A Wall of Light - Edeet Ravel [56]
Hang down your head Tom Dooley!
Poor boy you’re bound to die!
Met her on the mountain!
There I took her life!
Met her on the mountain!
Stabbed her with my knife!
Hang down your head Tom Dooley!
Hang down your head and cry!
Hang down your head Tom Dooley!
Poor boy you’re bound to die!
Thy Neck with Chains of Gold
michael You want to know something, Rita—there is no love—
only dreams, infatuations, and sex. The day you want
to kill yourself for someone, you’ll know it’s love, and
there’s no one in this whole damn world I want to die
for. So I may as well be married to Marina. She’s good
for me. There’s only one thing worth giving your life for,
and that’s an ideal. An ideal you can shape and control.
But people—are nothing. They betray you from the day
you’re born.
Dori
I’m putting on my socks next to Gilead’s bed. He shows me a razor blade. He says his father gave it to him even though I thought he didn’t have a father but maybe he does. He says my father uses it for shaving. He says razors don’t hurt when they cut you and I say I don’t believe you and he says want to bet? I say ok. We shake hands and do Abraham Isaac Jacob and he cuts the leg that doesn’t have the sock on yet.
Blood comes pouring out! I scream and Shoshana comes and takes me over to the window and wraps a bandage around my leg but the blood goes right through the bandage. I’m screaming my head off.
Shoshana finds someone to carry me to the Room. Daddy and Mummy come in and kiss me but I’m still screaming. Dafna the nurse comes in and gives me a needle like Skye had when the dog bit her. Daddy asks me if I want a candy and I nod. I suck on the candy and feel better. More people come into the Room and leave.
Daddy says we’re calling the doctor to see if he can come to Eldar but if he can’t we’ll have to go to the hospital in Safed. I really really don’t want to go to the hospital.
Mummy comes in and says the doctor can’t come— we’ll have to drive to Safed. I say will you come with me? and Daddy says of course dollie we’ll all come with you.
We drive in the back seat of a truck. In Canada one time I was coming home with Mummy and suddenly we saw an ambulance. Right on Davaar Street. Mummy said let’s go see what’s going on and I said no no don’t go! But she went anyhow and she said oh no it’s grandpa! I didn’t understand how it could be my grandfather when it could have been anyone. If only she’d listened to me! But it would have been my grandfather no matter what. So then we had to drive in the ambulance with my grandfather and when we got to the hospital Mummy found a phone on the wall and called Daddy. I began to cry and she turned to me and said in a very worried voice what is it? I was surprised that she was asking what is it? but I could see she felt bad and I didn’t want to make her feel worse so I stopped crying.
I’m not crying now either. I’m happy to be with Mummy and Daddy in a truck. I’m sitting on Daddy’s lap.
We get to the hospital. It’s crowded with people on chairs and beds and it doesn’t look very clean. Mummy says this is where you were born. It bothers me that she wasn’t alone and that she gave birth in a dirty hospital.
Dafna the nurse pulls a curtain so no one can see us. The doctor is an old man. I say just tell him not to put on anything that burns! So Daddy tells the doctor even though he doesn’t want to. Everyone tells me how good I am but I’m not good. I’m making sounds even though nothing burns and nothing hurts. I’m just making them so people will worry about me.
The doctor tells Daddy something and Daddy says this is going to burn a little and I say all right because they told me. It only burns for a second. Dafna leans over me so I won’t see and she tells the doctor what to do.58
The doctor gives me seven stitches. We drive back and I fall asleep on Daddy’s lap.
Daddy carries me to the Children’s House. I wake up on the way.
I’m worried about Gilead. Who knows what Shoshana did to him? She must have hit him even harder than