Monday, August 31st, 2020

This frozen candy bar costs ten shekels. That’s just about three US dollars. Its unfrozen brothers, sitting on a tray on a stack of boxes in the store, are three for ten. The electricity for the freezer must cost a lot. When I get off the bus downtown after work, I intend to head home for dinner. It’s not too hot, though, and I like the music that I can hear in the city square. A baritone seems to be singing a cappella into a sound system nearby. I can’t tell where he is. Sometime later, I hear a group of women singing, also amplified. The sound doesn’t seem to be coming from any of the shops. I get a sandwich and some grapefruit juice and sit down at a table in the shade. The sandwich looks home-made, as do the others that were sitting with it on the display. A handwritten label shows the ingredients: sliced egg, eggplant, mozzarella, chopped vegetables, and a sauce that I can’t identify. I sit there for a while, eating, listening, and catching up on Twitter. After I’m done, I wander through the square. I see that another shop is now empty. The sign above it shows an intriguing name: The Secret of Magic. I have no memory of what it was. Several shops in a row are gone, including the butcher shop and, I think, the lawyer’s office that was where our family’s spice merchant had been. Passing the small grocery store, I decide to indulge in the candy bar. I don’t get them often. I sit on a low wall and eat it. People pass by, singly or in groups, on foot or on wheels. Toddlers chase pigeons past people with walkers and caregivers. A teenager on a bicycle zooms past, doing one of the longest wheelies I’ve ever seen. Two young girls pass each other, accompanying large dogs. One dog sniffs the other amicably. The other ignores him. I finish the candy bar, throw the wrapper in the trash can. and head home. When I’m more than a block away, I see a woman with a mask walking toward me. I realize that I’m not wearing mine. I should have put it back on after eating. I do now. The woman and I nod at each other and continue on.