Jacob's Way Read Free Page B

sight—as she always did. “You’re the only cat I ever saw that could grin.” Indeed it was true. Boris, for whatever reason, had learned to bare his teeth when he wanted something—or when he was in trouble. It was not a snarl, for the corners of his lips were turned up. It was a feat that never ceased to amaze and amuse Reisa, but now she picked him up firmly and moved him away from the door. Putting him down, she said, “Smile all you want to, but you’re not charming me. I’ll be back soon.”
    She left the house, pulling the door closed behind her. The biting cold struck her like a fist as she made her way against it. The small village was only a hundred yards from the little house she shared with her grandfather. As she came to the first house, it never occurred to her to think what a pitiful sort of village it was, for it was all she had ever known of the world. Basically the main street of the shtetel was composed of two rows of ramshackle houses. All of them were weathered and made of makeshift material, and now thin tendrils of smoke curled upward from the chimneys into the cloudy sky. She passed by two starved-looking dogs that slumped away when she spoke to them, and once a hammer-headed yellow cat emerged from a small space between two of the houses. She knelt down and stroked his fur for a moment, toying with the idea of taking him home. But this would not do, so she quickly moved on.
    The streets were frozen mud, and she stumbled a bit over the ruts as she passed through the village and headed toward the mayor’s house. She paused two hundred yards from the main part of the shtetel, and glanced fearfully at a stiff body hanging from a roughly built gibbet. A rusty chain encircled the middle of the body, and the face of the man was blue. The eyes of the corpse, staring and wide open, looked like frozen marbles. The body turned slowly, the chain creaking as the wind caught it. The criminal’s body had frozen over during the night, and now a few drops of congealed moisture fell on the ground beneath.
    Reisa shivered and turned her eyes away, a feeling of disgust welling up within her. What good do they think that does? Putting a corpse on a gibbet won’t keep men from stealing and killing. Other thieves laugh at it, thinking it won’t be them.
    Disturbed by this gruesome symbol of rough justice left by the military who roamed the countryside in large bands, Reisa hurried along. She heard her name called and turned to see Yelena Petrov emerging from her house, which was set a hundred feet back off the road. Yelena was a short, heavyset girl with a ruddy face and a pair of shiny dark brown eyes. She had a bad reputation in the neighborhood for going out with wild young men, and was what Orthodox Jews called a vildeh moid —a wild Jewish girl. She even went out with the czarist soldiers, but her parents let her do as she pleased, apparently not caring.
    â€œReisa! Come in and get warm.”
    â€œI can’t, Yelena. I’ve got to go take this blouse to the mayor’s wife.”
    â€œAlways working! Always working!” Yelena grinned. She was missing one tooth, and there was a vitality in her that seemed to leap out. “You know who came to see me last night?”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œOne of the sergeants. His name is Retzov. We went over to the next village and danced until nearly two o’clock. I think I drank a little bit too much.”
    â€œYou shouldn’t do that, Yelena. You’re going to get in trouble.”
    â€œLife’s too short to worry about that.” Yelena turned her head to one side and reached over and tugged at Reisa’s sleeve. “Come and go with me. The soldiers would go crazy over those green eyes of yours.”
    â€œI can’t do that.”
    â€œI know what you’re thinking, Reisa. I saw your grandfather talking to the shadchen last Monday.”
    â€œThe matchmaker? Oh,