a time of terror

Topic started by rassool snyman (@ netcache1-ctn.is.co.za) on Sun Feb 8 05:14:15 EST 2004.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

A Time of Terror

A shot rings out at a lonely Israeli checkpoint. The officer rushes out to investigate and sees a young Israeli soldier, cigarette dangling casually from his lips, a still smoking gun clutched in his hands standing over a spread-eagled corpse. Little dust devils do swirling dances and a hawk screeches a lonely cry high over the frozen tableau, the desert seemed to stand still and almost to be holding its breath.
“What happened” the officer asked his hand on his sidearm
“ Just killed terrorist…. Sir” he answered in a voice tinged with insolence
“How did you know”?
“He had a beard like the fanatical Hamas, Bin Laden, al Qaeeda types. Sir”
“And”?
“He was a trouble maker sir, when I asked him to stop, he said I should. The cheek of it”
“When I asked for his travel documents he said “all men have the right to free travel over his father’s lands”
“Then”
“I asked him where was he from. He remained silent and just pointed at the sky”
“Any way he has been in the hands of the security forces before. And he seemed like a real tough one sir. They seemed to have gone over him quite a bit. He had wounds on his hands and feet and they seemed to almost go right through” he then gave a sardonic laugh and said “ they must have made him sings a symphony when they did the feet routine …sir”
“ You say that with almost a sense of glee soldier.” Said the officer with distaste
“ This is our land sir, God promised it to us and no damn Arab will take it from us or put one dirty foot on it” said the soldier with cold, grim determination
“What made you shoot him”?
“He was walking straight up to me and had that fanatical look all these fundamentalist have, and said he had a message for me”
“Was that when you shot him”?
“ No sir when he reached into his garment, he was reaching for something, I didn’t wait to find out so I shot him. Regulations permit me to sir” he said defiantly.
The officer trembled, his face turned an ashen hue as he read the blood soaked paper retrieved from the still body
“Unless all men lay down their arms and live like brothers the wrath of the Lord shall descend like locusts and smite them. Signed the son of Mary,” read the scarlet sheet.
“Did he say what his name was”? He whispered with a quaver in his voice
“Jesus or something like that” said the private prodding the body with his hob-nailed boot.


Copyright 2003 © Rassool Jibraeel Snyman


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