A Wall of Light - Edeet Ravel [35]
I don’t know why it makes her laugh. Daddy told me never to say shut up to anyone.
But I don’t care. When Mummy’s happy I’m happy.
Transcript of Meeting April 1961
Topic:
Hired labour
Chair:
Isaac Milman
Isaac:
Tamir and Emanuel claim that “We need hired labour
or we can’t manage; we can’t run the kibbutz properly
without it; produce will die; it makes no economic
sense; we don’t have the manpower and we don’t have
the volunteers; we will never be able to sustain this
enterprise if we don’t hire Arab locals, for whom it
would be a real boost.”
Oded:
Tamir and Emanuel are a hundred percent right and
this is an urgent matter. As Economic Coordinator, I
can’t stress this enough.
Naftali:
Please remember that Economic Coordinator is not a
position of authority, and you don’t have any special
powers vested in you.
Oded:
I resent your tone and your implications.
Isaac:
Fellows, fellows, let’s keep this on an appropriate level,
please.
Martin:
As you know, I’m probably the person who has the most
contact, along with Isaac, with our neighbours.
Isaac:
You can have that position for yourself, seeing as you’re
the only one who’s mastered Arabic …
Martin:
I know that we have well-founded reasons for rejecting
a structure we came here to escape. Nevertheless we
believe in helping our brothers and I know how wel-
come jobs would be. An employer need not be an
exploiter, necessarily. I think that with all due respect,
this would help our neighbours feed their families with
income from picking. And, by the way, the offer from
Jish to set up another course in Arabic is ongoing.
Varda:
Why am I having déjà vu? Didn’t we discuss all this last
year, and the year before, and the year before?
Yael:
That’s exactly the point. We need a policy for the sake of
efficiency and so we can plan ahead.
Lou:
A kibbutz that depends on outsiders as a matter of
course is not a kibbutz.
Martin:
Let’s invite them all to join …
Dori
My brother David says that today is a holiday for religious people where they don’t eat all day. He says we’re having extra food to show we don’t care.
Noam says magicians know how to make people disappear. I tell him it isn’t true but Amnoni and David say it is. They say a person can disappear forever if the magician forgets the right words to bring them back.
I know it isn’t true but I ask Daddy anyhow. He says magicians use tricks and really the person is hiding in a box or under the table.
In a scary movie I saw on television in Canada a man got trapped in a wall. Right inside it. I don’t remember how he got there in the first place but he couldn’t get out. No one could hear him calling for help.
I ask Daddy if I can have extra soup almonds because of the holiday. He doesn’t know what I’m talking about. They made that holiday up too.
Thane of Eldar
I escaped the hunt. Yet this too is heavy sentence, my native English now I must forgo, within my mouth you have enjailed my tongue. Oh dateless limit of my exile, the hopeless word of never to return. Blow, wind! Come, wrack! At least we’ll die with harness on our back!
Dori
It’s naptime but I’m not tired. I get up and look around for anyone who’s awake. I know I’ll be in trouble if Shoshana comes back but she doesn’t usually come during the nap.
Everyone in my room is asleep. I go to the other room and see that Gilead is awake. He’s bored too but he has a better idea than just talking. He whispers do you want to run away? I nod and we sneak out of the Children’s House. It’s a lucky thing I finally learned how to tie my shoelaces.
We don’t want anyone to see us so we run in a direction that isn’t the Rooms or the fields or the barns. We have to sneak past the cabin where Mummy teaches. We’re having a real adventure.
We see a man sitting on a rock and peeling a stick with a knife. He has a little fire with potatoes inside. I don’t know if he’s from Eldar. I don’t think so because you’re not supposed to have your