When we got back to the room I told Theo my plan. Of course he was dead set against it, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. The only thing I needed now was a good hiding spot, but this wasn’t exactly easy to come by. Except for us, the blankets, a bucket, and the water and piss bottles, the cell was completely empty. I knew if they found contraband of any kind, our punishment would be even more severe than the last time. The lights were working, so I took a good long look around the room. The only spot that seemed logical was the hole in the ceiling where the wire from the lightbulb was fed. Naturally, in order to check it out I’d need to stand on Theo’s shoulders.
“Come on, Theo, we can’t just sit here like this until they kill us. We have to get out of here and if I get that ring back here we can do it.”
“Because you have so much lock-picking experience, right?” he said sarcastically. “Why don’t I stand on your shoulders for once?”
“Because I have a bad back. I told you this a hundred times!”
That was a lie. There was nothing wrong with my back. I just didn’t want his filthy bedbug-crusted feet standing on my shoulders.
“Whatever, I’m not your butt boy.”
For the next hour I focused on annoying the hell out of him until he agreed to get up and let me check out the hole.
“All right, if I lift you up will you shut up?” he said.
“Yes, I promise.”
A few seconds later I was climbing up on his shoulders. To balance, I held on to the wall with one hand, and once up and turned around I was in reach of the hole, which was round and about the size of a poker chip. As I reached to put my finger through, it grazed the wire ever so lightly, and several sparks shot at my face like something out of a pyrotechnics display during a Metallica concert. Just after that, the room went black.
“Shit!” I said, getting down.
“Great!” said Theo. “I told you this was a bad idea!”
“I know, I know; you were right,” I apologized. “I’m so sorry. Boost me back up. Maybe I can fix it.”
“No, forget it!”
And I did. I was furious with myself. That light had been priceless to me. It protected me from the thoughts that would otherwise race through my mind in the darkness: How long will I be in this room? Do they know I’m Jewish yet? Does anyone back home know where I am? And the constant chorus: What the fuck did I do to deserve getting locked in a room with a guy like this?
Later, as I sat there staring at the light streaming in through the keyhole, I imagined how I was going to pick the lock, step by step, and planned out what I’d do after the door was open. It had a calming effect on me, but it didn’t last long.
Within three hours of unhooking the shower curtain ring the worst possible thing happened. It began with the sound of someone hammering nails into our door.
“No!” I said. “Don’t tell me they’re putting a padlock on there!”
The next time the door opened I saw a padlock affixed to it, about three-quarters of the way up. I couldn’t believe our luck. As soon as I had something that gave me hope, they took it away. I was devastated. It felt as if God were looking down and singling us out for maximized suffering. A few hours before, I’d had light and a possible escape plan, and now both had been taken away, leaving me with nothing but darkness.
We were in the dark for seven straight days this time. The hole above the door helped some during the day or when the electricity was on at night, but that was a rare treat during this period. Fed late at night, we ate in the shadows and had to stay under the covers to keep warm; without utensils it was nearly impossible to avoid dropping food onto the bed we slept on, and then there was no way for us to clean it up. Theo was back to emerging from the covers only when it was time to eat, which didn’t help my increasingly hopeless state of mind. Every time Yassine took us to the bathroom I begged him to fix the light, and every time he gave me the same answer:
“Yes, yes, Jumu’ah, I will fix it soon, Inshallah. I am very busy.”
A few days in, we got a visit from the emir. When he gave us permission to turn from the wall and stand I did; Theo stayed seated.
“How are you?” he asked in Arabic.
I answered by motioning to the unlit bulb and then lifting my arms and raising my eyebrows in the universal gesture for How do you think? The emir raised his own brows, and when I told him, through Theo, how long we had been in the dark, his jaw dropped. He immediately ordered the punks with him to fix the light, and left. Within minutes a table had been dragged into the room
