At 6:30 in the morning
on Wednesday, September 25th, sirens went off, warning of an impending rocket
attack on Tel Aviv. Along with the other passengers on the train that had
departed from Modi’in half an hour earlier, I lay on the floor. The train slowed
as it neared the Tel Aviv University Station. When it came to a stop, I rushed
off and took shelter in the arrival hall below the tracks.
It was the first time
that a missile fired by Hezbollah came close to striking Tel Aviv in the
ongoing and escalating conflict. The IDF Army confirmed it had intercepted the
surface-to-surface missile after it was launched from Lebanon. There were no
reports of casualties or damage.
I breathed a sigh of
relief and hurried toward the station’s exit. As I walked, I adjusted my
backpack and found that one of the pouches was unzipped. I felt inside and
discovered that my tablet was missing. Maybe in my rush to get off the train I
had placed it inside another pouch? Had I had left it on the train?
I need my tablet to
read
My journey to work on
the early morning train lasts 37 minutes, and I utilize the time to read. That
morning, I had been just a chapter or two short of finishing Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari, an excellent novel by a highly talented
writer. I was thoroughly enjoying the book and planning to write a very
complimentary review. But when I arrived at my office and checked my backpack,
I confirmed the fact that I had lost my tablet.
I opened a ticket on
the Israel Railways website reporting the loss. I joined several Facebook
groups—Lost and Found, Lost and Found in Tel Aviv, and Lost and Found on the
Train. I posted a quick note about losing my tablet and provided a brief
description. I checked my Facebook feed every hour to see if
anyone reported finding it.
A few words about my
tablet. It is a very old, outdated Samsung model, dating back to 2013. I only
use the tablet for reading. I don’t watch videos on the tablet; I don’t play
games. My tablet serves me solely as a digital book.
The most
distinguishing feature of the tablet is its black cover. The cover is as old as
the device and shows extensive signs of wear and tear. It’s faded and starting
to come apart. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a picture of the tablet to post on
Facebook.
One of the first
thoughts that went through my head was how would I finish the last pages of
Tsabari’s novel? I downloaded the Kindle app to my phone and on my return train
journey home, I read the ending of the book on a very small
screen.
I order a new
tablet and then…
A week and a half
passed, and I had given up hope of ever seeing my tablet again. I went online
and searched for a new tablet to buy. I didn’t want anything fancy, and I
certainly didn’t want an Amazon Kindle, a device that continues to frustrate my
wife months after she purchased it. I found an affordable model and made the
order. The tablet would be ready for pickup at an electronics store down the
street from my office the very next day.
And then I got a phone
call from Israel Railways.
“Do you have a white
tablet?” someone asked me.
I didn't know the color! I couldn't remember ever seeing the tablet without its fraying cover.
“Does it have a start
button at the bottom, like an iPhone 4?”
“I don’t know what an
iPhone 4 looks like,” I admitted.
Don't judge a digital
book by its cover
After work, I went to
the Lost and Found department at the Savidor Center Train Station. The clerk
couldn’t find a record of having called me that morning, but he did have my
report of a missing tablet listed in his files. “Is this one yours?” he said, holding
up a huge device.
“My tablet is
smaller.”
“What about this one?”
“No, mine is much
smaller”
“And this?”
I immediately
recognized the tablet by its old black cover. “That’s it!”
As the clerk wrote up
his report, I turned on the device. Amazingly, after having gone missing for a
week and a half, the battery was at 75%. And the Kindle app opened to the exact
page in Songs for the Brokenhearted that I had been reading when the
siren went off.
“You seem surprised,”
the clerk said.
“I can’t believe that
I found it.”
“There are good people
in this world,” the clerk said, referring to the honest anonymous train
passenger who had turned my tablet into Lost and Found. “And your tablet is a
very old model that no one uses anymore.”
No one uses? My tablet had just survived a missile attack and reappeared after disappearing for a week and a half! Even after all these years, it is still a suitable device for reading, especially when it comes to excellent novels like Songs
for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari.
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