Only Yesterday (52 page)
Continuation
I
Sonya came with Yarkoni. Isaac stood up from the bench and gave her his seat. Between Isaac and Sonya there was neither love nor hate, neither envy nor rancor. All the time they had been friendly with one another, they were close to one another, when they grew apart, they behaved like all the other couples who separated, that is, like people who have nothing to do with one another and have nothing for one another. Man has free will, if he wants to, he gets close, if he wants to, he goes away, and if they go away, that’s not a tragedy, and if they chance to meet among folks, they don’t make a comedy of running away from one another. Sonya had already stopped thinking of Isaac, and Isaac had stopped thinking of Sonya, and since he met Shifra, he no longer tried to get close to Sonya. Sonya didn’t want to know Isaac’s business, and Isaac, who was afraid at first that he would have to reveal it to her, wasn’t afraid anymore, for Sonya was concerned with the whole world, but not with Isaac.
When she sat down, she raised her eyes and looked at him, as if she suddenly noticed him and said, You’re still here? Isaac didn’t know what to answer, whether to apologize to her for not having yet returned to Jerusalem or whether to agree with her that he was still here. He nodded at her and was silent. Sonya laughed and said, If I see you, it’s clear that you’re still here. As she talked with Isaac, she looked at Yarkoni.
Yarkoni was sad and was depressed. His heart was obviously remorseful and bitter. And just a little while ago, he was happy. Sonya sat and thought about several men she knew, the Russian journalist and Grisha, Rabinovitch and Isaac. Aside from Grisha that pest who
I
425was wont to be raging, no one had treated her like Yarkoni. She pouted and wanted to scold him. She recalled that moment when his hands were laid on her head and her head was laid on his heart and it seemed to her that in all the years that she had lived, there had never been a greater moment than that. The golden freckles on her cheeks began hopping and the thoughts of her heart began smiling, as if Yarkoni was still standing and stroking her hair. Not like one who wants to cool off, and not like one who strokes any girl who happens to be in front of him, but like a person whose deeds come from his affection. That time she humbled herself because of that marvelous existence, for she thought it would never stop. Suddenly it did stop and everything changed and by the time they left her room, she sensed that change. What caused that change? And how come he is so sad? He should have been happy. Once again she looked at him and once again she wanted to say something, not as she wanted to say at first, but just something that neither adds nor detracts. When she saw his face, she remained silent.
She turned her face from him and shut her eyes. His sad face vanished and that jolly youth was revealed to her, his delicate fingers trembling on her hair and his eyes smiling into her eyes, and she also smiled a secret smile. The golden freckles on her cheeks trembled and a hot veil was drawn over her cheeks. Why aren’t you happy like me? Sonya wanted to ask and held her hand out to him to take his hand and put it on her heart. Look, she wanted to tell him, look at my heart trembling. She opened her eyes wide and was amazed that everything here was like all other nights. And nevertheless, there is a change here. Not because Michael Heilperin and Mira Ramishvili were dancing together, and not because Gordon and Brenner had happened by here, but because Yarkoni is here. In the distance, Hemdat appeared. Hemdat isn’t happy either. Surely not because Shammai is playing with Yael, but because. . . Before she found a reason for it, she went back to thinking about Yarkoni. Like sad roses your lips will flower, no poet wrote that, but that was what she said about Yarkoni, and the golden freckles in her cheeks turned red as flame. And those lips, those sad roses, a short while ago, they had kissed her jolly lips.
Sonya stood up and waved her hands. It was the kind of wave her poor uncle made when he dined at her father’s house and Father would pass him some treat so he would eat more. What is the mean-ing of that wave? Doesn’t it mean, What will I do tomorrow when I don’t have such a good treat? She sat down again. When she sat down her dreaming soul dozed off as if nothing had happened. What does that old man with the gray beret want, Sonya asked herself and looked at Gordon, and why is he stroking his beard, and what do all those fellows surrounding him see in him? She started worrying that Yarkoni would go to Gordon or to Brenner and leave her alone, she said to herself, I have to say something to keep him. She turned to Isaac and said, Did you thank Yarkoni yet? Yarkoni woke with a start and looked at her. Said Sonya, Yarkoni, the first night Kumer slept in Petach Tikva, he slept in your room, in your bed. Yarkoni shrugged, but looked amiably at Isaac, like a man saying, I didn’t shrug at you. And once again his face became sad.
