After being released from the checkpoint, Usame boards a taxi bound for the West Bank. Inside, the driver, a cynical veteran, chats about the cost of a pack of cigarettes (“six qurush to make it, the rest is a protective tariff”) while Abu Muhammad offers a packet of Kent cigarettes, insisting it is worth sharing despite the driver’s refusal and Usame’s disgust at “imperialist” brands. The conversation spirals into a critique of Israeli‑produced goods—cigarettes, rice, tahina, sugar—and the double taxes levied on all commodities once they pass through Eliat. The driver mocks the idea of resistance, claiming “those who are paid for it” are the only ones who resist, and tells a crude joke about a child chanting on a crate of lemons.

A passionate passenger in the front seat launches a rhetorical tirade about Arab unity, the tide of revolution, Vietnam, the Algerian war, China, and even the war against house flies, accusing the driver of being a “lazy hanger‑on” who smokes “El‑Als.” The driver watches his facial shifts with amusement. Usame, enraged, recalls a past leader’s warning about “short‑sightedness” of Palestinian organizations and directs his anger at the driver’s complacency.

A woman in her forties with a plaster cast on her left forearm interjects, calling the ranting passenger an “intellectual” with sarcasm. She quiets him, urging calm, and later challenges his rhetoric by citing the slogan “Wage real war and we shall be prepared for any sacrifice,” demanding clarification of who “we” are. She repeatedly tells Usame to calm down as a girl’s screams (“You swine! You swine!”) echo in his memory.

Usame reflects on the barren, frost‑killed land they are passing, recalling once‑lush lemon groves that were burned to erase “prints.” The woman recounts the legend of Zarqa al‑Yamama, who warned of moving trees that concealed an enemy, and muses that while trees no longer walk, their footprints remain. She advises Usame to keep his mouth shut and leave tracks wherever he goes. The taxi finally stops in the main commercial square; passengers disperse, but the woman vanishes. Days later Usame spots her again in the old quarter of town, her forearm no longer in a cast. This scene deepens the themes of occupied life, internal dissent, mythic memory, and the personal toll of the conflict.