House of Many Tongues Read Online Free PDF

Ramon—
    Alex: Not interested. It’s the wrong science, Rivka. I don’t care about outer space anymore.
    Rivka: But you love him. He went up in the shuttle today.
    Alex: Ilan Ramon was so fourteen.
    Fifteen is the dawn of a whole new age.
    Goodbye Rivka.
    Exit RIVKA. ALEX opens up the ammunitions box and starts to read from its contents.
    The Camel: Today the astronaut Ilan Ramon boarded the space shuttle Columbia
    and left everything behind:
    Fig trees, toilets, manifestos, checkpoints—
    this messy world full of messy humans.
    Truth is, sometimes you gotta get away—
    perspective is important when it comes to situations as complex as the Middle East.
    Who is right and who is wrong? Who does this house belong to?
    What are we to make of the history of these men?
    Ilan Ramon has to go so far to get perspective he’s gone all the way to outer space.
    There he is—I can see him. He is the hope of a nation.
    He’s a light unto nations.
    He’s up there, listening to a universe without promises.
    Maybe he can even hear the sound of peace.

Scene 9
    A few days later. ABU DALO sitting at the typewriter. SHIMON drinking beer.
    Abu Dalo: “And the land speaks in the language of our forefathers.”
    Shimon: Read that passage over to me again.
    Abu Dalo: “1988. The Jordan–Israel border.
    The day was like any other in the West Bank. Past the Palestinian farmers and their olive trees, the Jewish settlers and their melodic prayers. Here you can see the rocky hillsides, the rushing waters of the Jordan River. Here the air is clear, the sun is gold, and the land speaks in the language of our forefathers.”
    Shimon: Oh yes. I like that.
    ABU DALO typing.
    Abu Dalo: “Dusk was coming in like a sail. The General took heart in the darkness, in the shadows thick like leaves—”
    Shimon: Okay, okay, enough poetry—
    Enter ALEX.
    Abu Dalo: “When, all of a sudden, a basket came drifting by—”
    Shimon: That’s right, a basket—no bigger than my leg—
    Abu Dalo: “No bigger than our hero’s thigh—”
    Shimon: What the fuck, I said.
    Abu Dalo: “‘What is it before my eyes?’ He asked the heavens.”
    Shimon: A baby.
    Abu Dalo: “A child.”
    Shimon: Alone on the river.
    Abu Dalo: “Floating on the tears of his mother.”
    Shimon: Oh. I like that.
    Abu Dalo: “Who this boy’s mother was, what he was doing in the basket, is a mystery, one that haunts both hero and son.”
    Shimon: No. There was no torment. No haunting.
    Abu Dalo: Then it was a vision.
    Shimon: I picked up the baby—
    Abu Dalo: (typing) “While the First Intifada simmered in the universities of Ramallah and in the streets of Nablus, a miracle occurred.”
    Shimon: Yes!
    Abu Dalo: (typing) “The General brought life into his arms—”
    Shimon: I brought him home.
    I gave him a bris and raised him myself.
    “Thus the General’s second vision made manifest the first: a child.
    To fulfill his promise to the house, at last.”
    Alex: Question. What were you doing by the Jordan River?
    Shimon: I was washing my hands.
    Alex: Why were they dirty?
    Shimon: Work. It was hot. The air was full of dust and sweat.
    Alex: What sort of work?
    Shimon: I was Brigadier General of the West Bank Division. Central Command.
    Alex: What does such a general do?
    Shimon: He protects the land.
    Alex: Can you be more specific?
    ABU DALO typing.
    Shimon: “The General protected Judea and Samaria,
    the land given to his people, as the old prophets prophesied.
    And he engaged with his enemies. Fearlessly.”
    Alex: What about the normal people living in the West Bank? Were they the enemy too?
    Shimon: Some were. It’s difficult to separate good from bad, foe from friend.
    Alex: Were mistakes made?
    Shimon: Of course mistakes were made. It’s the nature of war.
    Alex: How did you feel when you saw people living in refugee camps and not homes?
    Shimon: A general cannot make decisions based on a feeling.
    A general must try to uphold the moral standard, objectively and