The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem Read Free

the engaged couple, Nono Gabriel sat in the middle surrounded by the whole family, and I sat perched on my father’s shoulders and looked down at everyone. That was the last photograph taken of Nono Gabriel, because five days later he died.
    Only after he died, during the shiva, the seven-day mourning period, when my mother fainted all the time from crying so much and they had to pour water over her so she’d wake up, and Nona Rosa kept saying, “ Basta , Luna! Pull yourself together so we don’t have another tragedy in the family!” and Tia Allegra, Nono Gabriel’s sister, said, “May he rest in peace, Gabriel. Not only isn’t she crying for him, she won’t even let her daughter faint over him”—it was just then that Becky found the right time to announce her wedding date. They all congratulated her but said she had to wait a year out of respect for Nono Gabriel, and Becky said there was no way she’d wait that long, because by then she’d be too old to have children. And Tia Allegra said, “Gabriel, God forgive your sins. What kind of girls did you raise that they won’t even give you the respect of a year?”
    My mother, who had come around from her faint, whispered, “Thank God she’s finally getting married. I was worried she might die an old maid.” A fight broke out and Aunt Becky ran after my mother with her sapatos , her slippers, and threatened to murder her if she ever dared call her an old maid again, and my mother told her, “What’s to be done, querida . It’s a fact. At your age I was already a mother.” At that Aunt Becky darted out of the house and I after her down the steps of Agrippas Street until we reached the Wallach hospital graveyard. She sat down on the wall and sat me next to her and suddenly burst into tears.
    â€œOy, Papo, Papo, why have you gone, why have you left us, Papo? What will we do without you?” Eventually she stopped crying, hugged me tight, and said, “You know, Gabriela, they all say that Nono Gabriel loved your mother Luna more than any of us, but I never felt that he loved me less. Nono Gabriel had a heart of gold and that’s why everybody took advantage of him. And you, my lovely, never let anyone take advantage of you, you hear? You’ll find yourself a boy like my Eli and marry him and be happy. Isn’t that right, my good girl? Don’t search right or left. When you meet a boy like Eli, you’ll feel the love here.” She took my hand and laid it between her breasts. “Right here, Gabriela, between your belly and your breasts, you’ll feel the love, and when you feel it you’ll know you’ve found your Eli and you’ll marry him. Now let’s go back home before Nono Gabriel gets angry with me for running away from his shiva.”
    In the end Aunt Becky waited a year until the mourning period was over and only then married Handsome Eli Cohen at Café Armon, where they’d gotten engaged. I wore a white dress and walked in front of the bride, throwing sweets with my cousin Boaz, Aunt Rachelika’s eldest son, who was stuffed into a suit and bow tie. Mother and her middle sister Rachelika had picked out my and Boaz’s outfits together. They did everything together. When Rachelika wasn’t in her house on Ussishkin Street, she was with my mother, and when my mother wasn’t in our house on Ben-Yehuda Street, she was at my aunt’s.
    After Nono died, my grandmother remained in her and Nono’s house, and every now and then she’d stop by ours for a visit. She’d always come with chocolate and bamblik licorice sweets, and fascinating stories about the time she’d worked in the homes of the English.
    â€œEnough of those stories already!” my mother would say, annoyed. “Cleaning the toilets of the English isn’t exactly a great honor.”
    And Nona would muster up strength and say,