The Last Rain

by Edeet Ravel

  At noon the work was interrupted and the official ceremonies were conducted. Flags and coloured banners beat violently in the wind. There were cakes, oranges and wine. The army men who had been stationed there up to our arrival walked around with rifles slung casually from the shoulder over greatcoats and sheepskins. It could have been opening night at the Met, only in the opposite, non-bourgeois direction of course.

  When the celebration was over, the guests began to leave, and the kibbutzniks got down to business, began to get settled for the night, took over military positions, cleaned out some of the deserted buildings on the edge of the village, and assigned work duties. “It’s all yours,” the soldiers said as they pulled out. “It’s all yours.”

  Dori

  Everyone is already sitting at the two round tables. I’m the last one. Lulu waves at me. I sit down next to her and she gives me a hug. She has curly hair that matches her name. Lulululululu sounds like a lot of curls. It goes back to where it started like a circle and curls are circles too.

  For supper there’s bread and margarine and green beans and beet soup and cheese triangles. No soup bits10 unfortunately. We don’t get soup bits that often. My three favourite foods in the world are figs from a tree—not the dried kind—and pomegranates and soup bits. You can’t get any of those foods in Canada. It’s too cold to grow figs and pomegranates there and they don’t know how to make soup bits.

  My favourite dessert is chocolate leben but today there’s carrots and raisins.

  The carrots and raisins are never the same. Sometimes the carrots are sweet and thin and there’s just the right amount of water and the raisins are big and delicious and the water gets sweet from the raisins. Other times the carrots are in big pieces and they taste bitter and the raisins are small and yellow and sour and there’s so much water you can’t taste anything. I wish the Kitchen would get it right all the time.

  Thane of Eldar

  Here stands Jeremiah ben Jacob, sometime of London, risen to Thane, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the tadpole, the wall-newt and the water. The rats however I am killing. Peace, Smulkin!

  Dori

  Shoshana doesn’t notice that I’m not drinking my milk. That’s one good thing about Shoshana—she never notices what anyone eats or drinks. She’s too busy at the sink. I pour my milk into Gilead’s cup. He likes everything.

  I only like milk when there’s cocoa in it. The cocoa in Canada is different from the cocoa in Eldar. In Canada it’s sweeter and you can make it yourself. You have to squish the pieces that float up and you can add a little more if it isn’t sweet enough though it’s harder to squish when the milk is already in the cup. The cocoa in Canada is called Quik. Here they make the cocoa in the Kitchen. It’s not as good as Quik but it’s better than no cocoa.

  Hot cocoa sometimes has skin that you have to take off with your spoon. I would die if I had to eat the skin. Or lumps in semolina. Or soft-boiled eggs. Semolina is very hard to make without lumps. Every time Shoshana brings semolina from the Kitchen I get worried. Sometimes you bite on a lump by mistake because you can’t see it. I try not to eat semolina at all. It’s not worth it.

  Hard to believe but Simon likes the skin on hot milk. That’s because his parents like it.

  Shoshana says whoever is good can help her wash the dishes. She thinks we’re dummies. Pioneers have to work hard but we’re only children. Why would we want to help her wash dishes?

  But Simon does. He stands on a chair and dries the dishes. He looks funny with an apron on because he’s round. I whisper to Lulu aprons look funny on round people and we laugh until our stomachs hurt.11

  Archaeology

  House of the Second Mukhtar of the village of El-Daar (1872–1948); now an archaeological museum containing artefacts found in the vicinity.

  “The Hyksos built a village here a little less than six thousand years ago; I ran into their village when I dug the foundation for the high school. We found one of their graves with some lovely Middle Bronze Age pottery. After the Hyksos came the Canaanites; they turned Eldar into a walled village. We found very good pottery with glazed decorations, and one of the altars on which they sacrificed children twice a year. The Israelites came next; they built a fort here. They were technologically primitive but monotheistic. The Assyrians wiped Eldar out in 722 BCE; we found a layer of ashes; it was burnt. The Babylonian and Persian conquests don’t show up here at all. The Greeks show up, however; the army of Alexander the Great probably built an army outpost here. And then the Romans came—we have thousands of Roman coins. During the late Roman period Eldar was a Jewish village. We found a synagogue, a ritual bath, twelve burial caves. The cave opposite the chicken house was identified by the Talmudic rabbis as belonging to Rabbi Sisi. The Byzantine period was very strong here. We haven’t found a church, but the Byzantines often used the synagogues as churches. Just yesterday we ran into a whole Byzantine complex and an Israelite complex below it. The bulldozer cut a cross-section, you can see it all. After the Byzantines we have the early Arab period, 7th to 10th century. Then came the Crusades; Eldar was a small Crusader outpost with three large forts nearby. Then of course we have the Egyptian conquest; we found some beautiful Mameluke jewellery here from the 13th century. After that, the Turks ruled the region but the population remained Arab. During the British Mandate, Eldar was a headquarters for the commander of the Palestine Liberation Army. That’s why Eldar was raided in 1948. The villagers left overnight and Eldar became an army outpost on 29 October. We arrived two months later, on 13 January, to found the kibbutz. The belongings of the Arab villagers, what they had not taken with them that night, lay scattered all over the place.”12

  Dori

  We’re supposed to conserve water because water is scarce in our land. But Shoshana doesn’t care. At first it looks as if she cares because she turns the water off for the soap part. We cover ourselves from top to bottom with the soap. Every time it slips out of our hands we laugh and yell it slipped it slipped.

