The Bed You Make
Published in Issue #16 Translated from Hebrew by Dalya Bilu(Excerpt from a Novel)
subscribe to unlock the full story
Eve of Rosh Hashana, 1991
Monday, Dawn
At the gas station they said afterwards: ‘It all began with those two brothers from Wadi Ara who brought that crazy horse to Eitan Russo as a gift.’
And there were some who added with a crooked smile: ‘Crazy maybe. But a beauty like that isn’t something you see every day.’
And there were whispers: ‘The horse wasn’t for him. It was for her.’
And others: ‘She brought him nothing but trouble, that’s for sure.’
And they were all wrong.
It wasn’t just his color or pungent smell, or the way he looked in the faint light before daybreak; it was the color and the smell and the supple wildness all together that gave him a kind of vicious beauty. And nevertheless he knew, Eitan Russo knew how quickly it could all go wrong; a plastic bag blown at random in the wind, the annoying buzz of a wasp, the sharp bark of a dog, the growl of an engine – the slightest little thing could be enough to alarm the horse and make him lose his head. Nor did he forget the first times he had tried to approach the stallion and Barb had suddenly panicked – it could have meant a classic case of instant death or serious injury, but mainly it was insulting and infuriating.
He stood opposite him in the enclosure, at an angle, so that Barb could see him clearly, and looked him straight in the eye.
The horse pawed the ground, reared back nervously.
Eitan Russo went...
Subscribe now to keep reading
Please enter your email to log in or create a new account.