It was exactly one o ' clock , an hour after midnight . My husband and I had been watching a movie on TV . As soon as the movie finished , I went to bed . My husband said that he wanted to catch the news headlines , which he told me would not take more than five minutes , and he promised he would come to bed immediately after . I got into bed and as soon as I placed my head on the pillow , my dream began . It was the longest dream I 've ever had although it lasted only five minutes . It seemed I was ready then , and the dream was waiting for me to close my eyes so that it could start . All of a sudden and without any introduction , I saw myself in my parents ' house with my children . My parents live in a two - story house , where they occupy the first level and one of my brothers lives in the second . It was Friday and our weekly family gathering . My two brothers and sister were present , along with their children . There were ten grown - ups and fifteen children . All the Friday activities , from preparing lunch in my mother 's busy kitchen , to having lunch and feeding the children , to washing and drying the dishes , to drinking coffee and having dessert , flashed quickly in front of my eyes . How amazing that things that take hours , months or even years to happen in real life can pass by so quickly when repeated in dreams . Maybe that is why realities hurt more than dreams , since they take so much longer and we live every minute of them . Everyone seemed happy and thoroughly enjoying themselves . Faces of young children and adults flashed by in varying positions , colors and sizes , sometimes chattering quite noisily , and yet sometimes they were in black and white , mute . Some pictures flashed so quickly that I couldn 't remember them later , while others floated in slow motion . I have always admired the producers and directors of dreams . They are great people who work hard in order to produce a winning dream . Of course they wouldn 't be doing a great job without the help of our eyes , the cameramen . In movies , directors and producers deal with real people , while in dreams , they deal with images of real people . This fact alone makes dreams more interesting than reality . In my dream , time was passing very quickly , almost like heat lightning over the hills . . It was around seven in the evening , and we were waiting for the day to cool down so that we could go to the garden which my father had worked so hard to create . For many years , the piece of land adjoining the house had been neglected , and it was ugly , almost like a junkyard . There were rocks of different sizes scattered all over the place ; many dead and dry trees , and little that was thriving . There were no roses , very few green plants , and birds rarely visited the trees . We didn 't want to walk in it or even to look in its direction . Moreover , we never allowed our children to play in it for fear of insects or other vermin . After his retirement , my father threw his entire being into changing this ugly area and making it thrive . He brought a gardener from a remote village and enlisted his help with this barren piece of land . My father had heard that this man was not only an experienced gardener but also famous for building pools with fountains and falls . My father loved that idea : the sound of water would be splendid , he thought . The gardener , forty years old , was the right man for the job . It took him twelve months , four entire seasons , to use all the verbs of hard work : cleaning , clearing , cutting , digging , removing , weeding , measuring , arranging , building , restoring . My father was very generous with him . In addition to a weekly salary , the gardener was offered daily breakfast and lunch , cold drinks , hot drinks , and fruit . We all thought my father was not only wasting his money , but his own time and effort as well . He used to help thThe age difference between my father and the gardener was about forty years , but they got along well . There was respect and understanding between them . The only condition that my father had placed on the gardener , who was otherwise given free rein to build pools and fountains , walkways and places to sit and relax , was that the big olive tree that was in the garden remain undamaged . That tree was more than five hundred years old and a heritage to my father from his great - grandparents . It was huge , with three large , spreading branches and evergreen leaves , a symbol of life and hope and the ability to survive and withstand challenges by man and nature throughout the years . Despite all life 's hardships , severe weather and natural catastrophe , that tree had survived . It had lost many branches over the years but stood very high and added greatness to the house . Furthermore , its olives were magnificent . They were quite large , half green and half black , and very delicious when pickled . When the harvest was good , my parents would have some pickled and the rest made into oil . The olives along with the oil would then be distributed among all the members of my family , in portions large enough to supply all of us for the entire year . Had the olive tree been in the way of building the pool , my father would have changed his mind about building it . Every Friday when we gathered in my parents ' house , I used to have a look from the window at the garden . The gardener would be working , but the improvements and changes from week to week were quite small and hard to discern . Work was very slow , and my brother used to joke that it would take the gardener so long that we might all be dead , and my father out of money , by the time he finished . I envied the gardener . I thought my father had spoiled him . My father was a very polite man with great patience and caring for people regardless of their status , position , career or age . When talking to a child , he was as sweet and pleasant as a child could be , and when talking to a doctor , he excelWork in the garden seemed to last