Young Warriors (5 page)

“There, little
pisher—
go and rouse the village now! Bring them back here—bring them all! This is what they'll find— poor Leah, ravished by the boy who refused to marry her, used and then cast aside!” She laughed triumphantly.

Eli looked at her in dismay, and she moved toward him like a snake, rhythmically swaying her shoulders and hips. Her eyes glistened in the setting sun.

“Come on, honey, it's better this way. She was a boring child, such a do-gooder! Nothing but blintzes and challah all day long, and ‘Mother, can I help with the soup? Father, can I get you your slippers?' What a bore she was! Oh, I promise you'll like it better with me! A little kiss, a little fun—no one will ever know.” Again she pinned him with her eyes, and again he could not move. He continued to silently pray for someone, anyone, to rescue him from this demon. Surely God in His heaven would answer somehow!

There was the sudden clatter of horse's hoofs, and with a sigh of relief Eli saw his friend, the soldier Yevgeny, trotting up the path. Leah turned to look, and Eli, now free again, began running toward the horse, his arms waving frantically, shouting at the man to stop. Leah ran after him, beginning to loudly cry and wail.

“Yevgeny, help, she's mad!” Eli shouted. “Completely mad! I tell you, she's possessed by a demon!” Heaving and panting, he stopped beside the horse, with Leah not far behind.

“What's this, young Eli?” asked the soldier, noting the disheveled Leah and Eli's ashen pallor. “What's all this? I thought you people didn't go in for this sort of fun!” He smirked as Eli babbled loudly over Leah's wails.

“A demon, a demon has possessed her! You must help me!” he cried.

“A demon?” The soldier snickered. “Nonsense! You people have too many superstitions, boy. Just out for some fun, eh? And now that you've been seen, you have to make up some excuse, is that it?” He laughed again, then fixed his eyes firmly on Leah's bosom.

Eli stopped talking and looked up at the tall soldier on his fine horse, the man he'd so often admired. Yevgeny smiled at Leah, now silent, then said, “Come here, girl, let's have a look at you.”

Leah slowly walked toward him, hips swaying, lips parted. He leered at her in return. “What's a pretty girl like you doing with a child like him?” Yevgeny asked, making a contemptuous motion toward Eli. “You should taste a real man, instead of wasting your time on this baby.”

Eli couldn't believe it—a baby?! He was a man in every sense of the word, legally and physically. He was ready for marriage, and this idiot called him a baby? No, not an idiot. Yevgeny had been good to him, had always given him sweets and allowed him to feed and water the horses. Yevgeny just had no idea what was really happening. Eli wanted to protect him, to save him from the dybbuk, so he grabbed the soldier's arm and tugged at it to make Yevgeny listen. Instead, Yevgeny reached over with the other arm and dealt him a casual back-handed blow that landed Eli in the dust. The soldier looked at him sternly.

“Look, boy, I've let you play with the horses, but make no mistake—you're a Jew, and I'm a soldier in the Tsar's army. So when I say ‘Quiet!'
you
shut up, and when I want a woman,
you
bring her to me on a silver platter. Or else, make no mistake, I'll thrash you within an inch of your miserable life!”

Eli couldn't help it; despite his being a man, hot tears rose to his eyes. First Leah, now this. Yevgeny no longer looked so fine on his big stallion. Taking a closer look, Eli saw that the cuffs of the uniform were frayed and the horse hadn't been properly curried, and suddenly Yevgeny looked only like a middle-aged man pretending to be brave and young.

Leah had said nothing during this exchange, but now she walked up to the soldier and began caressing his thigh. Her fingers moved higher, and the soldier's breath quickened. When he moved to dismount, though, she abruptly sank her teeth into his leg and held on until he managed to knock her away.

“Aarrgh!” he roared as the horse reared back to attack. “You—you—you crazy Jewess!” He looked over at Eli and drew his sword, yelling, “Crazy! She's mad! You were right, boy!!”

Eli saw with horror that Yevgeny was ready to kill her, so he rushed toward Leah and knocked her down just as the sword whistled past her head. He sat on her so she could not move, babbling, “Please, sir, please; she's mad, it's true; she doesn't know what she's doing. I'll take her home right now, sir, her mother will know what to do with her. Just a child, sir, a poor unfortunate child; she'll not bother you again, I promise!”

