The Bones of Barry Knight by Emma Musty

Author:Emma Musty
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Legend Press

22

WALLS AND

OTHER LUXURIES

OMAR

I’m back in Jerusalem and I realise no hotel will take me in looking as I do, so I go to find a barber shop. It’s not so far from the centre, a place a colleague recommended once, and as I sit in the chair I hear chanting. The protesters are using a mix of Hebrew, Arabic and English.

When my beard and hair are finished, and I look like an upstanding citizen once again, I follow the sound. There are hundreds of people in Balfour Street outside the prime minister’s residence, asking for an end to the occupation. They are Israeli and Palestinian and whoever else is around, and so I join them. I raise up my voice in the languages I know and finally, after longer than I can remember, I sense that there is real hope.

In the crowd I realise I don’t feel like a foreigner anymore, but neither do I feel like a local, and this is okay. I am somewhere in-between.

A group of children are holding a blown-up photograph of a school. I got to ask them about it.

‘They came with the bulldozers to my cousin’s school in the West Bank,’ says one girl.

‘They did the same to my home in East Jerusalem,’ says another girl, tall with dark eyes, serious beyond her years, and quietly desperate to be heard. ‘When you go home, tell the people there what has happened.’

I nod, and I want to say more, but the police are beginning to round people up, and we scatter as shouts bounce off the buildings. By the time I’ve caught my breath, leaning against an ancient wall that could tell more tales of bloodshed than I would care to hear – the pain of all the peoples piled into this small strip of land – I’m glad I didn’t get the chance to reply. Because what could I have told her but the truth.

‘They know,’ I would have said. ‘They all know.’

And what would that have left her?

Sometimes, even hope is a luxury.

I walk slowly to the same hotel I stayed in with Amanda, having called ahead to check they have a room. Entering it I take on the mantle of my previous life. In the lift up to my room I can’t even look myself in the eye.

Inside, despite myself, I run my hand along the surfaces. The off-white carpet still feels luxurious under my naked feet, the towels, the dressing gown, each one a minor miracle. There have been times when I thought I would never let myself experience this kind of life again.

The sound of running water while the shower warms up.

Steam on mirrors.

Views across a city from above.

Brand new socks, white just to see how clean they are.

Fans that chase the heat away.

Air conditioning.

Aftershave.

It makes me dizzy.

I take a shit on the gleaming white porcelain throne, cleaner than so many places I have slept. Regal in its pristine perfection, its water flowing freely. More water for one shit than some people in Gaza have in a day.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.