Apeirogon

After his service in the Yom Kippur War (October 1973), Rami began work as a graphic designer making visuals for anyone along the political spectrum. Not long after Rami met Nurit, a woman from a good family and a general’s daughter. They began dating and were soon married. They had four children, and for a long time Rami lived a life of domestic bliss, even among the continual wars and skirmishes of the Israeli state.

After Smadar’s death, Rami begins to speak about it to whomever he can. He worries about repeating himself as he tells the story again and again, but it serves a purpose. As McCann writes, “when he spoke he saw Smadar again. Her oval face. Her brown eyes. Her turn-to-the-shoulder laughter. In a garden. In Jerusalem. With a white band in her hair” (47).

Eventually, Rami and Bassam began meeting almost every day as a part of their Parents Circle group. When Rami used new phrases to describe the event he had described so many times before, it would open the wounds all over again, and he could see in Bassam’s face that Bassam was freshly wounded as well. After a time, Rami and Bassam could finish each other’s stories.

The bombing that took Smadar’s life also took the lives of seven others. Paramedics rushed to the scene as quickly as possible and tended to the living first. Human appendages were scattered about.

Moti Richler, an older man recovering from surgery to aid his macular degeneration (a condition that causes the central point of vision to blur), sees an eyeball on the street after the bombing. He informs the authorities.

McCann shifts to Bassam’s grief as he stands in the hospital when the doctors inform him his daughter is likely going to die. They bring up organ donation to him. They explain to him that there are many who need such donations. Bassam and his wife, however, decide not to let the doctors take their child’s organs.

Abir had a gift for memorization, she could remember long passages from the Qur’an or poems. She was also gifted in mathematics. Bassam had no doubts she would pass her test that she was never able to take.

At the hospital, the blood from the impact of the rubber bullet was pooling in Abir’s skull. The doctors needed a CT scan, but the machine had been inoperative for a month. They needed to transfer her to an Israeli hospital in Ein Kerem, where Smadar was born. Bassam insists that they send her to Hadassah, but the doctor reminds him the entire city of Jerusalem is gridlocked. Bassam says he knows people who can help with the roadblocks. Bassam sat in the back of the ambulance with Abir. They didn’t move for an hour. While waiting, Bassam stepped out to pray. After over two hours, the ambulance was given the okay to move.

At the new hospital, Abir was kept alive for another two and half days. Reporters swarmed around, and several false stories, such as she was struck by a rock, were bandied by the news outlets. Even in the court case four years later, a judge had to dismiss that Abir was killed by boys throwing rocks rather than the rubber bullet.

Smadar’s death was surrounded by just as much misinformation. Reports varied on how many died from the bombing and who carried out the terrorist act.