I
Seventeen years old was Yarkoni the first time he ascended to the Land and three years he spent in the Land and was one of the carefree fellows who had nothing whatever to do with the ideas our comrades are devoted to. If he found work, he worked. If he didn’t, he wasn’t sorry, for he got what he needed from his father and didn’t need employers. When the days of his youth ripened and he began thinking about his future, he observed that it was impossible for him to cast his burden on his father all his life. Nor could he return to his hometown and go into business with his father, for if he had planned to be a merchant, he wouldn’t have ascended to the Land of Israel. Nor did he want to go to Switzerland and enter a university. And even if he did, he wasn’t prepared for that. There was nothing for him to do but be a laborer, but he had already experienced that and had seen that a Jewish laborer couldn’t hope to make a living, for the employers prefer an Arab laborer to a Jewish laborer, for the Arab laborer is obedient, is used to work, and is cheap, while the Jewish laborer isn’t experienced, doesn’t accept authority, and doesn’t give up his opinions. An example of that is Petach Tikva. About three thousand
laborers work in Petach Tikva, two thousand eight hundred of them are Arabs, and two hundred are Jews. After our comrade Yarkoni examined everything that was before him, he decided to leave the Land and study agriculture.
At that period, Ruppin was already guiding the settlement ef-fort in the Land. When Ruppin came the first time as a tourist, he saw that the land was weary and that the Jewish farmers of Judea, Samaria, and the upper Galilee grew old before their time. Those settlements were a score of years old and their founders had founded them in their youth, and because of hard work, old age had come upon them and they became negligent. And the sons who weren’t imbued with the excitement or hope of their fathers, forsook the settlements and went to seek their fortune somewhere else. Some of them went to the city and some of them went Outside the Land. There are settlements that look like old age homes. To complain about the sons is impossible, for reality slapped their fathers in the face. They saw no reward for their toil and their hope was thwarted too. When they ascended from the Diaspora, they thought their will would stand them in good stead and they would cover the whole Land with villages and would make all the children of Israel ascend to the Land of Israel. And in the end, after twenty-five years of efforts, not one new settlement was added, and even what they succeeded in doing grew weak and came undone.
Said Ruppin, I don’t see any cure for the Land unless we restore to the settlements the strength of their youth. And if we are poor in money, we are rich in people. Bring young people and train them in the farms we are making for them. When they get as much training as they need, they’ll go to work in settlements and will form co-operative unions, every union of members who think alike, and they will vouch for one another. When each one sees himself as responsible for his comrades, a sense of responsibility with grow strong in him and he will devote himself to his work, and in the end, expert laborers will come out of them. Those experts examine every tech-nical innovation and examine which ways of working are desirable for the settlement of the Land of Israel and the special qualities of the Jew. And since the laborers are young and they ascended to the Land
on their own and of their own free will, the Land will become a source of blessing and a center of pure national life, and these laborers will serve as a model for others.
For that purpose, we need Jewish agronomists, who, along with their preparation and expertise, admit the existence of our na-tion and want the settlement of our Land, and know the soul of our fellows, and don’t tend to prefer the Arab laborer to them because he is obedient or cheap. And what Ruppin demanded he carried out. He founded Kinneret and Degania. And some of our comrades began finding succor and work there. Some went to work immediately and some wanted first to study agriculture to prepare themselves for working the Land. Eliezer Yarkoni, who came from a well-off family and whose father supplied him with money to attend school, left for France to study there. When he completed his studies and thought about returning to the Land, he went to his hometown to see how his father and mother were. He found Raya, his cousin, a beautiful and charming maiden who still loved him from their youth. His heart was drawn to her and he gave her his pledge. He returned to the Land and waited for the day he would get a position and would bring his fi-ancée. He was appointed to a position. He went and telegraphed his intended to come. Sonya met him. Yarkoni, who was happy about the position and about his intended who was to come, smiled at Sonya, and Sonya, who was glad she found Yarkoni, smiled at him and invited him to her room. And since he was happy, he stroked her head and kissed her. When he realized what he had done, he was sad.
