Jesses Star by Ellen Schwartz Read Free Book Online Page B

where the water met the sky … Could it be …? Were his eyes fooling him, or was that really —
    â€œRebbe!” Yossi yelled. “I see land! I see Canada!”
    All the villagers rushed up onto deck.
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œThere?”
    â€œI don’t see anything.”
    â€œThere! Look!”
    â€œTrees!”
    â€œShips!”
    â€œCanada!”
    A joyful cry went up from the crowd, mingled with tears and laughter. Yossi felt a tightness in his throat.
    Then he was surprised to feel a hand on his shoulder. He turned, to see a mysterious smile on the Rebbe’s face. “Rebbe … what …?”
    â€œYossi, before we land, there is something I must say. Something I must do, for all the people of Braslav,” the Rebbe began.
    Yossi looked around. All the villagers had gathered ‘round. Everyone’s eyes were twinkling. Even Mama’s and Papa’s and Miriam’s. What was going on?
    â€œYossi,” the Rebbe went on, “we left Braslav in such a hurry, we never properly thanked you. But we are more grateful than we can say. For your quick thinking. For your courage.”
    â€œFor your steady balance!” Daniel cried,and everyone laughed, for all now knew the tale of how Yossi had scared the soldiers away.
    The Rebbe laughed along. “That, too, Yossi. But most of all, for your faith that something could be done, when most of us had given up.”
    Yossi felt his cheeks burning — but not with shame, for once. With pride.
    The Rebbe reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue cloth bag. “On behalf of all the people of Braslav, Yossi, we want you to have this. A small token of our thanks.”
    The Rebbe overturned the bag and shook it. Something small and glittering fell into the palm of his hand.
    The Rebbe unclasped a gold chain and fastened it around Yossi’s neck. A six-sided Star of David nestled against his throat.
    â€œHooray for Yossi!” the people shouted. “Hooray for our hero!”
    Yossi flushed with pride. Grinning, hereached up and grasped the star in his hand. It seemed to give off a warmth of its own. Then he turned to face the green Canadian shore. He stretched out his other arm. “To our new life — in Canada.”

Chapter Eleven
    Jesse blinked, once, twice. His head felt heavy, his brain murky. Colors swirled before him; first the gray-green of ocean waves, then shiny gold, then a deep forest green. Faces came and went: the kind face of a bearded man in a long black robe, and the smiling face of a girl who looked strangely like himself, and a pair of watery-looking eyes, and the evil leerof a crone with a long pointed nose and sharp teeth …
    Where was he? One moment he seemed to be in a small, cramped hut, then he seemed to be on the heaving deck of a vast ship, and then he recognized the sloping eaves of his own attic …
    Jesse realized his hand was fisted at his throat. He opened his fist. Something fell against his chest.
    The star. The Jewish star. Yossi’s star.
    Jesse looked around, puzzled. There was the bookshelf with the toppled books. There was the box with his baby clothes. There was the carton of worn ice skates. And there, on his lap, was Yossi’s box.
    Yes, he was definitely back in his attic. But how …? Why …?
    Jesse shook his head as if to clear it. Had it all been a dream or had it really happened? No, it was too real to be a dream — the people, the village, the danger. He’d been there, smelled the hay and apples, seen the golden moon in Braslav’s sky. He’d
become
Yossi. Somehow he’d gone back in time and lived Yossi’s life. Now he was Jesse again. How had it happened?
    The star. It all had something to do with the star. The strange warmth, the feeling of going back in time. Yet now, though the star still hung around his neck, he felt perfectly normal. Yet different, too. As if, by becoming Yossi, he’d somehow