‘Are you OK, Livi?’ Magda has joined her on the crate.
‘I’m fine, I think,’ whispers Livi. ‘It’s just that sometimes it’s like I’m still back there, you know?’
Magda nods. ‘I know. We’ve moved continents, put seas between then and now, and yet .?.?.’ her voice drifts, but Livi understands. They are still under the same sky and their memories are woven into their flesh. It will take more than the soil of a new earth under their fingernails to feel safe again.
*
As the summer’s heat intensifies, so do Magda’s feelings for a young man working on a nearby site.
Walking home one evening, Magda is unusually quiet.
‘Is something wrong, Magda?’ Cibi asks.
‘No.’
‘You’ve been quiet for a few days now. Are you ill?’ Cibi persists.
‘If you must know, I’ve been talking to a boy,’ Magda says, bright red.
Cibi and Livi stop walking.
‘When?’ Livi demands to know.
‘A while now.’
‘And? Are you in love?’ Livi is equal parts shocked and delighted.
‘You know, I think I am,’ replies Magda, beaming. ‘His name is Yitzchak, just like Grandfather’s.’
‘When can we meet him?’ Livi asks, thrilled.
‘Cibi, you even know his sister; she lives across the road from you,’ Magda teases.
‘That is so funny!’ Cibi bursts out laughing. ‘Yeti told me she had a handsome brother who she wanted to introduce to my sisters, but now we don’t need to set you up because you’ve done it all by yourself.’ Cibi is thrilled: her responsible middle sister is in love!
‘So, when can we meet him?’ Livi repeats.
‘Slow down, we haven’t known each other that long,’ Magda says, in no hurry to pander to their intrigue.
‘OK, we’ll slow down, but you’re not getting any younger, Magda.’ Cibi’s eyes twinkle mischievously.
‘We’re going for a walk later. He says he needs to talk to me.’
‘He’s not slowing down, is he? He’s going to ask you to marry him, I just know it!’ Livi is beside herself.
From the living-room window, Cibi and Livi watch their sister walk towards a tall man with dark, wavy hair. He has a green blanket tucked under one arm, and he’s smiling. That smile tells the sisters all they need to know: it’s the look of a man in love. Livi and Cibi sigh in unison as the couple head off on their walk, hand in hand.
*
Yitzchak leads Magda to a small park not far from Cibi’s house. They stand beneath an orange tree, its ripe fruit threatening to drop any second. The sunset mimics the deep tones of the oranges poised above their heads. Yitzchak kicks away the fruit on the ground, creating a space for them to sit before he shakes out the blanket and lays it on the grass. Magda sits down and takes up an orange from the ground. Sliding a nail over the dimpled flesh, she lifts it to her nose, its sharp, sweet scent returning her instantly to the kibbutz.
‘You said you wanted to talk to me,’ Magda prompts. She feels suddenly shy with this man, and can barely meet his eyes.
‘I do, Magda,’ he says. ‘There is something I need to tell you before I ask you a question.’ Yitzchak takes the orange from her and Magda looks him in the eyes. ‘My sister has told me all about you and Cibi and Livi and your time in Auschwitz.’
‘They were in the camps much longer than me,’ says Magda. ‘I was there for less than a year.’
‘And you all survived the death march,’ he continues, and Magda nods. Yitzchak is the one to look away now. ‘I am so sorry that you and your sisters were in that evil place.’
‘Well, we’re here now and that evil place is behind us.’
Yitzchak rolls up the sleeve of his shirt to reveal a tattoo of numbers. Magda’s mouth drops open. ‘You were there too? In Auschwitz?’
‘I was there, with my brother, Myer.’
‘And you survived too,’ says Magda, with a grin. But Yitzchak is not smiling; he looks worried. She waits for him to say something, but he has fallen silent, staring at the numbers on his arm. ‘What is it, Yitzchak? Is there more?’
‘It’s difficult to explain. I heard your story from Yeti; it was awful, the worst story I have ever heard. I can barely understand how you are all so sane, given what you had to endure.’
‘We had each other,’ says Magda, simply.
‘It wasn’t like that for me.’ Yitzchak looks away into the distant edges of the parkland.