A literary, historical and political repositry

The Secret Life of Saeed

One day a Jewish boy who had sat down unnoticed beside me surprised me with the question, “In what language are you speaking, uncle?”

“In Arabic.”

“With whom?”

“With the fish.”

“Do the fish understand only Arabic?”

“Yes, the old fish, the ones that were here when the Arabs were.”

“And the young fish, do they understand Hebrew?”

“They understand Hebrew, Arabic, and all languages. The seas are wide and flow together. They have no borders and have room for enough for all fish.”

“Wow!”

The boy’s father called him and he hurried away. I heard them speaking and smiled back at them. The child seemed to think I was King Soloman, and I saw them gesturing in my direction. His father smiled and they came over toward me. The child clearly felt great respect for me and insisted on staying beside me for a while. I gave him a little fish. He talked to it but it did not respond. I told him, “It’s still too young.” He threw it back in so that it could grown and learn how to speak.