forever . There were occasions in which the gardener was absent for various reasons . Once he was sick , and once he took his child to the doctor . Other times , he couldn 't come because of the closure , which made leaving his village to come to the city very risky . Once or twice , their work stopped because of curfews imposed either on his village , or on our city . He didn 't show up on rainy days either , because building and rain did not match . And then on hot days , he was very slow and took many naps under the olive tree . The gardener was a jack of all trades . He was the builder ; he was the electrician who wired the lights and lamps , and the plumber who installed the water pipes for the fountain and the waterfall that ran down the wall . He also suggested building a barbecue place shaped like a cottage , with two chimneys on the roof , a fan in one corner , and a hole for the charcoal in the middle , and he also added a small building for keeping tools and other supplies . The entrance to the garden was a huge arched gateway built of soft rectangular stones . The garden itself was arranged into three levels , a higher one for small trees and bushes , then the pool , and then a flat area with roses and other flowers surrounding a patio with seats and tables . The gardener left spaces with arched tops in the walls , and in them my father planted creeping plants that cascaded down the wall tracing lovely patterns with their green leaves and varied flowers . Right in the middle of the second level was the beautiful pool with the fountain in the center that sprinkled water upwards . Tiny rivulets then trickled , in a slow and soft manner , through the holes in the stone and down the wall to the pool Sprinklers sprayed water in an arc right in the center , colored spotlights caught and reflected the water that was running up and down , and what we thought would be a monstrosity turned out to be a magnificent , living piece of art . Meanwhile , my father was busy planting plants , flowers , small trees and bushes . He now spent his time and money on sand , fertilizers , seeds , containers of varying sizes and shapes , and the right plants for his garden . The plants were very beautiful , , some of them really rare and expensive , and their flowers were breathtaking . My father bought books on keeping gardens and flowers , so that he might take good care of them and learn more about where and when to plant them , how often to irrigate , and so on . He was so happy , and found great enjoyment in his new endeavor , becoming almost an encyclopedia on jasmines , gardenias , daffodils , roses and many others . It was amazing how few plants failed to thrive , maybe two or three in all . When my father touched the dead soil , it turned into life , and soon the plants grew large and the flowers bloomed . He spent hours and hours in that garden , planting , uprooting weeds , and watering with great generosity . He bought four tables and a dozen nice chairs , and placed them in different locations . He also bought a large swing and placed it on one side . The garden was a garden to me , a playground and park for my children , but heaven to my father . It was his world : he had changed from a TV addict to a nature addict . So many times , he would go to the garden alone . He would put on the lights and let the water run and then just sit in one of the chairs for hours , relaxing his body and calming his mind . My mother , quite the opposite , really didn 't like to go to there at all because it required going down a flight of stairs and her bones are weak and her joints hurt . But going to the garden had become a habit for my father : if we couldn 't find him in the house , then he would be in the garden lost between the roses , planting a new plant , or carrying the hose and watering the plants . We never thought that the garden would become an attraction to our children , but they loved it also . We began to spend our Friday gathering in the garden , we took lunches there , made barbecues and even made coffees and teas . Even my brother became convinced that it was a great idea , and the garden became his favorite place for private time with his wife and children . Oh , the garden . I can talk forever about the garden . There we had lunches and sometimes dinners , discussed family matters , political issues , work and children ; we even received visitors there . We used to spend hours and hours talking , laughing , gossiping and watching our children running about and playing with water . It was a great pleasure for my father to sit there amongst us talking to us and watching our kids scream and shout and play around him . Had they been playing and making noise in the house , he would have been annoyed . But there in the garden , and inside his heaven , things were different . He would talk and we would listen to him . We loved listening to his stories from the past , his tales from the present , and also his vision for the future . He was a great storyteller , and a great future - teller , and fascinated everyone with his talk , his presence , his sense of humor and gentle ironies . The garden seemed to reveal even more of the hidden , greater parts of his personality . Relatives and friends invited themselves to his garden and spent enjoyable times amongst nature , the nice smell of flowers , and cool air beside the pool . His generosity as a host was fascinating . He once invited the gardener , and the two of them spent hours by themselves talking and discussing various matters of our hard life , the closures , the separation wall , work and unemployment , concerns for our children , and many other things that I would never think of discussing with my gardener . The garden inspired him and revealed his kind heart , sensitive feelings and humility . Some of us were still in the kitchen finishing the dishes , and others were talking while drying and putting them away . The men were relaxing in another room , the kids were running to and fro , and my