Six Sentence Story - Fly

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the message was sweet, but she didn't really know how to respond to her friend's offer to fly her back to the States because of her projection of her own fears about the missiles currently being shot at Israel since they and the US had preemptively chosen to strike at Iran in what was definitely NOT a war, but rather a rescue mission for the people who have been horrifically oppressed by the current regime there for close to 50 years.

after deliberating for some time, she responded as gently as she could that not only did she NOT have any plans to leave her new home, but that the airspace was closed anyway, no airlines were flying in or out, and the only way anyone could conceivably find a flight out was by crossing over land into Jordan or Egypt, or traveling by sea to Cypress, all of which were just as - if not more - dangerous than simply sitting in her building's bomb shelter with her neighbors when the alerts went off.

(pause in the writing - there go the sirens now!)

she continued on to say that from her sun-drenched porch she could see grandmothers toting shopping bags full of groceries, mothers pushing strollers laden with babies, children playing in the street (schools are currently closed due to the situation), and that even though only essential businesses are 'supposed to' be open, the variety store, the pizza shop, the pet supply store, the little clothing store, the party store, the nut shop, the schwarma restaurant, and the small neighborhood market were all open, and that was just on her block - one block away there were several more markets and shops doing business, including the McDonald's in the central bus station where the buses were still keeping to their schedules (to say nothing of the rest of the city).

and people were singing and dancing out in the street, as well, since it was technically a holiday, though gatherings had also been prohibited, and congregations were forbidden from assembling to read their sacred scroll that is only read on one night out of the year - the scroll featuring the story of Esther (and Vashti) who married the king in order to save her people (the Jews) from annihilation back around 480 BCE.

she concluded by saying that she was in no way living in fear, that this is just the way things were there, and when the 'all clear' was sounded they went back to doing whatever it was they were doing before they were rudely interrupted by those who are constantly trying to kill them, such as dressing up in costumes to celebrate a holiday with their children, rejoicing at their continued survival, mourning those who were sadly killed by recent missile strikes, or writing a blog post about how they explain to their friends that they're never leaving their homeland again because they feel safer in Israel than they did back in the US where people they used to consider friends dressed up in Made in China keffiyahs (popularized back in the 1960's by an Egyptian terrorist) while openly calling for the death of all Jews/Israelis/Zionists, and pretending to know more about Western Asia (note the post-colonial geographical language) than those who have been doing this dance their whole lives.