  When we’re finished Shoshana turns the water back on. She’s supposed to keep it on just enough to get the soap off but she lets us shower for as long as we want so I don’t know why she turned it off for the soap part. We get a little wild. Shoshana doesn’t care about that either. She’s not in the room.13

  Finally she shuts off the water and we get our towels from the hooks on the wall. There’s a piece of sticking plaster over my hook with my name on it. I can’t read it yet but I like seeing my name there. And I love sticking plaster. It smells good. Dafna the nurse lets me have the metal reels when they’re finished because she knows how much I like them. How does she know? I can’t remember. Maybe Daddy told her. She also gives me the tiny bottles with the rubber caps that you put needles into. I love those bottles.

  In Canada they have Band-Aids that don’t hurt when you take them off. Mummy bought me a book in a train station in Canada that had two real Band-Aids in the back. Nurse Nancy. There wasn’t much of a story and the pictures weren’t very good but I loved the Band-Aids. On my birthday in Canada my aunt asked me what I wanted and I said Nurse Nancy so I could get two more Band-Aids. Daddy didn’t like that I got a book that was exactly the same as a book I already had but I was very happy. My old grandmother came to look after us while Daddy and Mummy went out and I put one of the Band-Aids on her finger where the top part was missing. I forget what I did with the other one.

  Plaster hurts a lot when you take it off. Shoshana pulls it off very fast. Pulling it off fast hurts more—but at least it only hurts for a second. Does Shoshana do it the fast way because it hurts more or because it only hurts for a second? I don’t know. I prefer the slow way.

  In Canada children take baths instead of showers and after the bath you get a big soft towel. All you have to do is pat the towel a little on your body. Pioneers rub themselves dry with a small thin towel. I like the Pioneer way better. Pioneers are important. We’re building our land.

  Our First Year

  16 Jan
uary 1949. I’m so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open (it seems as if we’ve been awake for the last three days straight). I’ve just returned from the shower room where I met Naftali, who tells me that tomorrow we receive military training for guard duty. Syria and Trans-Jordan are in our backyard.

  The wind is now blowing more powerfully, and it whispers loudly, like a thousand lips shushing high up in the sky, as it sifts through the Poinciana, eucalyptus, and pepper trees. The moon shines down on a piece of wall, a burnt-out house, a pile of rubble, a tile floor without walls and ceiling. In the weaving moonlight one can almost see the ghosts of the spirited life that flourished here.

  I am thinking of the deserted village of Eldar, which we entered so proudly and energetically this morning, and the lives of the Arabs who lived here. I wandered through some of the hovels, looked at the overturned jugs, grain, books, baby shoes, and smelled the smell of destruction. Are we also destroying, pillaging, being cruel in this ancient land, with our ideals and our refusals to stoop to the world’s rottenness? Perhaps. We have moved into Eldar; it is ours; we are responsible for our acts, even though we are bound under the direction and discipline of our Movement. But do we have an alternative? Can we step aside, refuse to be morally sullied by Eldar and demand some other section of our Homeland on which to build our homes? I do not think so.

  We are not responsible for this cruel and forced contradiction; we would prefer to disown it if we could; we bear no hatred towards the Arab workers and peasants.

  But we have been forced into a position where we must fight for our lives and the lives of our people, and today life is largely determined by frontiers, and frontiers must be defended no matter what the price. We do not have the right to shunt this moral and political responsibility off on others. The kibbutz that we build at Eldar will be dedicated not only to the renaissance of our own people, but to mankind and the future of mankind. And this includes our Arab neighbours.

  Dori

  We have two bedrooms. I’m in the one with Skye and Elan and Simon.

  My bed is next to the wall between the bedrooms. Right where Lulu’s bed is on the other side.

  Elan is in the corner after me and Simon is in the corner after Elan and Skye is in the corner near the door. When the door opens Shoshana can’t see Skye right away. If Skye is sitting up in bed she has time to get under the blanket.

  We take our pyjamas out of our drawer. In Canada people keep their pyjamas squished up under their pillow but Pioneers don’t have pillows. We’re supposed to fold our pyjamas but I don’t know why. I understand about the pillows but not the folding. We don’t need pillows. But pyjamas are just for sleeping in. Who cares if they’re squished?

  We get into bed and Shoshana says goodnight. This could be a bad part but it’s not so bad for me because I’m waiting for my goodnight kiss. We’re not supposed to talk. If we talk Shoshana might come back and get mad.