father was taking a nap despite all the noise . It was around 6 o ' clock when I saw myself offering coffee . We were all in the sitting room then , and I was seated next to my father when I asked him to tell us what had happened the night the soldiers took over his house . My father didn 't seem to like the idea , but upon my insistence he finally agreed , and began : " It was 9 p . m . and your mother and I were about to finish our dinner when the door bell to the main gate rang . Your brother and his family were outside and we were in there alone . It rang again , and I had to answer it since your mother went to the bathroom . Before I opened the door , I spoke on the intercom : ' Who is it ? ' Then the answer came : " Soldiers , open up quickly and without noise . " I pressed the button to the main gate and told your mother to hurry up , and then I went down the stairs and put on the lights to the entrance . There was banging on the main gate . Then I remembered that the door was locked from inside which meant I had to go back down the stairs and open it myself . So I went down the stairs again , and unlocked the door . Then the door was pushed open by a soldier pointing his machine gun directly at me , and I was quickly surrounded by six or seven soldiers who ordered me to go up to the house . I went up the stairs with one soldier in front of me holding his machinegun and pointing it up the stairway in case someone was on the stairs . Your mother was paralyzed when she saw the soldiers . She couldn 't even speak when one soldier asked her who lived here . I had to answer , and only then did I get a close look at the soldiers ' faces . All of them had their faces disguised with green , blue , red and yellow paint . They all had huge helmets on their heads , machine guns in their hands , and bombs and bullets on their belts . They were also carrying big bags on their backs . Their military clothes were so huge and loose that they looked fat and short , though I knew they weren 't . They looked and acted like soldiers in real , live combat , right here in our house . The chief asked about who lived in the flat upstairs . I told him it belonged to my son and his family . He wanted me to go up there with him . ' But my son isn 't in . He is out . " He refused to believe me , pointed to me to lead the way upstairs and insisted I open the door , even though I told him I did not have the keys . At this point , it occurred to me to tell him that I was responsible for what I was saying , and that there was nobody inside the house . That seemed to convince him and he then pointed for me to go down to my house . Your mother and I were then ordered to stay in the hall while the other soldiers inspected the house . They opened all the doors and checked all rooms . We were frightened because we didn 't know what was happening outside , or what the soldiers were doing . There was no noise outside except the sounds of them setting the trigger on their machine guns as they got ready to shoot . There were , of course , no beds in the room , and sitting in the chairs for a long time was quite tiring for both of us . The room was small and stuffy and , wanting some fresh air , we knocked on the door to ask for permission to open the door , but there was no response . It was one hell of a night . We were sleepy and exhausted but so afraid of what they might do that we couldn 't close our eyes . Helpless , frightened and bored , we would sit for a while and then get up and walk a bit to stretch our aching joints . I remembered that I had read about human shields , but never imagined I would experience being one myself . The telephone rang four or three times and we knew it was one of you calling to make sure we were alright , but we dared not answer . I felt I was suffocating and at one point unconsciously opened the door , forgetting that there were soldiers outside . To my surprise , one soldier was lying on his back on the floor , with his hands on the machinegun on his tummy . Suddenly he woke up and jumped , stopping at the threshold with his rifle to the ready . I went back to my chair and sat down slowly as he looked at us and then closed the door . We stayed there till six in the morning . It seemed at that point that they had left , quietly , secretly , without informing us . Although we were drained and exhausted , we still couldn 't sleep . Your mother started to clean the bathroom since it was in bad condition after they had used it . It smelled and was dirty and the floor was wet . And it wasn 't until you girls stopped by around eight that we finally learned that the reason for taking over our house and keeping us hostages was to safeguard the way for a group of soldiers who wished to pray , in the middle of the night , in the middle of the street , where they claimed there had once been a religious place . As my father finished his story , I thought I heard a sound outside , so I went to the balcony and looked down into the street . It was very dark but I could see the lights of a vehicle approaching . It seemed to be a truck , and after it passed the gate to the house , it stopped . I couldn 't see it then , but I could hear the brakes , the opening of the doors , and the clattering of metal objects . Then I realized that it was a military vehicle and that soldiers were coming out of it and back into to my parents ' house . " Not again , " I said silently as I turned to go warn my family . We waited for the banging on the gate , but there was none . My nephew , who had been playing in the entrance to the house with the other kids , came running up , and entered the room breathless , speechless and pointing . I quickly went down the stairs to make sure the other kids were alright and as I reached the entrance , all of a sudden I was face to face with a heavily - armed soldier . He was alone , which seemed odd : I had been expecting a group of eight or ten . But he looked just as my father had described the others , right down to the stripes of