A Wall of Light - Edeet Ravel [54]
Dori
The older children are picking peas. We can pick too if we want but we aren’t really supposed to eat the peas because they’re for selling to people outside of Eldar. It’s hard to resist though. Peas straight from the pod are delicious.
The older children tell us to go play. I run around with Lulu and then I go to the Room. Daddy isn’t there. No one’s there. I go back down to look for him. Coco opens her window and says Daddy can’t see me today because he has a bad back.
And Mummy went away for two days to a conference! Daddy was all I had!
I sit on the step and cry my heart out. I have the same feeling I had last time when Shoshana caught me and the same hiccups when I try to stop. My whole heart is breaking and my stomach too. There’s no one to take me to the Children’s House so finally Shoshana comes and drags me.55
Thane of Eldar
In years to come, I shall be glad to be unwept, unchallenged and unsung. Farewell, dust! Farewell, Eldar!
Dori
One thing I do not like is steam houses. On the beach in Camp Bilu’im there was a steam house on the beach. I wasn’t allowed in there but I begged and begged and in the end David let me in. I sat on a bench in a tiny room. The smell made me sick and the steam made me sick. I yelled let me out! And I ran out and never went in there again.
What I like is the tall brown stove in the Room in winter. It has little holes and you can put your cheek against the metal and warm up. It has a such nice smell.
I love the light inside a flashlight or any kind of light inside glass. I saw a red light inside glass here on Eldar but I never found out what it was. Light inside glass is magic and real at the same time.
Stove
Dori
Mummy is taking me to the city! Just the two of us all day long. She says she has a surprise for me there.
A lot of Arab women get on the bus with their baskets. Mummy laughs every time the bus bumps because it makes us jump up in our seats. I laugh with her. She peels an orange and gives me half because we left before breakfast. She says pelah56 pelah Metushelah which doesn’t mean anything—it just rhymes. Usually words that don’t mean anything are for babies but everyone says pelah pelah Metushelah. Even my brother David.
Mummy has to go to an office. It takes a long time. I play with my sunhat but there isn’t much you can do with a sunhat. When we’re finished Mummy says you were so patient! I say I wasn’t patient at all and she laughs very hard. I don’t know why exactly.
We go to a toilet to pee because later there might not be a toilet. It isn’t very clean but Mummy brought pieces of newspaper in her purse and she puts them on the seat so we won’t catch any germs. Then we wash our hands with soap. Mummy says with soap you don’t have to worry who touched it.
On the street I see a woman with very puffed hair. I say, look Mummy she has a cake on her head! and Mummy says shhh so the woman won’t hear but she smiles. She says now I have a surprise for you—we’re going to see a Tarzan movie.
I can’t believe it! Now I’m the happiest girl in the world. The happiest girl who ever lived in the whole wide world.
We go into the cinema. The seats are made of wood and they bounce up unless you hold them. Mummy holds the seat down for me. It goes up a bit when I sit on it because I’m not heavy enough but I don’t mind. The movie starts. First there’s a monkey and then an elephant brings Tarzan a log. Then a boy sweeps the floor. He sweeps all the dirt under a carpet.
Mummy leans over and whispers look how he sweeps! So then I know it’s a joke and I laugh.57
The boy is Tarzan’s son. Mummy explains the movie to me but two big girls keep turning around to look at us and Mummy says we’re bothering them.
I don’t mind not understanding everything. It’s still the best movie in the world with the handsomest man in the world.
When the movie is over Mummy says out loud the end. The sun outside hurts my eyes and I have to cover them. Mummy