“When did I become that selfish Jew?” her father says, pounding his fist on the table for emphasis. “How did I use poor Gypsy peasants. Peasants who suddenly starve themselves for revolution?”
Ava sits in a corner, quietly listening, one eye open, observing the two men.
“Ah, yes, these defiled Romanis who had the misfortune to mix with a gadjo, like you!” The Magyar snorts. “A Hebrew who wears a yarmulke and lives beside them, offending their Gypsy tastes.” The farmer wrinkles his nose at some perceived Moldavian odor. He closes his eyes and lays his head back, against the chair.
Ava’s father hoists himself up from the old Magyar’s table, reeling from the vodka. He clutches the farmer's dining table, and steadies himself. The middle of the oblong …show more content…
He taps an unopened pack of cigarettes a few times against his palm, contemplating what to do with the man. Tearing the end of the pack open and grinning at Ava. He pulls a cigarette out by his mouth and lights it, and takes a deep breath before he says, “I take him outside to fresh air.”
Kneeling down, the Magyar places his hands beneath Németh’s arm pits and hoists her father to his feet. Her father seems almost limp, as the farmer walks him to the door exhaling bursts of smoke into the air as he struggles with the sagging Jew. A cold gust of wind blows in the house as the door flies open. Outside, it has begun to snow again.
Ava’ s brow furrows as she ponders an odd realization that she has suspected for a while. Their lives are dangling from an unraveling wire that is about to snap. She watches the Magyar’s wife clear the table as discreet as a mouse, and considers how much life is changing in her village.
Communism has changed everything about farming. The overseeing committees. The politicians that monitor each farm’s delivery of produce to the state cooperatives. Now with harsh, compulsory agricultural requirements. The state demands too
Ava sits in a corner, quietly listening, one eye open, observing the two men.
“Ah, yes, these defiled Romanis who had the misfortune to mix with a gadjo, like you!” The Magyar snorts. “A Hebrew who wears a yarmulke and lives beside them, offending their Gypsy tastes.” The farmer wrinkles his nose at some perceived Moldavian odor. He closes his eyes and lays his head back, against the chair.
Ava’s father hoists himself up from the old Magyar’s table, reeling from the vodka. He clutches the farmer's dining table, and steadies himself. The middle of the oblong …show more content…
He taps an unopened pack of cigarettes a few times against his palm, contemplating what to do with the man. Tearing the end of the pack open and grinning at Ava. He pulls a cigarette out by his mouth and lights it, and takes a deep breath before he says, “I take him outside to fresh air.”
Kneeling down, the Magyar places his hands beneath Németh’s arm pits and hoists her father to his feet. Her father seems almost limp, as the farmer walks him to the door exhaling bursts of smoke into the air as he struggles with the sagging Jew. A cold gust of wind blows in the house as the door flies open. Outside, it has begun to snow again.
Ava’ s brow furrows as she ponders an odd realization that she has suspected for a while. Their lives are dangling from an unraveling wire that is about to snap. She watches the Magyar’s wife clear the table as discreet as a mouse, and considers how much life is changing in her village.
Communism has changed everything about farming. The overseeing committees. The politicians that monitor each farm’s delivery of produce to the state cooperatives. Now with harsh, compulsory agricultural requirements. The state demands too