Terrorist
becomes Journalist
by Albert Russo
The instant Haniya realized
that the soldieress was Ethiopian - she reminded
her of Lady Ziva so uncannily -, her eyes blurred,
her lips quivered and she felt as if all her
veins had been emptied of their blood. She then
cried out: ‘Ziva’, and let herself
slump over the ground.
She went on mumbling ‘Ziva,
Ziva’, and broke into tears. Seeing this
sudden change of attitude, the soldieress took
pity on her, helped the girl stand up and cuffed
her hands.
I have to interrupt the
story here, coz I just heard a critic, the
critter, say that I ain’t believable on
account that I use different styles when I write.
Tough luck, I says to all critters like him, you’re
not my audience. I care not a hoot about your
opinion. Shoo. When things get too touchy or even
tragic, like in this case, I call Shake’m
pears to my rescue and get compashonately
ladida, dropping all the shtistics
and the shenanigans. I’m not your amusement
park clown, ok!
“Now calm down,”
said the soldieress, “you will tell us all
about this at the central police station.”
Haniya avoided to look in
the direction of her lovey dovey, who was taken
care of by two male colleagues. He was hobbling
along, wincing with pain, and keeping mum. His
eyes were bleary with fatigue and contained rage.”
The two would-be ‘freedom
fighters’, as Ahmad called themselves, were
then led handcuffed to the police station. Haniya’s
vest, now half open, showed a row of home made
explosives sown to its felt lining. Goddess
almighty!
The police allowed Haniya
to make one call. As soon as Lady Ziva learnt
that her protégée was locked up, she ran to see
her. Fortunately Lady Ziva had a few good
acquaintances among the authorities, on account
that she had to intervene several times in the
past to bail out teenagers who had either robbed
people or burglarized an apartment. Yeah, Lady
Ziva was the Mother Teresa of petty thiefs and
teenage delinquents.
As soon as she was
introduced into Haniya’s cell, the ladder
began to sob like a bubbling volcano, all the
while she burped and hiccoughed, then she
clutched Lady Ziva’s neck like a wild cat.
On account that the girl was hurting her, she
whispered to her ear so that no one could hear:
“If you want me to get you out of here, stop
your antics and behave!”
Instead of going to prison,
thanks to Lady Ziva’s explanations, Haniya
was sent to a ‘Correction Center’ where
she did social work, all the while learning
several skills, among which, writing, sowing and
journalism.
After nine months of
learning and hard discipline, Haniya was released
and got back to the shelter.
For Lady Ziva’s
birthday, she offered her a leather-bound note
book, with a long essay she wrote about ‘The
secret Jews’ of Ethiopia, after having done
much research and interviewed some of the
Ethiopian folk who resided in South Tel Aviv.
|
