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Rabins Dead
Etgar Keret
Rabins dead. It happened last night. He got run over by a scooter with a sidecar. Rabin died on the spot. The guy on the scooter got hurt real bad and passed out, and they took him away in an ambulance. They didnt even touch Rabin. He was so dead, there was nothing they could do. So me and Tiran picked him up and buried him in my back yard. I cried after that, and Tiran lit up and told me to stop crying cause I was getting on his nerves. But I didnt stop, and pretty soon he started crying too. Because much as I loved Rabin, Tiran loved him even more. Then we went to Tirans house, and there was a cop on the front stairs waiting to bag him, because the guy on the scooter had come to and squealed to the doctors at the hospital. He told them Tiran had bashed his helmet in with a crowbar. The cop asked Tiran why he was crying and Tiran said "Whos crying, you fascist motherfucking pig." The cop smacked him one, and Tirans father came out and wanted to take down the cops name and stuff, but the cop wouldnt tell him, and in less than five minutes, there mustve been like 30 neighbours standing there. The cop told them to take it easy, and they told him to take it easy himself. There was a lot of shoving, and it looked like someone was going to get clobbered again. Finally the cop left, and Tirans dad sat us both down in their living-room, and gave us some Sprite. He told Tiran to tell him what happened, and to make it quick, before the cop returned with backup. So Tiran told him hed hit someone with a crowbar but that it was someone who had it coming, and that the guyd squealed to the police. Tirans dad asked what exactly he had it coming for, and I could see right away that he was pissed off. So I told him it was the guy on the scooter that started it, cause first he ran Rabin over with his sidecar, then he called us names, and then he went and slapped me too. Tirans dad asked him if it was true, and Tiran didnt answer but he nodded. I could tell that he was dying for a cigarette but he was afraid to smoke next to his dad.
We found Rabin in the Square. Soon as we got off the bus we spotted him. He was just a kitten then, and he was so cold he was trembling. Me and Tiran and this uptown girl with a navel stud that we met there, we went to get him some milk. But at Espresso Bar they wouldnt give us any. And at Burger Ranch, they didnt have milk, cause theyre a meat place and theyre kosher, so they dont sell dairy stuff. Finally, at the grocery store on Frishman Street they gave us milk and an empty yoghurt cup, and we poured him some, and he lapped it up in one go. And Avishag that was the name of the girl with the stud said we ought to call him Shalom, because shalom means peace, and wed found him right in the Square where Rabin died for peace. Tiran nodded, and asked her for her phone number, and she told him he was really cute, but she had a boyfriend in the army. After she left, Tiran stroked the kitten and said that wed never in a million years call him Shalom, because Shalom is a sissy name. He said wed call him Rabin, and that the girl and her boyfriend in the army could go screw themselves for all he cared, cause maybe she had a pretty face but her body was really weird.
Tirans dad told Tiran it was lucky he was still a minor, but even that might not do him much good this time, because bashing people with a crowbar isnt like stealing gum from a candy store. Tiran still didnt say anything, and I could tell he was about to start crying again. So I told Tirans dad that it was all my fault, because when Rabin was run over I was the one who yelled it to Tiran. And the guy on the scooter, who was kind of nice at first, and even seemed sorry about what hed done, asked me what I was screaming for. And it was only when I told him that the cats name was Rabin that he lost his cool and slapped me. And Tiran told his dad: "First, the shit doesnt stop at the stop sign, then he runs over our cat, and after all that he goes and slaps Sinai. What did you expect me to do? Let him get away with it?" And Tirans dad didnt answer. He lit a cigarette, and without making a big deal of it, lit one for Tiran too. And Tiran said the best thing I could do would be to beat it, before the cops came back, so that at least one of us would stay out of it. I told him to lay off, but his dad insisted.
Before I went upstairs, I stopped for a minute at Rabins grave, and thought about what would have happened if we hadnt found him. About what his life would have been like then. Maybe hed have frozen to death, but probably someone else would have found him and taken him home, and then he wouldnt have been run over. Everything in life is just luck. Even the original Rabin after everyone sang the Hymn to Peace at the big rally in the Square, if instead of going down those stairs hed hung around a little longer, hed still be alive and they would have shot Peres instead. At least thats what they said on TV. Or else, if that girl in the square wouldnt have had that boyfriend in the army and shed given Tiran her phone number, and wed called Rabin Shalom, then he would have been run over anyway, but at least nobody would have got clobbered.
Translated by Miriam Shlesinger
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