ALSO BY EDEET RAVEL Ten Thousand Lovers Look For Me A Wall of Light Your Sad Eyes and Unforgettable Mouth FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS The Thrilling Life of Pauline de Lammermoor The Mysterious Adventures of Pauline Bovary The Secret Journey of Pauline Siddhartha The Saver Held VIKING CANADA Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Canada Inc.) Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0745, Auckland, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First published 2011 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (RRD) Copyright © Edeet Ravel, 2011 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. Publisher’s note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Manufactured in the U.S.A. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION Ravel, Edeet, 1955– The last rain / Edeet Ravel. ISBN 978-0-670-06866-1 I. Title. PS8585.A8715L38 2011 C813'.54 C2011-900749-5 Visit the Penguin Group (Canada) website at www.penguin.ca Special and corporate bulk purchase rates available; please see www.penguin.ca/corporatesales or call 1-800-810-3104, ext. 2477 or 2474 for my sister Sara Author’s Note I began working on this story thirty-five years ago, when I was twenty. Written in the voice of a young girl, it was based on my childhood at Kibbutz Sasa in the northern Galilee, with an eighteen-month interlude in Montreal. I felt wrenched from my home when my parents left the kibbutz for good; I had just turned seven and for the next few years I daydreamed continually about returning. I never did return. The subject of this backward look has remained consistent over the years, but changing perceptions have no doubt affected the child’s voice. I have also added to her account stray sections of what the poet Carl Sandburg called the labyrinth of sliding doors that is our collective past. Because no analogy can capture with finality what is never final, Sandburg contemplates another image: a book of ciphers, with its code buried inside a cave in the Sargasso Sea. The only way I can think of to explore that labyrinth, those ciphers, is through fiction. I have capitalized several terms that take on special meaning in kibbutz culture: Children’s House, Group, Minder, Room, Dining Hall, Kitchen, Guard, Pioneer, Hike, Wake-Up, Bedding-Down. The First Rain and the Last Rain have proper names in Hebrew—yoreh and malkosh. In past centuries, literary works were dedicated to kings and queens. You, readers, are today’s royalty; may my efforts please you. Dramatis Personae Eldar Members (selected) The Satie Family Naftali Satie (“Nat”/“Ricky”) Varda Klein Satie (“Avra”/“Rita”) David Satie (b 1950) Dori Satie (b 1955) Sara Satie (b 1959) Dori’s Group Lulu Skye Gilead Simon Elan Jonathan Hannah David’s Group Noam Amnoni Hagar Founders Martin Dubrovsky (“Michael”) Isaac Milman (“Eli”?/“Rubin”?) Edna Amos Dafna Lou Coco Nina Israeli-born Contingent Shoshana, Ora, Yael, Emanuel, Katzi, Tamir, Oded Thane Jeremiah Ben-Jacob Timeline June 1955 to June 1959 Eldar June 1959 to December 1960 Canada January 1961 to June 1962 Eldar I Utopia Utopia. From Gr. not (ού) + place (τόπος), i.e., no-place; an imaginary island, depicted by Sir Thomas More (1516) as a perfect social, legal and political system. —OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY Daily Schedule for Kindergarten/ Transitional First Grade Eldar, 1960 Wake-Up (Minder) dress, wash up, free play breakfast directed play with teacher1 (art, stories, singing, holidays, nature, Hikes, literacy, numbers) mid-morning snack directed play lunch shower (if required) two-hour nap Wake-Up (on-duty monitor) snack three-hour visit with parents return to Children’s House supper shower, pyjamas Bedding-Down Dori We’ll build our country our country our homeland Because this country belongs to us We’ll build our country our country our homeland Something blood something something generations In spite of those who set out to destroy us Fire something freedom something hope I never can catch all the words. Our First Year On a cold day in January 1949, a small group of American Jews from the Young Guard Youth Movement unloaded their beds, straw mattresses, and toothbrushes, planted themselves in a deserted Arab village near the Lebanese border of Israel, and called themselves Kibbutz2 Eldar. The fact was registered in the Zionist press throughout the world, in small or large paragraphs, depending on the source, then probably forgotten, as most news is.3 Dori I’m on the sofa in my parents’ Room. At night their sofa opens into a bed. I could sleep on the floor next to them. I wouldn’t mind sleeping on the stone tiles in my clothes. I wouldn’t even need a blanket. But Daddy says time to go back to the Children’s House sweetie. Those words fly straight to my stomach. The Children’s House is as far away as the stars in the sky. Pinocchio Once upon a time, many centuries ago, there was— “A king!” my little readers will say immediately. No, children, you are mistaken. Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. Dori Unfortunately children aren’t allowed to sleep in the Rooms. We’re free but not that free. I could pretend to fall asleep. That way Daddy will have to carry me back. Or I could beg for another page of Pinocchio. Or I could do both. First beg for another page and then pretend to fall asleep. Daddy believes that with children you have to say yes. That’s lucky for me. Very lucky. Not all children are so lucky. I beg for another page and he agrees. I told you! Daddy was away for three months. He wasn’t here when it snowed. I didn’t want to play in the snow because nothing counted until he came back. Besides there was snow in Canada—though I must say I prefer the snow in Eldar. It makes a very loud noise when you walk on it and you can smell it on the earth and on the leaves. The snow in Canada didn’t have a smell. I waited for Daddy the whole time he was away. I don’t know why he had to stay in Canada but he promised to come back and he did. Parents aren’t allowed to break a promise. Snow Boycott Dori Mostly I like Pinocchio. I don’t understand some parts. I don’t understand the part with the cricket and I don’t really know what a cricket is. If I was the writer I’d choose a butterfly or a lizard. Lizards sleep on rocks in the sun and if you’re very quiet you can touch their soft skin before they run away. I don’t understand the part with the non-Jewish wig4 either. What is that all about? Israelis wear non-Jewish wigs too by the way. Not Pioneers of course. But Israelis in cities for example. I don’t know why it’s called a non-Jewish wig. I love the fairy with the blue hair. She’s so beautiful! Daddy says now we really have to go—it’s very late. There’s nothing I can do. I asked for another page of Pinocchio and Daddy read me another page. And now we have to go back. I have to decide. If I pretend to fall asleep Daddy will carry me but if we walk I can walk very slowly. Daddy takes my hand and we leave the Room. In the evening the plants and bushes have a marvellous smell. The darker it gets the more marvellous the smell gets. The sun is starting to set but it’s not dark yet. Soon the Last Rain will fall. We won’t know for sure it’s the Last Rain until it doesn’t rain again. If it doesn’t rain again we’ll look back and say that was the Last Rain. Unless the Last Rain comes very late. If it comes after a long time without rain then we’ll know for sure that it’s the Last Rain. Rooms5 Dori People say the mountains are beautiful but I don’t know why. The mountains are never an interesting colour. They’re always dark brown or dark grey or dark green. There’s nothing beautiful about them. Everyone is excited because you can see Mount Hermon from Eldar.