In December, Anat had a firstborn son, Nimrod. Two weeks later Rimona gave birth to a daughter. Although the baby was slightly underweight, the birth itself went off without a hitch. When Azariah suggested that they call the child Na’ama, Yonatan’s only response was “Why not.” The baby’s crib was placed in the bedroom with Rimona, and the two men continued sleeping in the living room.

The rainy season returned. It poured all day long. Since there was little to do in the tractor shed, Azariah and Yoni would rise late in the morning and stay up until late at night. They drank the wine they had made in the summer.

And so 1966 came to an end and 1967 began. Once again Rachel Stutchnik was asked to look after Yolek to give Hava more time for the children. After putting a bib over his nightgown, Rachel spoon-fed him a soft-boiled egg every morning and made sure he had some tomato juice or lukewarm tea. She helped him get to the bathroom and cleaned, washed, and shaved him every day. Yolek was near-comatose. When Hava drew up a chair to sit by him and hold his hand in hers, he probably did not even notice. A dozen times a day she would look in on her grandchild in the nursery, where she never failed to scold the housemothers and give lessons on how to do things properly. Between rains, she proudly wheeled the baby around the kibbutz.

“Just look at her, Srulik!” she would say to the kibbutz secretary. He would bend over the carriage sheepishly and say, “Yes, yes indeed. A little charmer.” Hava’s face would light up and continue to glow for a long time even while she sterilized bottles, boiled sheets and diapers, scrubbed floors with a mixture of soap and chlorine, and annihilated every single germ that dared make an appearance in the toilet bowl.

Oblivious to her two men, unmindful of the winter storms, Rimona would sit and nurse Na’ama. Her breasts had grown heavy, her thighs had thickened, and her eyes seemed always half-shut. Seated in the armchair she would take out her breasts, squeeze one of the nipples until it spurted, and give it to the baby to grasp. When that nipple was finished, she would give it the other. Her face, now grown rounder, shone with a soft radiance like a nimbus around a full moon. Now and then she would lift the infant to burp it. In her absorption, she often followed suit without bothering to cover her mouth.