Jonathots Daily Blog
(4078)
Sitting Twenty-Four
Pada was surprised at how easy it was to acquire the address of the gentile boy’s father. He drove to the home, walked up and knocked on the door.
When it opened, a man stood there in front of him, not that different from himself, both in appearance and in countenance—not a mirror image, but still—more alike than different.
Pada spoke deliberately. “Are you the father of Amir?”
“Who are you?” the man responded.
“I am the father of Jubal.”
“And who is Jubal?” he countered.
Pada drew a deep breath. “He is the boy with your son, in the desert.”
The man in the doorway vigorously shook his head. “You mean the boy who has tricked my son into disobeying his father, and who is living like an animal in the sand?”
Pada was up to the fight. “That’s strange. I thought it was your boy who deceived my son.”
The two men eyed each other.
There was no semblance of friendliness—no indication that an invitation would be extended to enter the home. This conversation certainly would be conducted standing in the doorway.
Pada continued. “I didn’t come here to argue with you, but I guess, to ask you, overall, what do you think we should do?”
The man smirked. “You want my opinion?”
Pada pursued with more vehemence. “Actually, I want an answer. Your opinion will suffice.”
The man leaned in a little closer and responded coldly, “I think until my people are given their freedom and the land they deserve, such atrocities by the children will be rampant.”
Pada sighed. “Ah. Politics. Must it always be politics? I am here to talk about our children, not the condition of our people.”
Amir’s father raised his finger and pointed at Pada’s face. “But it is about our people. It’s about thousands of years of you Jews arrogantly believing that you are the only sons granted inheritance in this land. I am a son of Abraham.”
“I am, too,” insisted Pada. “But that can’t be possible, because there’s no way that the two of us could actually be brothers.”
Amir’s father stiffened. “I do not want to be your brother. I just want my father’s inheritance.”
Pada stepped back to escape the intensity. “Why can’t we speak of our children?” he pleaded.
“What children?” the man asked.
“Your son—Amir, am I right? And my son, Jubal.”
Amir’s father shook his head. “I don’t know if you have a son named Jubal, but I have no son named Amir. You see, disgrace has no name, and dishonor cannot live in my house.”
Pada shook his head. “Nor will I allow it to live in mine,” he retorted. “Jubal is a shame to me. Yet he is my shame.”
The angry man moved as if he was going to close the door but stopped short of completing the deed. He spoke through a smaller crack. “I have no shame, for I have no disgrace, for I have no son named Amir.”
He was about to finish closing the door but stalled, inserting a thought. “Do you really expect to come to my house as a Jew and talk to me of earthly things? Family and children? If we do not agree on the heavenly, how can we ever discern the earth? You are not my enemy. You are just nothing at all.”
Having completed his speech, Amir’s father slammed the door Pada’s face. He stood for a moment, wondering whether to pound on the door until the man responded, but finally turned on his heel and made his way down the steps to his car.
For a moment, he wondered if he had a part in causing the rage in Amir’s father, or bringing about the disrespect he felt from Jubal.
Then all at once he remembered his own father’s words: “The Palestinians will serve us, just as our children are born to do so.”
Pada smiled and nodded his head. So it was, so it is and so it shall be.
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