The Blue Mountain by Meir Shalev Read Free Book Online Page B

Behind him is that good-for-nothing Rosa Munkin, and the two men lying down in front of him are Pinness and Bodenkin.’
    He began to pace the room.
    ‘In all our old photographs,’ he said, ‘you’ll always find one row of us standing, another sitting, and two of us lying in front of them, propped on their elbows with their heads touching. One of those standing and one of those lying down always left the country in the end. One of those sitting always died young.’
    He bent down, pulled an old sheet of paper from the trunk, and burst into laughter.
    ‘Here,’ he said. ‘This is the constitution of the Feyge Levin Workingman’s Circle.’
    He stood up and began reading with a flourish.
    ‘“Article One. The Feyge Levin Workingman’s Circle will avoid the seductive and vain glamour of all cities.
    ‘“Article Two. Comrade Levin will cook. Comrade Tsirkin will wash the dishes. Comrade Mirkin will look for work. Comrade Liberson will do the laundry and the talking.
    ‘“Article Three. Comrades Tsirkin, Liberson, and Mirkin will make no dishonourable advances toward Comrade Levin.
    ‘“Article Four. Comrade Levin will make no attempt …”’
    The door of the cabin swung open and Meshulam Tsirkin barged inside, wagging his head energetically.
    ‘Give that to me!’ he shouted. ‘Give it to me, Mirkin, I beg of you! I must have that document for the archives.’
    ‘Why don’t you go help your old man, he’s bringing in the hay today,’ said Grandfather. ‘Make it quick, before I set Baruch on you.’
    ‘Whatever you say about him,’ said Meshulam Tsirkin after Grandfather’s death, ‘Mirkin was one of the revered figures of the Movement. It’s no wonder that so many wasters are willingto pay a fortune to be buried next to him. That’s a fine last will and testament he’s left you!’
       
    As soon as they signed the protocol, the three men turned to Feyge with deep ceremonial bows and asked her to join too. ‘What about your brother?’ asked Liberson once she had added her signature. Levin, however, pointed out gloomily that he hadn’t yet made up his mind ‘where my political sympathies lie’.
    ‘In that case,’ said Grandfather, ‘since you have so much trouble making up your mind, you’re the man we’ll send to the next Zionist congress to deliver a speech on the subject.’
    ‘You can always join the Hole Counters’ Local,’ said Mandolin Tsirkin. Until his dying day, ‘hole counter’ was the most savage term of abuse in his vocabulary.
    Shlomo Levin rose disgustedly and went off to sleep in the workers’ hostel, but realising the next morning that he was liable to be left all alone, he followed the Workingman’s Circle southward to the vineyards of Judea.
    ‘There were no roads or cars, and we didn’t even own a horse,’ said Grandfather. ‘We walked the whole way and let the frogs guide us through the swamps.’
    Although they seemed to him like a three-headed monster, Levin tagged after them for several days. Tsirkin played the mandolin until its notes ‘nearly bore a hole in my skull’. Mirkin held them up for hours at a time to observe the slow dance of the stamen of the jujube tree. Liberson was the worst of them all. At night he lay croaking in low, lazy tones, keeping it up until he was covered with toads that converged on him from all directions. ‘They’re excellent sources of information,’ he confided.
    ‘They’re nothing but a bunch of clowns,’ said Levin to Feyge. ‘They don’t take a single thing seriously.’
    Whenever he told me about his dead sister, he had to keep removing his glasses to defog their thick lenses.
    ‘Our father made me promise to look after you.’ Many times in his life he must have thought and uttered the words he declaimed for me now. ‘I want you to leave them and come with me.’

    ‘I’m seventeen years old, Shlomo,’ answered Feyge, ‘and I’ve found the man I’m going to live my life with.’
    ‘Who?’ asked