2023

WHEN:

2023

HOW:

It is hot, and I’m in a rush. I need to peek up some of our family belongings from home. We had to leave it quite sudden. I feel strange about going back there even though it has only been a few days since we had left. Our “Sweet 2 minutes from the beach” apartment, as we used to sell it on Airbnb, is now in an area that is considered highly dangerous, and everyone is escaping from.

I feel disconnected when I think about the situation and what caused it. An unrecognized and severe pollution started in the sea and spread to the air. Now it is impossible to stay outside without a special suit, like the one I’m wearing at the moment.

I feel anxiety but it’s mixed with excitement. I remember this feeling from a different time back in my childhood. My mother was attacked, and I managed to do something, close the door after the attacker left. I think of that now. I feel it now.

So now we must leave Tel Aviv. The predictions are that it will take it about 5 years to become habitable again. And then, a happy thought comes to mind - we can start fresh. Start over. But it doesn’t last long.  Where will we go? I am worried. My son and my husband are waiting in the cooler-tent, the temporary safe area the government arranged for the citizens of the area. Maybe I shouldn’t have left. I do not feel relaxed that we had separated, even just for a short while.

WHERE:

In the empty streets of Tel Aviv, just a few minutes from home.

WHAT:

I am walking fast, wearing an “isolating suit”.

WITH WHOM: 

She is so soft, my baby girl. I’m carrying her on my body, under the cooler suit. She’s so loving. I want to get home, to be there with her one last time. My boobs are full. She needs to eat.