A Wall of Light - Edeet Ravel [18]
Mummy said goodbye and left me there. The children were wild and I didn’t know them so when no one was looking I ran out of the room and out of the building and back to our house.
When Mummy saw me she put me on her lap and spanked me. I cried so hard I began to choke and Mummy had to bring me water. She said I mustn’t cross the street alone ever again. I don’t know why. I can see if there’s a car. It’s not as if Mummy can see and I can’t see. We both see the same.
If Daddy knew Mummy hit me he’d be angry. But I never told him.
First Day of School
Dori
When I wake up I need Desitin on my jinnie. Shoshana puts it on. For some reason she isn’t angry this morning. She’s being nice to me.
We make our bed and have breakfast. Breakfast is always the same—bread and jam and either oatmeal or semolina or eggs or wheat puffs and milk.
Any egg is fine with me as long as it’s not soft-boiled. I’d rather die than eat the white of a soft-boiled egg. I don’t mind scrambled or omelette or fried or hard-boiled mashed with margarine. For fried I don’t mind if the yellow is soft. I just don’t like when the white is soft. The white is a whole different story.
After breakfast an adult comes to talk to us about Passover. She tells us the story of Moses freeing the slaves. Everyone has to be equal. No one’s allowed to make another person a slave. We sing—
Sweet spring
Sweet spring
Passover
You bring
Not a very interesting song. Not a very good tune either. Then we sing—
We were slaves
And now and now and now and now
And now we’re free
That one’s better because you can shout it. Then we sing about Eliyahu the Grape.28 I guess he’s the person in charge of the grapes. And then we learn a new song in Aramaic dezabenababitreizuzei and we all start laughing and getting wild so the adult tells us to draw pictures of spring to decorate the Dining Hall. We draw some pictures and run outside to play.
Our First Year
21 January 1949. The blowing up of the mosque has had its effect on us. No one views the incident with other than mixed feelings, but the army and the government were insistent and needless to say they have the last word. After innumerable considerations involving the significance of destroying this chief building and symbol of the village, most of us agree now that it had to be done. It would have been a useless gesture to preserve this symbol of a population that showed itself to be, when one views the thing factually and unsentimentally, our hardened enemies whom we have no intention of permitting to return.
The whole appearance of the village has undergone a transformation. It’s now a mass of ruins, and yet most of us agree it’s better this way. The hovels, the filth, the medieval atmosphere— it’s gone now, for the most part. Bring on the bulldozers and let’s plant trees!
Dori
I climb the monkey bars outside the Children’s House. I used to be afraid to hang with only my legs but now I can. Daddy helped me. He held my legs and when I was ready I told him to let go. It was easy in the end.
The sky is beautiful and blue. Everyone is playing tag. I like it alone on top of the monkey bars. I can see everything. I’m going to be a writer and that means I need to see things. I need to see what people are doing and figure out what they are thinking.
I see my brother David going somewhere with his friends Noam and Amnoni. They’re going in the direction of the carpentry shop. I know what they’re thinking. They’re thinking about how much fun they’re going to have.
A Good Vantage Point
Dori
Lulu runs over and climbs halfway up the monkey bars to tell me something. Her father is going on a special trip to Gush Halav after lunch and we’re allowed to come with him. Only a few children are allowed. My brother David and Noam and Amnoni are coming too. Noam is Lulu’s brother. We all have to meet at the chicken coop after lunch.
Gush Halav is an Arab village.