How, I asked, might I be of help? She would try, she said, to control herself. She would not even begin to tell me what she really thought. Now all she wanted from me was to act. If I didn’t want to be haunted all my life by what was about to happen to Yolek, whose state was far worse than I thought, I had better get that sewer rat out of here this very day. Every extra hour was a knife in her back and in Yolek’s sick heart. Not just because of the publicity—why, any moment the hyenas from the press might arrive—but because Yoni must on no account find that creature here when he returned. Didn’t I realize what was going on? Was I an imbecile like the rest of them? That little turd was living as merrily as you please in Yoni’s room, and even sleeping in his bed. Who in the world would put up with such a sick scene? Not even cannibals in the jungle. And I was supposed to be secretary of the kibbutz. Well, that was what always happened when little men try stepping into shoes too big for them. But never mind. I would pay for it dearly, with interest. For what I had put Yoni through and for whatever happened to Yolek. Either I made up for at least part of the harm I had done by giving that worthless bum the heave-ho, or I would never hear the last of it from her. Today! The doctor, by the way, had expressly said that he was afraid it was the heart this time. She wanted me to know she could see right through my manipulations. At least I might stop playing the village saint. Because she had never misjudged a person yet. And she hoped that I didn’t expect her to believe that I had really done all I could to get in touch with America. What kind of monster was I, lying here in bed like a country squire and snoozing away the afternoon? At which point she rose and stood facing me, taut and breathless, as if declining with stoic fortitude to strike back at her enemies.

“Hava,” I said. “You’re not being fair.”

“Then throw him out of here!” she snapped, her eyes flashing. “This very minute!”

With a gesture of offended gentility, she turned to go.