One evening Azariah made his way to Yolek and Hava’s and harangued them from eight o’clock until nearly midnight on the cyclic nature of Jewish destiny, its recurrent pattern of destruction and redemption, repeatedly referring not only to his own ideas but to a number of articles by Yolek Lifshitz in issues of the Labor Party monthly that he had come across in the recreation hall. He also expounded on the place of the creative individual in kibbutz society. Though his knowledge was as limited as his fervor was unbounded, he did manage now and then to come up with an original enough thought to make Yolek remark after he was gone, “Take it from me, Hava. I’m rarely wrong about these things. That boy has a real spark in him. If he’s lucky enough to find a good girl, something may come of him yet.”

“He’s very strange and very sad,” replied Hava. “If you ask me, this will come to no good end. You and your big discoveries!”

Azariah managed to gamble away his last two packs of American cigarettes before he had a chance to give them as gifts to newfound friends. One night he landed in the last room adjoining the swimming pool, reintroduced himself to Etan R., met the two girls who had been living with Etan since the onset of winter, and began to talk about citrus fruit. When he claimed that a grapefruit was simply a cross between an orange and a lemon, Etan not only objected but challenged him to a bet. Azariah immediately appointed the two girls as judges, asked for their verdict, and deferred without protest to their lack of support, laying his two packs of cigarettes on the table. Before leaving, he promised to bring the relevant volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, for he intended to prove that there was a fruit, perhaps the tangerine, that was half a lemon and half an orange after all.

From Etan R.’s he went to pay a call on Srulik, the music man, for whom he played his guitar for a good ten minutes, smiling all the while but blinking frantically like a cat that wants to have its ears scratched. Indeed, the cat succeeded, for Srulik decided to let him try out for the kibbutz chamber quintet.

On Thursday he visited Yonatan and Rimona again to return part of the coffee and sugar they had given him. After all, he was now getting supplies from the kibbutz commissary in accordance with Secretary Yolek’s instructions. He presented Rimona with a wicker shade he had made for the lamp, pointing out that it was only a token gift.