paint on his face . He was holding his machinegun at the ready , and I was very frightened . I stood there in front of him , waiting for him to speak . I thought he was the chief and he was waiting for the other soldiers to follow him . I took a quick look at the gate and to my surprise , it was still closed . How did he get in ? Could he have jumped over the wall ? I didn 't think so . The wall was twelve feet high . We both stood there for what seemed like forever , inspecting one another and guessing what would come next . Then , finally , he spoke : - " No , it is here , and you have it " , he said affirmatively , and then continued : " See , we ordered bread from the Super Bakery . You know , the bread that is mixed with olive oil and thyme . We ordered the bread a long time ago , and when we didn 't get it , we went to the bakery and they told us that it was delivered to this address . So , you see there is no mistake . He nodded and moved his machine gun in a sign that meant " go ahead " , so I turned and started my way upstairs . After I climbed about ten steps , I turned my head back carefully and had a quick look at the soldier to check whether he was following me . To my surprise , he was right behind me but he had changed . How could that have happened ? There was no sound , no voice , no strange movement , but now his head was bare , the colorful paints had disappeared , and his machine gun was nowhere to be seen . He looked about forty . My legs kept moving up the stairs but my head was still turned back and I felt my eyes grow wide with surprise . The two things that hadn 't changed were his military suit and his boots . He was a soldier with no weapons . I reached the front door and entered : everyone else was in the sitting room , waiting for us . I stepped into the room followed by the soldier . The room was still , and children seemed to have disappeared . My father was right in the middle of the room sitting in his usual chair . The soldier went directly to him but before he could speak , I said , " Dad , this soldier says he has come to take his bread " . Father : ( adjusting his hearing aids ) " My peace of mind ? " Soldier . " No , your land ; the little garden . I am here to take it . I was sent to take it . It is the last piece of land that is not with us . We have to take it . " Father : " Do you want me to give you my land , just like that ? I bought it with my own money . I have worked with my hands to make it a beautiful garden . My blood dripped on its soil , and my sweat got mixed with the water I used to irrigate its flowers . It is part of me . It is me . You can take me , but not my land . " Soldier : " I understand what you 're saying . But I have to do my mission . Let us think of a way . I suggest a little game between you , the owner of the land , and me , the soldier . The soldier quickly took out a pack of cards from one pocket and a red marker from another . He drew a line right in the middle of the room and two lines maybe four feet from that one . Then he started to explain the game . Soldier : " This is our playground , and each one chooses his own area . We have two rounds . I flip a coin to decide who will start . In the first round , each one stands on the starting line in his area , then throws the card to the other area . Then we measure the distance that the card has covered away from the middle line . The one who covers more distance is the winner of that round . As a result the one who wins the two rounds is the winner . And the winner takes the land . " Everyone was watching silently and in great amazement . My father stood up and stepped behind the line near his chair . The soldier gave my father some cards . I thought he was going to divide the cards evenly , but the soldier took more cards and stood behind the line opposite my father . I noticed that the area where the soldier stood was smaller than my father 's and realized that his cards would cover more distance , since the distance between his starting line and the middle line would be shorter . We were waiting for the soldier to flip the coin to decide the beginner , but the soldier suddenly said " I 'll start " . The soldier threw his card which flew swiftly in the air , swung , flipped , and went down quickly into my father 's area . It was a strong throw . Then the soldier jumped forward in a steady manner . I thought I should go and look for a measure . But the soldier simply placed his hand in his inside pocket and took out a tape , and from another pocket a small notebook . He was prepared and fully equipped . He measured the distance from the red line in the middle away into my father 's area and said as he wrote down in his notebook : " 1m . and 50cm . " Then he gave a signal for my father , saying , " It is your turn . " My father got ready and threw the card as hard as he could . It was not a bad throw for a man in his eighties , but the card flew so softly that I could see its real size , color and all that was printed on it . I heard my sister exclaiming : " Oh , look , the card has our flag on it " . The card was flying in slow motion , and there were pictures of people and faces of famous leaders . There were children , old men and women , and young people , too . Some I knew were still alive , while others had died years before . The people on the card were moving in great harmony , as though in a pageant . The card was landing slowly , like a feather floating in a fine breeze , when the soldier suddenly jumped to the other side of the room waiting for it to land . I thought that the card would hardly cover any distance at all but , to my amazement , the soldier measured a total of 1m . and 40cm . Then he pronounced himself the winner of the first round and I ached for my sad , determined father . The soldier told him to switch areas , so my father took the opposite side facing the big window in the room . After both men got ready , the soldier said he would start since he had won the first round . It was a very strong