“Negba,” Tedi repeated, trying to get used to the sound of her new home.
“Do you have any letters for Weitz?” said Zorah, trying to sound as though it didn’t matter.
“You are Weitz, Zorah? No letter.” He consulted his list again. “But you are going to Kibbutz Ma’barot. I hope you speak Romanian.”
“Why?”
“They’re all Romanians down there,” he said, and made a circle with his finger beside his ear. “A little crazy, you know?”
“What about Esther Zalinsky? She’s my cousin. Also her little boy, Jacob. The name is Zalinsky.”
He ran his finger down a list. “Kibbutz Elon.”
“Where is that?” Zorah said.
“That’s up in the north. Mostly Poles, so your cousin will be fine. You can tell her,” he said. “Pastore leaves today but the rest of you have until tomorrow. Enjoy Beit Oren while you can. Good morning.”
Zorah turned to Shayndel. “This is a disaster,” Zorah said. “Esther is a terrible liar and the minute she opens her mouth they’ll know she’s a peasant. If she winds up among a bunch of doctrinaire Poles, they’ll throw her out. You have to do something. You have to get it changed so I go to the same place.”
“I can’t do anything about this,” Shayndel said.
“Don’t be stupid,” Zorah said. “Tell them who you are, what you did in the war. They’ll all shit in their pants and do whatever you ask.”
“I don’t think so,” Shayndel objected. “The whole idea of the kibbutz is that everyone is treated the same.”
“That is not the way the world works,” Zorah said. “Not even in a kibbutz, my Zionist friend. And listen to me, Shayndel, I will not permit those two to suffer anymore. You can fix this, I know it. And I am not going to leave you alone until you say you will.”
“You might as well do what she says,” Leonie said. “She won’t let go. You know perfectly well that our Zorah is like a tick.”
Shayndel pulled away from Zorah’s grasp. “All right, I’ll try,” she relented, and chased after Seligman.
Zorah trailed behind and watched as Shayndel caught up with him. Seligman turned around with the bemused, tolerant smile of an adult responding to someone else’s annoying child. After Shayndel made her request, he put the clipboard under his arm and actually lifted his finger to deliver a lecture about procedure or fairness or some other principle. But she interrupted, saying something that made him stand up straight and look her in the eye.
He lowered his chin and asked a question.
As Shayndel answered, her eyes narrowed and her jaw tightened, and in that moment the immigrant girl turned into a battle-tested commander. At one point, she reached up to her shoulder as though she were searching for something. She leaned close and pointed at the clipboard.
Seligman bit his lip as he flipped through the papers, pretending to look for something, taking a long time to prove that he was the one who wielded the power. Then he made an offer, screwing up his face like he was biting into a slice of lemon.
Shayndel nodded her thanks primly and walked away with the hint of a swagger in her step.
“So where are we going?” Zorah asked.
“Nowhere yet,” Shayndel said. “You’ll all be staying here until they come up with a place that will take the three of you. It may take a few more days. But you have to understand that this may be temporary. You could be split up again at any time.”
“I just want to get them settled,” Zorah said, and raised an eyebrow. “And wherever we go, I will let it be known that we have a friend in very high places.”
“You are relentless,” said Shayndel. “Go tell Esther and Jacob.”
Zorah took Shayndel’s hand. “Thank you, my friend.”
Tedi had nothing to pack, so she wandered around the kibbutz, inhaling the comforting aroma of baking potatoes, the happy stink of the goats, the dry-kindling smell of fallen pine needles. A few kibbutzniks asked where she was going, but none of them had been to Negba. They wished her good luck and safe journey and invited her back for a longer visit.
By midmorning, she was sitting on a bench near the front gate, where Esther and Jacob found her. Tedi hugged the boy so tightly that he pushed away and said, “You are strong,” and ran back toward the children’s house. Esther kissed her on the forehead and scurried after him.
A little while later, Leonie, Zorah, and Shayndel sat down with Tedi, but nobody felt much like talking.
After a while, Leonie said, “Too bad that Nissim fellow isn’t going to the same place as you.”