Death has exhausted “Um Michael”, so she decided to slip away from it and come back to life. She wanted to see what had happened during her absence with her own eyes. Fifty years had passed since her departure, during which dramatic changes had occurred. Half a century had already passed since her picture appeared for the first and last time in the newspaper. Word had reached her even in her grave that the situation in her beloved Jerusalem turned upside down. She would hardly imagine that.
She had risen from afar searching for the newspaper in which Abu Michael had announced her death. She wanted to be sure that he had honored her memory as well as she deserved. However, Um Michael could not find the paper. She felt so sad and tears started to drop from her eyes. She felt tired from death, and life as well. She cursed the technology as it stole that moment when “Abu Michael” used to return from his café back home and give her the daily newspaper.
One of the homes confiscated by settlers in the Old City of Jerusalem
Abu Michael never neglected to “meticulously” go through the newspaper from the first page to the last one. He would never forget to read the horoscopes, obituaries, crosswords, weather forecasts, and all that was happening in the world of politics, economics, art, culture, and astronomy. After he finished reading, he would hand it over to Um Michael, who would then store it in the “pantry” next to sacks of rice, sugar, and flour. The newspaper had many uses beyond just lining the shelves of the “Namliyeh” in the kitchen, where the olive oil, za’atar (thyme), apricot jam, water glasses, and food plates were kept. Sometimes, Um Michael would grab the newspaper with both hands and start polishing the windows’ glass with it. When she had extra newspapers, she would generously offer them to the roaming lupine seller in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, so he could make paper cones and put his lupine in it. Other times, she would give some to the children playing in the neighborhood to make paper kites from it. The children would then release their kites to the sky of Jerusalem during their summer school holidays.
Um Michael bit her fingers in regret for having returned. Life means you are feeling what is happening around you, seeing it with your own eyes, and as they say, “seeing is not like hearing”. She was in shock. She wished she had never left the other world under the earth, unaware of what took place above it. Sometimes, the unknown is more merciful than being aware of what is going on around. She felt an overwhelming sense of alienation from the place and time she once had lived in. She decided to go back there, to where she had come from where Abu Michael awaited her anxiously. For her, death had become the synonym of life. There was no longer a difference between both. At least, in that other world, she would be near Abu Michael, where they could relive the most beautiful memories of their life together. She disappeared gradually again, however, a distant voice refused to stop whispering to her: “Don’t be sad, Grandma. Wipe the dropping tears on your cheeks” for the Spring is coming back and will fill the place with blossoms again, and do not forget to spread this word to Grandpa, Abu Michael, when you reach there”.
Published on May 20, 2021
