry you went through all of that,” Miss Murphy says, placing her hand over mine for a swift couple of seconds. It almost makes me pull away before she does—that and the fact that Aaron’s probably closely observing our interaction.
I wasn’t expecting her to reach out to me. I wasn’t expectingherwhen I accepted Aaron’s job offer. Period.
It’s time to wrap up.
“Yonathan smiled at me. Even at that moment, he managed to smile, pulled me closer to him, and said, ‘A life for a life.’ And I could barely make out what he just said between the ringing in my ears and the chaos surrounding us. But I heard him. And when I looked at him again, he was gone.” I pause, reflecting on Yon’s last words and his glassy, empty gaze. “You’re the only person besides me who knows this. I guess I’m just … I’m still reeling from it all.”
