Read Online Suddenly, a Knock on the Door: Stories by Etgar Keret, Nathan Englander, Miriam Shlesinger, Sondra Silverston - Free Book Online Page B

began to thrive and even went public. Meanwhile, the wicked witch, who was a little tired after all her years of wickedness, decided to find all the people and creatures she’d cast spells on, apologize to them, and restore them to their natural state. At one point, she even went to see the fish she had turned into a man. The fish’s secretary asked her to wait until he’d finished a satellite meeting with his partners in Taiwan. At that stage in his life, the fish could hardly remember that he was in fact a fish, and his company now controlled half the world. The witch waited several hours, but when she saw that the meeting wouldn’t be ending anytime soon, she climbed onto her broom and flew off. The fish kept doing better and better, until one day, when he was really old, he looked out the window of one of the dozens of huge shoreline buildings he’d purchased in a smart real estate deal, and saw the sea. And suddenly he remembered that he was a fish. A very rich fish who controlled many subsidiary companies that were traded on stock markets around the world, but still a fish. A fish who, for years, had not tasted the salt of the sea.
    When the instructor saw that Aviad had put down his pen, she gave him an inquiring look. “I don’t have an ending,” he whispered apologetically, keeping his voice down so as not to disturb the old ladies who were still writing.

SNOT
     
    A father and son are sitting at a desk in an acupuncturist’s treatment room, waiting.
    The acupuncturist comes in.
    He’s Chinese.
    He sits down behind the desk.
    In strangely accented English, he asks the son to put his hands on the desk.
    The Chinese acupuncturist puts his fingers on the son’s arms and closes his eyes, then asks the son to stick out his tongue.
    The son sticks it out defiantly.
    The Chinese acupuncturist nods and asks the son to lie down on the treatment bed.
    The son lies down on the bed and closes his eyes.
    The father asks if the son should take off his clothes.
    The acupuncturist shakes his head.
    He takes some long, thin needles out of his desk drawer and starts sticking them into the son.
    One behind each ear.
    One in each cheek, close to the nose.
    One on each side of his forehead, close to the eye.
    The son moans quietly, his eyes still closed.
    Now, says the acupuncturist to father and son, we have to wait.
    And after the treatment, asks the father, will he feel better?
    The acupuncturist shrugs and walks out.
    The father goes over to the bed and puts a hand on his son’s shoulder.
    The son’s body contracts.
    The son didn’t flinch when his skin was being pierced by needles, but he does now. Half an hour later, the Chinese acupuncturist comes back and pulls each needle out with a swift movement.
    He tells the father and the son that the boy’s body is responding to the treatment, and that’s a good sign.
    As proof, he points to the spots where the needles had been inserted. There is a red circle around each one.
    Then he sits down behind the desk.
    The father asks how much the treatment costs.
    He’d planned to ask before the treatment, but forgot. If he’d remembered to ask earlier, he would have had a better bargaining position. Not that he planned to bargain. After all, we’re talking about the health of his only son here. His only living son, that is.
    The acupuncturist says 350 shekels per treatment and then tells him that there is medication the son has to take after eating, and that costs another hundred.
    The acupuncturist explains that the boy needs a series of treatments. At least ten. Every day except Saturday.
    The acupuncturist adds that it would be better if they could do the treatment on Saturday too, but he doesn’t work Saturdays because his wife won’t let him.
    Wife is almost the only word other than snot that he says in Hebrew.
    When he says wife , the father feels a terrible sense of loneliness.
    Then the father has a strange idea.
    He wants to tell the acupuncturist that he has to