  One of the rhymes I like is Who Keeps Barking All the Time—

  Who keeps barking all the time?

  It’s that little dog of mine.

  He guards us with all his might

  Good night, he says. Sleep tight.

  What I really love is the picture that goes with that rhyme. It’s a picture of a Children’s House in another kibbutz. The children there are luckier than us. They’re allowed to get up and go to the window. Their Minder isn’t Shoshana. And they have a dog. No wonder they’re happy. I love the aqua in that picture. Aqua is my favourite colour.

  Except for Friday we’re not even allowed to talk after Shoshana leaves. If she comes back and finds us talking we’ll be in trouble. Sometimes we take a chance but not tonight. Tonight no one has anything to say and it’s quiet. There’s a potty in the middle of the room in case someone has to pee. Elan sometimes pees in his sleep. He can’t help it.

  It’s dark outside and very quiet. We can hear the jackals in the mountains. I love that sound. Ah-woooooooo. Jackals don’t like humans but they’re too far to reach us. Just like the Enemy. The Enemy is dangerous no matter what but most animals won’t bother you if you don’t bother them. Unless they’re hungry and you’re the only food.

  The Other Children’s House

  Dori

  I suck my finger while I wait for my kiss. My brother David sucks two fingers but I only suck one. Some children suck their thumb but with me it’s always my first finger. That finger is already flatter than the first finger on my other hand. I know I’ll stop when I’m older but I don’t know when. David is ten and he still sucks his fingers.

  I like to touch something soft while my finger is in my mouth. Under my eye for example—especially if I squish the skin a little with my thumb. Or I can flap my earlobe back and forth. They’re both good. Eye or ear. The main thing is that my finger is in my mouth. I can’t help sucking my finger. It’s not up to me.

  It’s really quiet outside. Big and dark and quiet. When when when will Mummy or Daddy come?

  The Good Fairy

  Dori

  Here she is! Here she is finally! Mummy comes to my bed. Everyone is jealous. She doesn’t say anything to the other children. I wish she’d say goodnight to everyone but she doesn’t. She sits on my bed and only talks to me. I know it’s not fair but I can’t help being happy. Very very happy.

  Usually she has a song or a rhyme for me. She knows a lot of rhymes by heart because she’s a teacher. She loves rhymes. Her favourite is Four Ostriches Said—

  Four ostriches said

  Let us visit the pheasants

  How good it will be

  To bring lots of presents

  Four ostriches sighed

  Our visit was pleasant

  Too bad we forgot

  To bring all the presents

  Mummy laughs. I can’t say I know exactly why this rhyme makes her laugh. I wouldn’t be happy if I forgot to bring a present. But I’m happy that Mummy’s laughing.

  I know everyone else is listening too. They’re jealous but they can’t help liking the rhymes. Mummy says one more and then I have to go. She chooses a very plain rhyme. It’s so plain I don’t even know why it’s in a book. Anyone can come up with a rhyme like that—

  Winter’s here

  Down comes the rain

  Look! Raindrops on

  The window pane

  Then she kisses me again and leaves. Now I’m alone like everyone else but at least Mummy came.

  Thy Neck with Chains of Gold14

  Characters:

  RITA, a teacher in her late twenties, currently working as Minder of the eight-year-olds, including Michael and Marina’s son Efraim (Effie).

  ricky, a short, balding man in his late twenties who is

  courting Rita.

  michael, a tall, brilliant high-school teacher in his

  mid-thirties, father of Lila, 3, and Efraim (Effie), 8.

  marina, a high-strung woman in her mid-thirties,

  married to Michael.

  eli, the work coordinator.

  Note:

  The characters were born in North America and speak

  English.

  Time:

  The late fifties.

  Place:

  A remote, northern kibbutz in Israel.

  Scene:

  rita’s cabin room, containing a single bed, small table,

  chair, two shelves for a kettle, dishes, hotplate, etc., a

  black kerosene stove for heating, vase with wildflowers,

  photos and prints on the wall. michael and marina’s

  room is next door but not seen. As the play opens, RITA

  is washing the floor of her room with a mop and pail.

  ricky stands at the doorway watching her.

  RICKY

  It’s a bit late for washing floors, isn’t it?

  RITA

  I couldn’t take a break today. The children in my Group

  are sick. My hotplate broke and I had to run to the kitchen

  for boiled water. There�
��s been no laundry for three days

  because of the rain and I’m drying their clothes on the

  stove. I’m stuck in the Children’s House with them all

  day and they’re cranky. I thought they’d never fall asleep.

  RICKY

  (takes mop from her) Let me.

  RITA

  As you like.

  RICKY

  Of course I like. Anytime you need a mopping job done,

  just call on Ricky.

  RITA

  (shaking a mat outside) This mud—where does it all

  come from?

  RICKY

  Tomorrow it won’t rain.

  RITA