‘Rockets and Ice Cream’ by Sarah Perle, Israel

Our silly crazy world.

Just went to the neighborhood supermarket. It was a few minutes after hearing a couple of distant “booms”. The place was incredibly empty and quiet, especially for a Thursday night. The old smiley security man at the entrance told me that they shut down the radio to make sure they could hear the sirens.

As I walked in the aisles, I grasped glimpses of conversations; clients and employees were whispering; discussing, either the last events or the price of the watermelons. Only young adults around me. As one of the employees was cleaning the floor, a cashier left her sit and came to him with a smile: “Clean it well, we spent our morning lying down on this floor today!” It was half a joke.

Standing in line, the shopping cart of the man before me caught my attention. It was full of all sorts of ice creams. I probably stared too long. He told me with a sad and embarrassed voice: “I told my kids the siren means that they can have an ice cream…” What an absurd and crazy world of ours.