A True Story
"Hello, my name is Moshe, do you want a clementine?"
A bony and thin hand handed me a tangerine that had seen better days, above it a round head with skin close to a skull with almost no signs of flesh, spikes of hair on his scalp and his eyes half closed as if examining you with impatient curiosity. They reminded me of the wink of a mouse for some reason and in the center of this picture is a thin and long nose that makes it an unforgettable grotesque sight.
"Thank you", I said and took the tangerine "I think you are a good man Moshe, good night".
My roommate in the hospital seems a little strange to me... but as my mother used to say: "What you see in others, others see in you." I banished all thoughts, turned away and closed the curtain separating the beds and fell into a sound sleep... at least that's what I thought...
In the middle of the night I heard a strange noise in the corridors of the floor. I didn't get up to see what the cause of the noise was, but I covered my head with a blanket and tried to go back to sleep and lo and behold... a supermarket cart enters in the middle of the night storming past the room straight to Moshe's bed behind the curtain. Moshe, with his nightgown, was swallowed up by a cart and looked like a ghost pushing a cart when it sees and is not seen!!
I continued to sleep as if I had not seen or heard anything.
The next morning Moshe is not in the room?! I brushed my teeth, shaved and ate breakfast and here... Moshe appears! This time on a wheelchair, one of which squeaks and irritates the ears of anyone who hears. "Why are you eating this garbage," said Moshe, "Trust me, I'll bring you normal food." That's how the thin, semi-transparent figure... "No, thank you Moshe... I like the hospital's food," she replied.
The whole day Moshe walked around the hospital like that, on the wheelchair that he used at the entrance to the emergency room, whose squeaks could be heard in the distance and you could already guess which floor he was walking on. Avoids doctor's visits, refuses daily blood tests and screams and humiliates every cleaner who comes to wash the floor next to and under his bed until she runs off crying of her own.
A young doctor comes to me to ask how I am and to check me, I still came here...
I asked him "What about Moshe? How is it that he suffers so much and they don't check him?" The doctor smiled awkwardly and did not answer, he left the room and the head nurse and the nurse from the night shift entered.
I hear from behind the curtain "Well, what will happen?" The nurse asks first..."He avoids screaming and it's always like that when he comes". "Who brought him this time?" "Like last time... a night collector found him on the sidewalk at the nearest intersection."
"Does he have a family?" "I don't know, he didn't agree to volunteer details..." That's how the two nurses talked and left the room.
Moshe returned, parked his chariot perpendicular to the bed "I see you didn't eat the tangerine, isn't it good enough for you?"
"I have Moshe's heartburn but I'm saving it for tomorrow, I have chocolate without sugar, are you interested Moshe?" Moshe took the chocolate and hid it somewhere behind the curtain, turned to me and said "I have a very serious illness, they don't know how to take care of me, I will call my son to come and take me from here".
For a week Moshe tried to contact his son and others without detailing what and who they were when of course he did it next to me on my phone...
All this time he is running away from criticism, screaming at cleaners and rushing in his pram, his creaking carriage, through the corridors. He is always in a hurry and you hear the drumming of his running legs while sitting on the wheelchair to speed up the journey and because his hands are weak, on every such outing he wears a jacket over the hospital gown and returns with his pockets full. On one occasion I took a fifty NIS bill out of my wallet and handed it to him and asked him to buy me a cold bottle of Diet Sprite on his tours and also buy himself a drink at my expense.
On the Thursday night, people came to remove Moshe's belongings, all of them were dressed in used and cheap clothes. I could have sworn I saw them in a movie or in the paintings of Dickens' books... They took two suitcases from under Moshe's bed, kept quiet and left.. Moshe followed them, all beaming and putting on his face something that was supposed to look like a smile "You see? My son is an engineer, he came from Netanya to free me and take me to him."
The son arrived from Netanya, signed forms and returned home. Moshe packed what was left in two black garbage bags and left... followed the luggage.
Every night, good Haifa people are picked up by a city police car and an ambulance with a paramedic attached, "street mice", who have fallen asleep on the sidewalk, whether from drunkenness, whether from drugs, or just tiredness. Some of them are also injured from fights and need medical treatment and in any case they will not stay on the sidewalk and will be evacuated to all kinds of institutions in Haifa, based on a free bed or mattress. Some will also reach the hospitals. These "street mice" must escape because "street cats" also roam at night and chase them mercilessly.
Some of them remain "street mice" forever...
Dedicated to the welfare workers of Haifa Municipality.
To the many volunteer organizations that save lives every night.