The Magnificent Essence of Madness by Amnon Dvir

Author:Amnon Dvir [Dvir, Amnon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

We’re back in our room at Ein Yahav. We’ve all showered and are lying in our underwear on the clean sheets Rina has provided us. There’s a pleasant rumbling sound coming from the settlement’s centralized air control unit. “The doctors say I’m in remission,” Shlomo tells us, “A good patch for me of course, but with one foot in the netherworld, nonetheless. To tell the truth, I prefer the straightforward approach to extinction myself, and you know what? With every passing day the path to that netherworld comes into sharper focus, its inevitability… I see it clearly, like the crystal-clear waters of the river Styx. Time to move on folks, let’s get it over with already, say amen and go home. I mean, what’s left for me in this world anyway? I’m not married, I don’t have any kids, I don’t have any family, I don’t even have a dog!”

“I’ll be your dog,” I tell him. I slide down to the floor on all fours, stick out my tongue and start panting. Meanwhile I slant my head and look at him adorably, man’s best and most obedient friend.

“Don’t be such a stupid bitch,” Shlomo tells me, throwing one of his worn-out slippers at me.

“You’re the stupid bitch,” I shout back at him. “Where’d all this pathetic self-pity of yours come from anyway?”

Shlomo says nothing and I immediately regret my harsh words. A minute passes and then he says, “you’re right, it’s all pointless anyway.”

Suddenly, I’m frightened. “What the hell are you talking about?” I ask him.

Shlomo explains: “What I mean is, why would anyone bother anymore? How are people supposed to react when I say something like that anyway? Are they supposed to feel sorry for me? Act like I’m making small talk and nod sympathetically? Or maybe just pay attention? What I really should do is just keep my mouth shut and try to die as discretely as possible, like I said before, you know, without causing anyone too much distress… And, by the way, excuse me for being so morbid.”

I lie on my back, staring at the ceiling, and wonder to myself what it will be like when Shlomo is gone. Will the age of luminescence really come to an end? Will the time of the giants be no more? And what indeed will cause him to finally self-destruct? Will it be remorse? Ruin? Neglect? Emptiness? Loneliness? And who will be most affected by his death? Who will wrestle most with his absence?

“Most of the material world is sinking into mediocrity,” Shlomo continues on a somewhat different note, “It’s all around us, getting worse all the time, and there’s no way of knowing where it will stop! Even the sharpest minds have already been dulled by American television, and they call it entertainment for god’s sake! Skullduggery, that’s what I call it, fraud on a monumental scale, a sucker born every minute! Morally uplifting, is that what it’s supposed to be? Give me a break! Show me even your best reality show and I’ll show you a complete flop.

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