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By Root 1071 0

sauce surrounded with slices of boiled carrot, but since by now we both had severe colds and coughs and it was still pouring with rain outside, we decided that we would be better off staying at home. The sky was so overcast that we had to turn the lights on at four o'clock. Father sat at his desk and worked for a couple of hours on an article for which he had already extended the deadline twice, with his glasses slipping down his nose, bent over his books and little cards. While he worked, I lay on the rug at his feet reading a book. Later we played checkers: he beat me once, I won once, and the third time we drew. It is hard to say if he meant it to turn out like that or if it just happened. We had a light snack and drank some hot tea and we both took a couple of Palgin or APC tablets from Mother's collection of pills. To help us fight our colds. Then I went to bed, and we both got up at six o'clock, and at seven Tsippi the pharmacist's daughter came over to tell us that we'd just had a phone call from Tel Aviv and they would ring again in ten minutes, Mr. Klausner was to go to the pharmacy immediately, and her father had said to say it was rather urgent please.

Auntie Haya told me that on Friday Uncle Tsvi, who was the administrative director of Tsahalon Hospital, had called in a specialist from the hospital, who had volunteered to come over after work. The specialist examined my mother thoroughly, unhurriedly, pausing to chat with her and continuing his examination, and when he had finished, he had said that she was tired, tense, and a little run down. Apart from the insomnia he could not find anything specifically wrong with her. Often the psyche is the worst enemy of the body: it doesn't let the body live, it doesn't let it enjoy itself when it wants to or get the rest it is begging for. If only we could extract it the way we extract the tonsils or the appendix, we would all live healthy and contented lives till we were a thousand years old. He thought that there was not much point now in having the tests at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem on Monday, but they couldn't do any harm. He recommended complete rest and avoidance of any excitement. It was particularly important, he said, that the patient should get out of the house for at least an hour or even two hours every day, she could even dress up warmly and take an umbrella and simply walk around town, looking at shop windows or at handsome young men, it didn't matter what, the crucial thing was to get some fresh air. He also wrote her a prescription for some new, very strong sleeping pills that were apparently even newer and stronger than the new pills that the new doctor in Jerusalem had prescribed. Uncle Tsvi hurried out to the duty pharmacist's in Bugrashov Street to buy the pills, because it was Friday afternoon and all the other pharmacists had already closed for Sabbath.

On Friday night Auntie Sonia and Uncle Buma had come over with a tin food container with a handle, soup for everyone and fruit compote for dessert. The three sisters had crowded into the little kitchen for an hour or so preparing dinner. Auntie Sonia had suggested that my mother should go and stay with her, in Wessely Street, to give Haya a break, but Auntie Haya wouldn't hear of it, and even told her younger sister off for this strange suggestion. Auntie Sonia was offended, but said nothing. At the Sabbath dinner table the atmosphere was a little dampened by Sonia's umbrage. My mother seems to have taken on my father's usual role and tried to keep the conversation going somehow. At the end of the evening she complained of feeling tired and apologized to Tsvi and Haya for not having the strength to help them clear away and wash up. She took the new tablets that the Tel Aviv specialist had prescribed, and to be on the safe side she also took some of the tablets that the Jerusalem specialist had given her. She fell into a deep sleep at ten o'clock but woke up a couple of hours later and made herself a strong cup of coffee in the kitchen, and spent the rest of the night sitting on a kitchen