A Wall of Light - Edeet Ravel [11]
MARINA
Yes. I couldn’t bring him to the Room. Lila cried
because I kept running to the Children’s House. There’s
only one of me and a family is entitled to two parents.
I’ll get Michael to quit driving that truck if it’s the last
thing I do!
RICKY
You can always call on an off-duty bachelor for assistance.
marina
Why doesn’t some lucky girl marry you?
RICKY
How would you like to be my matchmaker? I’m inter-
ested in a dark-eyed beauty … (draws a shape in the air)
MARINA
I’ll bet you even washed her floor. You know how
Michael helps me, uh? By making a mess. He walks
into the room with his boots on; never uses an ashtray;
and the day he’ll put his clothes away you’ll know the
Messiah has arrived.
(RITA enters. She plugs in kettle and warms her hands
over stove)
MARINA
It’s true I’m only Effie’s mother, and I’ve no right to
bother you with stupid questions after working hours
but I’ve got to know what the nurse said.
rita
It’s a cold.
MARINA
Maybe it’s jaundice.
RITA
She said it’s a cold.
MARINA
Are you giving him medicine?
RITA
Yes.
MARINA
Is he taking it?
RITA
Yes.
MARINA
I just looked in on him. He can hardly breathe.
RITA
(hoping she won’t have to go out) He’s not up, is he?
MARINA
No.
RITA
(relieved) I sang every song in the book until those kids
fell asleep.
MARINA
You should sleep in the Children’s House.
RITA
I told the Guard to check every half hour.
MARINA
Supposing he wakes between visits and cries?
RITA
It isn’t the first time a child has had a cold in this kibbutz.
MARINA
If you were a mother, you wouldn’t be so unfeeling.
RITA
Who wants a candy?
Dori
Very quiet. Shoshana’s gone.
I whisper Skye? She whispers back yes. I whisper Shoshana was angry. She whispers yes. I whisper do you think the Enemy is too far to reach us or we’re too strong for them to reach us?
She says they’re not far—you can walk to the border. I ask so they won’t reach us because we’re strong? Skye says we have Border Guards with rifles and if the Enemy manages to sneak past the Border Guards we have Guards here.
That reminds me of something from long ago. It’s the only thing I remember from before we left Eldar. I threw up on my bed in the middle of the night. I began to cry and the Night Guard20 came in. He wanted to help but he didn’t know where the clean sheets were. Just that day I noticed Doreet putting sheets in a laundry bag hanging from a nail. I thought how lucky that was because I noticed the bag for the first time that day. But when I showed the Guard the bag it was empty. He was nice but he didn’t know much about children. Finally he told me to sleep near the edge of the bed. It wasn’t a very good solution but there was nothing else to do so that’s what I did.
Baby Diary
June 29
Dori has given up her seventh feeding. Today I gave her five feedings and Naftali gave her a bottle at night. She now eats every four hours—7, 11, 3, 7, 11.
Dori
Simon’s mother is doing the afternoon Wake-Up. She never says much. She’s the opposite of Shoshana.
Simon calls his mother Nina. It’s funny. If I called my parents Naftali and Varda how would anyone know I was their daughter? Even we wouldn’t know.21
Nina gives us a bag of treats because it’s Friday. The treats are always a bit disappointing. The candies are plain and the piece of chocolate is hard. And the cookies are the boring kind you give little babies. The only thing I like is the cream wafers but there aren’t any today.
I take my bag of treats and run as fast as I can to the Room. Daddy’s happy to see me. I sit next to him on the sofa and we read Pinocchio.
The only picture I don’t like in Pinocchio is the one at the end when Pinocchio becomes a boy. That boy looks very strange. He’s too skinny and I don’t like his clothes or anything else.
But I’m glad that Pinocchio’s going to turn into a real boy. I’m tired of waiting for his troubles to be over. It’s just one thing after another with Pinocchio. So when