A Wall of Light - Edeet Ravel [34]
Dori
It’s really hot today. Instead of staying in the Room we go out to the lawn and fill basins with water. In between sitting in the basin I stand on Daddy’s shoulders and count. I can keep my balance to 100.
There are other adults on the lawn and everyone is talking and laughing. Daddy is explaining all sorts of things. He’s very smart.
On the ship to Canada there was a pool. I was afraid to go inside it though. I didn’t want to fall into the ocean.
I liked that ship. I didn’t like the food but Daddy always tried to find something for me on the menu like bread or mashed potatoes.
A horrible thing happened on the ship. Right in the middle of supper two waiters dragged another waiter to the door and threw him out of the room and he fell on the floor. His body was all skinny and crooked and nervous and he was scared and trying to explain and stuttering but they wouldn’t listen and didn’t care.
I asked Daddy why they threw him out and Daddy didn’t know what to say. Finally he said because he spilled soup on someone but he said it the way he says things he doesn’t want to explain. How can you be angry with someone for spilling soup on a ship? The waves keep moving everything around.
I was sad and Daddy was sad too. I don’t know why he didn’t get up to help that man.
Steamship Zion
Dori
I’m remembering that ship. There was a girl on the ship who was my good friend. She didn’t know any Hebrew or English but she knew what I meant and I knew what she meant. I wanted to be her friend forever but I don’t even know where she is.
She looked like the girl in Nariko-San, the Girl From Japan. A blonde girl comes to visit Nariko-San in Japan and they change clothes. There are photographs of the whole visit.
I know that book by heart. I like it a lot more than Dolly Ziva. I like books that are real or not real. Nariko-San, the Girl From Japan is real and it has photographs. Alice in Wonderland isn’t real. Dolly Ziva has photographs like Nariko-San but the story is about a doll that talks. Books like that don’t make sense to me.
Genre Confusion
Dori
On my way to the Room I meet my brother David and Noam and Amnoni. They’re going on an adventure. I ask if I can come but David says oh no there will be huge huge rivers that you have to cross and Noam says and huge thorns and Amnoni says and gigantic scorpions that if they bite you you die right away.
I don’t know if they’re telling the truth. They’re not allowed to lie so I have to believe them but I think they might be lying. I really want to go with them but there’s nothing I can say.
I get to the Room in a bad mood. I tell Daddy David and Noam and Amnoni won’t let me go with them on their adventure. Daddy laughs. I don’t know what’s so funny.
I tell Daddy we’re going to start school soon. Not here—in Galron. That’s the closest kibbutz. We’ll be getting there on a microbus.
I wasn’t there when Shoshana told everyone. I was outside on the monkey bars. When I came in everyone was shouting we’re going on a microbus we’re going on a microbus!
They were very excited so I tried to be excited. But the truth is I don’t know what a microbus is.
Our First Year
1 April 1949. Friday night celebration in which the priest from Jish delivered a lecture, in Hebrew, on the historical background of the area. An impressive-looking man, short, stout, barbed, clad in a long black cassock, and wearing a large pith helmet—Livingstone out of darkest Africa.
Some of us had a good deal of trouble understanding the Hebrew.
Dori
Mummy has a new thing she says—
Shut up fool
You’re talking tosh
You have the brain
Of half a squash
She says it over and over. It makes her laugh very hard.