by Amos Talshir
“Charlie, you have to know this. We were happy together at the stadium; I was happy. You have to find our child. I lost him and Rose. They ran away toward the sea. Charlie, find our boy and get him back. We can stay here, we’re happy here. We don’t have to run away just because everyone else is.”
Charlie continued carrying her all the way from the tunnel to the outer concourse leading to the gates. They had to get to Simon, waiting on the bluff looking over the great sea. Charlie wished Simon had managed to escape to the sea. He was growing weak. Where were Rose and his baby? He tried to take control of the situation. What to do first? They had a few hundred yards to go until the gates, and then a bit longer to the bluff, and from there, they would go down to the sea, but where was the baby? Where was Rose? He had to keep breathing evenly, like when swimming, to breathe into his body, into his arms and legs, to keep going.
The crowd around him began to thin. Most of them had burst out through the exit gates in the opposite direction, into the city. The locals knew there was no way out in this direction; the sea closed in on the stadium. Maybe Simon was still waiting, although he had told him to escape.
“Charlie, put me down. I can run. I need to find my baby in the stadium. Let me look for our child. Stop, Charlie, stop.”
Veronica began to beat at Charlie. He continued to hold her, crossing through the open gates. He would get to the bluff.
Veronica was going wild in his arm. “Charlie, don’t you understand what I’m saying? I want my baby. I need to get back to the stadium.”
With the remainder of his strength, Charlie managed to reach the bluff with the struggling Veronica in his arms.
“I have nowhere to run to. I’m staying here with our baby.”
“You’re with me, Veronica, you’re with me and our baby will be with us.”
“Where’s my baby? They love me here, Charlie. They love to dance with me.”
Even from afar, Charlie could see that Simon wasn’t there. Veronica was writhing in his arms, and he allowed her to stand on her feet when both of them reached the abandoned bluff. They stood on the edge of the bluff and looked out on the sea, visible across from them, stretching into the horizon.
Hundreds of yards from the shore, dozens of yards above the water, a gigantic flock of bats was hovering. Thousands of pairs of delicate wings formed an umbrella, their thin talons carrying Simon’s blanket, which was wrapped around the small body of baby Batman. His little arms were stretched out at his sides like a soaring bird. His head was held high and his feet were paddling in the air like a fish’s fin.
The cloud of bats cruising through the air cast a protective shadow on two ribbons of foam trailing in the wake of the two swimmers making their way through the water. The two swam side by side. Charlie easily recognized Simon’s colorful blanket in which his baby was swaddled. The colony of bats flew over the two swimmers, advancing at a steady pace toward the heart of the sea. Charlie, trembling with fatigue, hugged Veronica, who hung onto his shoulder.
“Charlie, Simon will take care of our baby, right, Charlie?”
“Don’t worry. Simon’s a boy who takes good care of anything you give him. Come on. Swimming is like walking. All you have to do is breathe.”
“Charlie, I was happy in the stadium.”
About the Author
Amos Talshir was born in 1950, at Kibbutz Ma’ale HaHamisha, and grew up in Beer Sheva. After his military service, he studied film and communications at the Tel Aviv University. Upon obtaining his degree in 1977, he published his first book, Like Dogs Bound Together. His second book, Little Believer, was released in 1978.
During his thirty years of working in the advertising world, Amos led a group of media and communication companies under his ownership and in partnership with the international media giant Publicis. As the CEO of the company in Israel Amos was a pioneer in interactive media internet advertising, then went on to build a network of communications companies in Israel. When he left the industry in 2007, he finally found time for his first loves: writing and carpentry.
In 2008, his third book, God Loves Me, was published and since then, Talshir has published six more books (Wounded Lion, Tarzan Will Suddenly Appear, Provincial, Provincial Poems, Sudden Lockdown, Romance in Black and White).
In the last two years Amos Talshir has returned to academia, receiving a master’s degree in Education and Society.
Message from the Author
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