Suddenly, Love
Published in Issue #13 Translated from Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green(Excerpt from a Novel)
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On Purim Irena prepares a platter of hamentashn and dried fruit.
“In honor of what?” Ernst asks in surprise.
“In honor of Purim.”
“It’s nice that you remind me of the holiday.”
“My mother used to prepare mishlo’ach manot platters for the holiday, and I would bring them to the neighbors.”
“Didn’t you have any relatives?”
“We had a cousin in Bnei Brak. He died.”
After the meal, Irena serves Ernst a cup of tea. He samples one of the hamentashn and says, “Very tasty. It reminds me of the hamentashn my mother used to make for Purim.”
It is hard for Irena to imagine Ernst’s parents. They sound like people who were plucked out of one place but not planted in another, and that sadness accompanied them into every corner. Once she saw his father in a dream, sprawled on the sofa, muttering, as though listing his sins. His mother approached the sofa, knelt, and said to him, It never was and never came to be; it was only a parable. Those words made an impression on his father, and he stopped muttering.
One time, curiosity overcoming her shyness, Irena asked Ernst, “Did your mother observe our traditions?”
“My mother was attached to the tradition of her fathers,” Ernst replied, “and she had a connection with some of the secrets of faith, but I had no understanding of her life. She was shackled to herself. I remember her face and her eyes, but not her hands. When I left home, and she knew that I had gone over to the Party, she didn’t say a word to me. Once, when I was a boy, I asked her, ‘Mother, why don’t you talk?’ When she heard my question,...
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