He looked worried as he wandered in the room. She asked, "What would you like to eat tomorrow?" He turned to her as if he did not hear her. Puffing his cigarette, he said, "Nabil Shaath is optimistic. Abu Ala is pessimistic. Saeb Erekat is somewhere in between. By God, where do we stand?"

She replied sympathetically, "Let it be Abu Rami. Anxiety and chain-smoking won't speed or delay the solution. Now tell me what you want to eat tomorrow."

He screamed, "It is driving me crazy. Many have died and thousands injured. Now the second Intifada is drawing to an end; and we're still hanging between earth and sky."

She replied sarcastically, "you should say that we are hanging between elections in America and Israel!" Then she asked, "Why do you say that Intifada is drawing to a close.?"

He said, "The first Intifada started to die when the violence was redirected inwards and Palestinians started killing each other. Now we're seeing assassinations, executions, kidnappings, family problems, and tribalism is on the rise. All these make me very anxious of what we're heading into."

In a voice that betrayed some anxiety, she said, "You are right. But the assassination was an individual act if you are referring to the case of Mikki.

He replied irritably, "I'm afraid that some are trying to fill the void created by the PA because it did not conduct investigations into corruption. This means that people will take the law in their own hands. It is something terrible, it takes me back to the last days of the first Intifada. We are going backward."

In an effort to calm him, she said, "I don't' think that the situation today is as bad, at least from a security perspective. These are still individual acts that are immediately exposed by the PA. The perpetrators are punished, except for the assassination, whose perpetrators are still unknown. Also, our political situation is good; and the whole world is talking about our cause. The issue of refugees has entered every house in Israel. This makes Israelis more radical out of fear of confronting the historical question, 'What are we doing here, and who are these refugees".

He continued pacing the room and lit another cigarette. She said to him, "Come and watch TV. There is a good show on Al-Zajeera."

He replied with renewed rage, "Curse all the Gulf channels. All they do is raise tension and portray Palestinians as corrupt. They don't dare criticize the corruption of the ruling families in their countries. They are hypocrites that are trading in the slogans of the Intifada and the martyrs, and throw stones at us through the screen. Curse them, isn't it enough that their governments have not sent us the aid they promised, even when what they promised us is scraps in comparison to what they spend on their personal pleasures. And they accuse us of corruption. We don't know if the Israelis are the killers or if the real killers have become Arabs."

She tried to calm him by changing the channel and said, "I like Yousef El-Sebai. Do you remember his story 'we do not plant thorns' they are showing it right now."

He came hesitantly, but sat eagerly saying that we will enter a long dark tunnel if we don't reach an honorable peace treaty and don't have a government that sets an example in law and order. The beginning of this tunnel will be poverty and the end will be civil war. "God help us."

Decisively, she said, "we'll eat Molokhiya for dinner tomorrow."