The Tower of David

The sun started setting and I let my children approach the edge.

"Just to see", said the younger one. He stood two feet from the edge and looked back at me. There was dirt on his face, around his mouth.

"Don't look back at me", I said, "Don't turn your back to the edge." He looked over to his older sister, who was a foot from the edge and looking over. He looked at her and then out toward the mountain, where the sun was falling. Both of my children were quiet as they watched the sun fall.

Iroshima came from the floor below holding a plastic bag. Her face hardened when she saw the children.

"I want you to build a wall tomorrow", she said to me. My son's head jerked at his mother's voice. Still facing the edge he took three steps away from it and then, being more then a body's length away, he turned to face her.

"Mom", he said, "I'm hungry!" Iroshima reached into her bag and took out a soup can and handed it to him. He carried it over to and used the can opener to puncture two holes in the top.

"Here", said Iroshima to me. She handed me two and one-fifth bolívares. She walked over to help our son with the soup. I opened my backpack with Nemo of Finding Nemo on it. The money went in an envelope that was at the bottom of the bag, under my other shirts. We had one-hundred and fifty-seven and two-fifths bolívares. I put the bag back. Iroshima, my wife, plugged the portable hot plate into the wall socket. My son poured the can of soup through the triangle hole on top of the can. I went toward the edge to stand next to my daughter. The sun had fallen all the way behind the mountain.

"We should put the mosquito net up", my daughter said. The air was heavy and the mosquitoes would be bad and she knew.