This novel is a work of fiction. The names and the characters in this book are imaginary and any resemblance to living or dead persons is only incidental. All rights reserved ©
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jealousy of urban girls

First chapter

Rouvan Shapiro was in fainting condition by the time the IDF rescue helicopter brought him directly from Gaza into the operating theater of Soroka Hospital in Beer-Sheva. He saw only in a blurred vision the immense projector hanging over his head, the many monitors, the tables burdened with surgery tools, the doctors and nurses milling around him, their hands in rubber gloves, and their faces covered with green masks. When he was put on the operating table he hardly heard the question of the physician: "Well, Rouvan, do you love to sleep?" He couldn't answer him because the anesthetic injected into his vein worked instantly and he was already sleeping deeply and couldn't feel anything. When he woke up in the recovery room he saw the same doctor who operated him hit his face gently. "Hey, Rouvan, wake up, wake up!" He opened his eyes and asked him, "Doctor, when will they operate on me?" "Ya, Ahval (Arabic) stupid, you've been already through. Here's the bullet we took out of your chest. You've had a hell of a lot of luck, because the rib in your chest stopped the bullet from entering your heart. It will take some time till you recover, but don't worry, you'll be all right." Then Rouvan discerned the worrying faces of his parents who bent over his bed and asked about his feelings, the beautiful and concerned face of his girlfriend, Selin, who had made Aliyah from France last year. Some of his friends were also present, who had been politely, but firmly warned not to disturb him this time. "Come back in a couple of days when he is better," they had been told by the orderly nurse.

As his consciousness slowly, slowly returned to him, he remembered what he had been through before he was taken to the hospital. He and his unit took part in a comprehensive action of the IDF, "Operation Days of Response", perhaps the Army's response to the 'Kassam' rockets fired to Shderoth Township. It was the 10th day of their stay in that accursed place of the Gaza Strip, near the big refugee settlement of 'Jebelia'. They, the soldiers, from the 'Golani' infantry elite units surrounded the bunkers where the saboteurs were hiding and were waiting to hear in the connection lines for the order to assault on them. After a number of shells were fired to the bunkers from the tanks stationing on the site, destroying them completely, the Arabs came out from the ruins with their hands up. Then the order came to assault the bunkers and take prisoners. Seemingly everything went on in an orderly way, according to the book of military rules, the saboteurs had surrounded one by one. After a thorough search in their clothes, they were turned to the rear. The soldiers continued to search in the ruins, looking for hiding saboteurs, but aside from some elderly women and frightened children, ammunition cases, weapons which the saboteurs left over, they found nobody. The commander of the unit breathed in relief. "Thanks God, also this maneuver passed well, without sacrifices." When the soldiers began to withdraw to an agreed place on the rear, suddenly a whistle of fire was heard from the rifle of an Arab sniper, who succeeded in hiding somewhere in the ruins. Rouvan was hit. He fell to the ground and after some minutes lost consciousness.

His recovery was slow and painful. In the first days the pain in his chest did not cease for a moment, despite the receipt of a lot of tranquilizers. Natasha, the Russian nurse in his ward, a smiling young girl, served him devotedly. She changed his linen and sheets and wiped his sweating forehead and commiserated on his sufferings. Also the doctors visited him frequently. After some days, when his condition improved, he was allowed to receive more and more visitors. His parents, his sister Alisa and of course Selin came to him every day and pampered him with plenty of candies. Selin brought for him a big bunch of flowers. Also his friends from the school and his comrades from the Army visited him frequently. All of them were interested to hear about his health and asked him to tell how he got wounded. He could hardly answer them. When Natasha put attention that the talking was hard on him, she asked the visitors to shorten their visit. But after two weeks, after a thorough check out, the doctors saw that he was going to recover and sent him home. He was due to report to the hospital for periodic examinations.

* For free reading, click here