B002FB6BZK EBOK

B002FB6BZK EBOK Read Free Page A

Book: B002FB6BZK EBOK Read Free
Author: Yoram Kaniuk
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that he had to go to the settlement, to Grandmother,
but he knew the time hadn't yet come, he'd been moving around for a
month now, he'd wait another few days. And he didn't know where he
had been moving around for a month before he came here, the battles had
ended before, he didn't remember what was the last battle, but he did remember saying to somebody, it's good that it's over but he didn't know
if he really meant that. Different ants walked in a row toward a hole they
had dug and in a nub sat a tree in a big pot. Somebody was watering the
tree with a long hose and standing under the awning of a stationery store.
From there you could see a big yard behind a house that might once have
been a fashionable cafe. In the yard were pieces of chairs and posts with
broken lanterns hanging on them. Boaz loaded the kitbag on his back,
spread out his hands, bent down to balance the weight, as if he were walking on a tightrope, and walked toward the courtyard, where cats striped
like tame tigers were yowling. He sat down in a broken chair in the courtyard and tried again to think. The ants and the beetles were a sign that his
friends really did die and that he really did come back but if he could, he
would have asked the officer more questions now, but since it was a waste
of effort to go back up, he didn't. He fingered the money they had given
him and didn't recognize the money. The money was written with Hebrew
letters. That money already has a state, he said aloud and the cat jumped
with trained wildness toward a broken lantern and planted its claws in it.
So he went to the cafe not far from there and ordered coffee, cake, and a
glass of soda. When he wanted to pay, he gave the waiter all the money and
the waiter looked at him in shock, counted the necessary coins, and said,
returning most of the money to him, You're funny today sir; but he said
finny.

    Boaz thought that as a funny, or finny, person, he had to see the car he
had taken the day before but he knew that was only an excuse to return to
some place, for no good reason, and the car surely wasn't there. He wanted
to know where he should go. When he came, he saw the car parked where
he had left it. The man from the grocery store who came outside to bring
in the margarine thrown on the sidewalk by the driver of the worn-out and
squeaky pickup truck said, You looking for an apartment here? There's one
upstairs, rent control. Boaz said, That car is stolen! The man pondered
a bit and bent over to pick up the margarine. Boaz picked up the case of
margarine for him and dragged it inside. The man gave Boaz an Eskimo
Pie and he nibbled at it. Boaz said, Cars should live in their own houses.
The shopkeeper muttered something and said there were people here at
night, but they left. And Boaz said they come and go all the time. Over
the counter hung an announcement about food rationing and food coupons and Boaz read it carefully; the shopkeeper said, It'll be hot today. When he
came out of the shop, he saw the driver in the distance, he leaped into the
yard and climbed the tree. He looked and saw them checking the car and
a person who looked like a plainclothes cop searched for fingerprints on
the handle. That made him laugh, in the tree, and he slowly came down
and started walking. They didn't even see him. He came to the tents,
put down the kitbag, put on a clean but wrinkled shirt, and went out.
After he sat for hours and looked at the sea, he went to Cafe Pilz. The
music burst out and the waves of the sea looked silvery. He drank two
spitfires and Menashke played songs on the accordion. Then they played
a rumba and everybody danced. A girl Boaz later discovered in his arms
tried to defend herself against the shock on his face. But she accepted
Boaz's kiss with empty lips cut off from himself. She was offended and
tried to look into his eyes but in the middle of the second kiss, with two
spitfires in his belly and his head spinning,

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