The Siren

It’s 2:30am and the siren goes off. No time for a pinch to distinguish between reality and a dream, I need to somehow get oriented and head for shelter. I cannot find my glasses! Only 20 seconds left at this point, better just go.

How could this be happening? It’s 2014 and the Jew still needs to run for his life! At least we now get warned of the incoming danger, a true luxury of the modern Jew. I am an American though, why are you trying to kill me? Oh, but I am still a Jew…

What about the deaf and the blind? Did anyone wake them up and lead them to safety? How about the Holocaust survivors? Have they not run enough? And the single mom in Sderot? How did she manage to get her three little kids out of bed in just those fifteen seconds?

“Boom, Boom, Boom” Iron Dome prevails once again. Back to bed.

I cannot fall asleep. The sound of the siren is still reverberating. Will it go off again? The country is losing its hearing. I am not the only one awake right now. A father mourns late into the night over the death of a son in battle. A girlfriend wonders when she will see her lover again. Under the chuppah or by the grave?

It’s 7am now, I must’ve fallen asleep. Over my morning coffee, I wonder again if the siren was just in my dream. Everything seems so normal though. People walking the streets and cars honking. Do people just have short memories here?