throw . Although the card flew high and started to flip we could see the soldier 's own flag in addition to another big flag on one side of the card . Oh , my God , he had been cheating ! He was using help from outside : that other flag belonged to a super source . As the card went swinging through the air swiftly and freely , I could see pictures of his leaders and other famous people from abroad , and I realized he had also been cheating on weight Not surprisingly , the card landed right on the edge line , and he jumped up and down happily . I imagined him as a soldier from the middle ages wearing a gown , with a belt around his waist and a sword in one hand and a shield in the other . As he moved to the other side to see the card , he threw his body in the air and flew in a circle with his loose gown and landed just like a parachute coming slowly to the ground . Right after he landed on the other side , he measured the distance which was 1m . and 90cm . Everybody gasped , and opened their mouths . But no one said anything . We were totally amazed . Then the soldier recorded the result in a self - confident tone . It was my father 's turn and he got ready and stood behind the line . The soldier was clearly the winner so far , and my father had to get a distance of 2m . just to break even . It was a big challenge and I was doubtful , but my father seemed calm and confident . He got ready , bent his body forward , took a deep breath , and threw the card , which launched itself like thunder . My sister swore she could see fire coming as the card struck the air , a silvered line of light passing so swiftly in front of our eyes that we could hardly follow it . The card didn 't loop to the ground , but flew through the iron bars and out into the garden . Again everybody gasped in amazement . The soldier barked angrily , " To the garden ! " and quiI don 't remember what happened then , some time must have passed , but then I recall waking up slowly to the sound of someone in pain . I followed the source of pain and to my surprise I saw the soldier . He was clutching a huge root from the olive tree , and his body was dangling from the roots , not far from the ground . The big tree had shrunk in size while its roots remained huge and steady in the ground , and it had been cut in half from the top on down . The soldier was not wearing white anymore , but was back in his uniform , swinging his body backward away from the roots and then hitting his face and body forcefully against the roots , soil and rocks . I could see blood coming from his forehead , hear his groans , and feel his terrible pain . He could have spared himself all the pain and suffering by letting go of the roots and jumping the short distance to the ground , but he kept swinging and banging himself into the tree . I could focus on nothing else , and then the top of the tree turned into a huge screen and a flash of light spotted onto the leaves and branches as though from a projector . On the screen then flashed many pictures of the soldier committing atrocities . He was a killer exploding the head of a child in one , and torturing an old man in another . One picture displayed him demolishing houses and making whole families homeless , while another showed him driving a bulldozer and uprooting beautiful , ancient olive trees . Then he was taking part in building that huge endless wall that separated families and caused so much suffering . Pictures of sad , wretched people kept appearing , and dead bodies and crying faces . I took a quick look at the soldier 's face : it was dripping blood but showed no emotion , and he was still hitting his face against the tree . It came to me that he was torturing himself out of guilt for all he had done . Overwhelmed , I felt both sad and sorry for him . He was a man , a magician , a saint , a soldier and a victim . He was all in one . We cried for ourselves and for the soldier screaming endlessly in pain and guilt . There was complete silence , and then he cried out the word " Yahoo " and kept repeating it , over and over again . I thought perhaps it was his name . We were all half - awake and half - asleep , going about in circles with our heads somehow revolving in the sky over the garden . Our bodies melted and became invisible . Our souls flew like feathers and we all became part of the garden , the flowers , the birds , the water , the olive tree , and part of Yahoo . All melted together then , we turned into a huge white , foggy ball that flew up high and disappeared in the grand space . Suddenly , there was a huge sound that awakened everyone in the garden . It seemed to be coming from the main gate to the house . My father went to open the door , and came back followed by two soldiers who looked just like Yahoo had when he first came in . One of them was a General and the other an ordinary soldier . The General spoke to my father . Yahoo : " We have been very bad to them . I have seen myself paying for what we did to them . I was in great pain . They were crying all the time . " General : " Well , I am going to end this play right now , and this is going to be your last scene . Soldier , ( again addressing the soldier behind him ) , " drag him and follow me . I 'll be waiting in the vehicle . " General : " Soldier , make sure Yahoo stays in the vehicle . Chain him . " ( The soldier carries out his orders , and follows the General to the front of the vehicle ) . General : " Get rid of him . He is a sham and shame to our people . He was sent as a soldier to get our bread , but turned out to be a sympathizer with the enemy . " Then the General pointed his gun at Yahoo and shot him in the head . Yahoo died immediately , but there was no blood . . At that point , I woke up terrified . What had happened ? Was it a dream ? Was it a nightmare ? Or was it real ? I could not tell . I looked at my watch , and to my utter amazement it was five after one . Oh , my God , only five minutes had passed since I went to bed , closed my eyes and started my dream .