#21 THE PAWN

Here's another six-sentence story created for sixsentences.blogspot.com.

Shoshanna's lover Dr. Ivan Cohen had been detained in the Gaza strip for several weeks before he was able to notify her and tell her he was okay and that it would be some time before he would be coming back to Jerusalem, having been arrested in a roundup, innocently mistaken for an Israeli Commando he bore a startling resemblance to whom the Palestinian Authority deemed a winning ticket to securing the freedom of several top Hamas leaders currently residing in an Israeli jail who would then be used as bargaining chips closer to home.

Dr. Cohen would be a part of a prisoner swap even though he had nothing to do with anything the Palestinians were concerned with; he was merely a pawn in the game that continues year after year, and in the meantime his skills were useful to those in the jail, many prisoners with wounds of various seriousness that the doctor could tend to; his jailers knowing what the situation was and appreciating the care from such an eminent physician.

Shoshanna, however, was terrified for her lover and after contacting everyone she could think of to do whatever they could think of, she decided to go to the jail in person, take her chances with the Palestinian Authority and get her man released from jail on this trumped up charge--so convoluted that she, an able attorney was not even sure of what the charge was.

She swathed herself in black and hoped to go unnoticed on the streets of Gaza before she found her way to the jail and talked her way into a small waiting room where she was questioned for what seemed an eternity before her lover was brought into the room for a short visit.

Dr. Cohen was more than a little surprised to find Soshanna in the room and felt a little foolish over his mishap; insisted he was fine, would return eventually and not to worry, he was being treated in a civilized manner and was making use of his time by treating prisoners and staff alike and then sheepishly asked her if she could call his wife and assure Mrs. Cohen of his well-being and eventual return.

Shoshanna left the jail, made her way through Gaza and back to Jerusalem and the safety of the apartment she shared with her husband and children, no longer with the panic that had seized her upon hearing of her lover's arrest so that when she called Dr. Cohen's wife she was able to reassure her that her husband was fine, ask about her own safety and well-being and though she couldn't say exactly when Dr. Cohen would be released, it was expected he would be home by the end of the month, thinking to herself, in time to deliver my third child, Dr. Cohen's own son, though none of this she could tell Mrs. Cohen who had enough on her mind.