My new key

One day when I was a child I read a famous Arabic story called Key of the City of Good Fortune. It is the story of a poor fisherman who caught a small fish in his net, but she bribed him to release her by giving him the Key of the City of Good Fortune that allowed him to live in eternal happiness. Often, I wished I possessed this key in order to live in such a City but when I grew up I realized that Cities no longer have Keys …. Yes, visas may be but not keys.

Yesterday when I returned home my brother gave me a key!

“This is your key .….

" “My key?! For what?”

“For the chains that connect barrels with each other located all round our bloc.” …

“Does that mean that we now live in a small, locked city with a key?!”

At this moment I smiled when I remembered the key of the City of Good Fortune … But it is a key of The City of Sorrow now. Our district is blocked because the terrorists' threats of attack.

Two months ago there was a huge explosion in my neighborhood that targeted the residential buildings in my neighborhood which resulted in many victims and destroyed many houses that made residents think of means to prevent the terrorists and car bombs from entering into their district as a kind of protection that the Iraqi Government couldn’t provide.

Now I look at The City of Good Fortune in a different way. It is not interesting any more … I think its residents had been threatened by terrorists - That made them lock their City!!!

Comments

[Laura]

I wish I had some comfort to give you. I think about the two cities, the first a reward for kindness; the other a refuge from hate and fear. I'll bet there are more people in your country who want kindness for one another than who want harm, but those in the first group feel too threatened to say much right now. How I wish there were more keys (steps to solutions) to pass out that would open gates to the City of Peace.

[ljm]

Here they are called "gated communities." People living in areas where they fear crime build them. The key may be a plastic card they insert into a slot that opens the gate so they can drive their car inside, while the gate closes behind, but it's pretty much the same thing. They built something like them in Northern Ireland to separate the Catholics from the Protestants so they'd stop killing each other. I'm sorry for the way of life you have lost. With the civil war you are living in now, the goal is to achieve security. It may not be eternal happiness, but at the moment security would be a very good thing. Then perhaps you would be able to have reliable electricity and clean running water.