Shukri al-Nimr left the grounds of the school where he had been a teacher for several years and set out for his home. He was surprised to find a white piece of paper attached to the kitchen door in which his wife informed him that her mother was sick and she had gone to visit her. She directed him to take the food out of the refrigerator and heat it before eating. He ignored her advice and wandered about in the space of his small house feeling weary. He imagined he was asking his students to write a composition about a school teacher married to a childless widow whom he loved. Feeling bored with staying all alone in the house, he went out into a noisy street crowded with people where he saw an old woman who looked very much like his mother making ready to cross. He tried to help her, but she hit him on the head with her handbag and accused him of wanting to steal it. He then remembered his shameful neglect of his mother, whom he had not seen in several years. He rushed to visit her grave at the cemetery and stood close enough to touch it, his head bowed. “Did you get married?” his mother asked.
He told her he was married, and she asked, “How many children do you have?”
“Only one,” he said in a faint voice.
“Don’t lie,” she said.
“I don’t have any children,” he said.
“Who’s the lazy one?” she asked. “You or your wife?”
He left the graveyard without saying goodbye to his mother and tried to get on a bus, but the conductor would not let him board. Even though most of the seats were empty, he claimed the bus was full and told him to take another one. Shukri then cursed all buses and their inventors and walked until he reached home, showing obvious signs of fatigue. He found his wife laughing and speaking with children who could not be seen. He asked about her sick mother and she said, “I don’t think she’ll pull through this time.”
She said to the children, “There, come say hello to daddy.”
He went along with her. He pretended there were children there breaking into joyful cries, and he went to sleep to the din of their voices gradually receding from his ears.
When Shukri al-Nimr woke up in the morning, the house was as quiet as a grave. His wife was in the kitchen wearing black clothes, drinking coffee and weeping. She asked him to wear clothes of the same color as hers and said, “Hurry, so we won’t be late for mother’s funeral.”
He put on his clothes without delay and asked the invisible children to eat their breakfast quickly so as not to be late for school.