Sonya looked at him obliquely. She patted her hair and straightened the folds of her dress, as average people are wont to do if their soul is disheveled, they exchange their need for things that are secondary to the body. She took out a comb and a mirror and combed her hair. Yarkoni’s reflection was seen peeping out of the mirror. She pursed her lips and looked at him interrogating and observing. She waved her hand in front of her face, as if she wanted to shift an expression of anger, and said, Dammit, we thought he threw himself in the sea, and it turns out he’s walking around in Jerusalem dressed like a monk. That is simply ridiculous. Grisha a monk. Gri-sha a monk. A monk.
By now, everyone knew that story. For Silman had already come from Jerusalem and said that he had seen Grisha in the Russian Compound dressed as a monk. As Silman told Sonya, so he told others. Some of them were glad to get rid of that parasite who took his food from others and showed them his rage. And some of them were worried that if the Russians came to know him, they would reproach the Children of Israel for the deeds of that convert. Said Podolsky, Once upon a time, in our city, a reckless character changed his religion, the Jews were sad and the Gentiles were glad. There was one clever Gentile there. He told the Jews, You expelled filth and we took in filth.
Falk Shpaltleder came, stroking his beard, and asked, What are Jews talking about? Pnina, tell them what I told you. What? asked Gorishkin, straightened his shirt, pulled the tips of his moustache with the tips of his fingers, and looked at Pnina.
Zhelde Zhlate, Zhelde Zhlate, called Levi Isaac. Zhelde Zhlate shouted, What do you want from me, what do you want from me, you saw that character, all night long he shouts Zhelde Zhlate, Zhelde Zhlate, like he’s scared I’ll forget my name. Zhelde Zhlate, Zhelde Zhlate—again he shrieks. What do you want from me? Can I cut myself into a few pieces and throw them wherever you want? Zhelde Zhlate here, Zhelde Zhlate there. Zhelde Zhlate, shouted Shammai in Levi Isaac’s voice. Zhelde Zhlate jumped up and came to Levi Isaac and shouted, What do you want, Levi Isaac? Levi Isaac replied, I don’t want anything from you. Zhelde Zhlate said, He bleats like a beheaded heifer and in the end he says I don’t want anything from you. Said Levi Isaac, By your life, Zhelde Zhlate, I didn’t shout. Yael Hayyot laughed and hugged Shammai. Levi Isaac understood who had shouted here. He patted his bald head and laughed and said to Shammai, Young devil, what do you want from my Zhelde Zhlate? Shammai replied, I want your Zhelde Zhlate to be your shpouse and to sherve you.
Well, are you tired? Shpaltleder asked Heilperin. Heilperin opened his blue eyes and looked at him contemptuously. At last he replied with malicious placidity, Did I hear your lecture, that I should be tired? Said Shpaltleder, If you had heard it, you would
have enjoyed it. Heilperin shrugged his shoulders and turned and went on his way, not because Shpaltleder was a pest, but because he had already stopped thinking of him. Who is that old man? asked someone, pointing to Gordon. There are no old men here, said Heilperin, we’re all young. Levi Isaac, give us something and we’ll drink a toast to all the young people here.
I
The house was filled to the rafters. Not everyone who came ate at Levi Isaac’s table, and not everyone who ate at his table was a regular customer. But everyone who came in regarded himself as a mem-ber of the family, for Levi Isaac’s hotel was open to every single per-son, whether he ate or whether he didn’t. If a person wants to eat and there’s nothing ready, he doesn’t leave hungry, for with every customer, Levi Isaac adds water to the soup, not that he wants to get rich, but so as not to refuse someone who wants to eat. That night, people came from Petach Tikva and from Eyn Ganim and from Rehovoth and from Nes Tsiona, and from Be’er Yakov, along with the Jaffaites who are used to coming here when they see a lot of people. A big group gathered, for everyone who saw a large gathering saw a need to join them. And even though there were a lot of them, every one was known by name or nickname, like Father of Hair for his long hair and Father of Shirts because he took pride in his shirts at a time when nobody was fussy about clothing. And some called themselves by the name of the settlement where they found work. And just as the men were called by name or nickname, so were the girls. This one was called Bint Alla, that is Daughter of God, because of her beauty. And that one was called Ladybug, for once she found a flea and never in her life had she seen a flea, and she thought it was a ladybug, and they started calling her Ladybug.