The soldier paused, looked down at the tear in his pants leg, then at Eli sitting in the dirt, yarmulke askew, covered in dust and perspiration. He began to laugh. “Bitten by a crazy Jewess whose brave defender is a boy barely out of diapers! I guess this'll be a good one for the barracks.” He drew himself up on the horse and sheathed his sword. “All right, boy, but keep her in the village, hear? One more misstep and she's dead!” With that, the horse turned and cantered away.

“Get off me, you great lump!” Leah hissed, twisting suddenly and throwing Eli off her back.

“What?! I just saved your life, you little fool!” Eli was getting angry now, the humiliation and fear eating at him, making him angry enough to forget that this woman was a malicious soul of great power.

“Hmph!” she snorted, tossing her hair at him. “I didn't need your help. I was handling the situation.”

Eli looked at her in wonderment. “Handling the situation ” indeed! She'd almost gotten herself killed, that was all. This dybbuk had the ego of a princess—she thought she knew everything!

Thought she knew everything . . . Suddenly, an idea came to him. The important thing was not to look scared. If he could be brave, maybe it would work. Thinking of Daniel facing the lions' den, Eli slowly rose to his feet and offered the dybbuk his hand. She looked at him suspiciously, but took it and rose, facing him.

“Look,” said Eli with a trace of impatience, “I don't know where you come from—maybe a big city like Kiev—but things just aren't the same here. You don't know what you're doing. You don't know how to behave. You're going to give yourself away in five seconds once you get back to the village.”

The dybbuk looked at him, surprise and annoyance on her face. “Don't know what I'm doing?! Why, I've traveled all over this country! I've had coaches, and footmen, and jewelry so fine you'd have to close your eyes to keep from being blinded! And I'll have you know that I'm smart, very smart, probably the smartest person you'll ever meet!”

Eli looked at her skeptically, then shrugged his shoulders. “Suit yourself. But things are different here, I can tell you that much. Without a guide, you'll be lost.”

Intrigued, she searched his face. “And why, proud boy, are you willing to help me so suddenly?” asked the dybbuk. Then she looked down at her bodice and smirked. She gestured toward it with a satisfied smile. “Decided it was worth it, hmm?”

Eli fought down nausea and shrugged again. “Didn't say I was willing to help you. Just said you'd give yourself away.”

Fire flared in her eyes. “Not if you'd show me what to do,” she argued.

“And what do I get out of it?” he asked.

“Why, you stupid little boy—you get me!” She grinned, baring her lips and clenching her teeth as poor Leah tried to break through again with a moan.

Eli ignored the struggle and laughed. “You? Remember what the soldier said—I'm too young to know what to do with a woman as accomplished as you!” he told her.

Pleased at the compliment, the dybbuk smiled prettily and said, “Then what do you want?”

He cast his eyes downward, trying to look embarrassed, and shuffled his feet like a little boy. “Um . . . I . . . er . . .”

She smiled at him, a genuine smile, the smile of a cat who's finally cornered her mouse. “Come, speak up!” she said. “I'll strike a bargain with you, for I love a good game!”

Eli frowned. “How do I know I can trust you?” he challenged.

For one fleeting instant, the dybbuk actually looked pious as she gazed heavenward and said, “The Lord our God watches over everyone, as I learned to my eternal sorrow. Once I was like you, like her, but it wasn't good enough for me. I stole and I cheated, and I left my family and never looked back. My punishment is eternal, and the rules of it are stricter than any parent could impose. Though I inhabit another's body, I may not control her heart. What that heart would never do, I cannot force it to do. It would never break a promise; therefore, I cannot. We, too, are bound by certain laws.”

Eli was intrigued. “And what happens if you try to break a promise?” he asked the dybbuk.

She grimaced, then said, “A fate even more terrible than this one. My name will be stricken from the Book of Life, and no one on this earth will remember me. It will be as though I never had been.”

Eli thought that over; it sounded like a good enough idea to him, though he supposed the dybbuk wouldn't like it. “So once we strike a bargain, you have to keep it—or else?”

She nodded, then said with a leer, “But I'm a lot older than you, my boy. A lot. I can remember before your great-great-grandparents were born. The chance of your being able to put one over on me is slim. However . . .” She paused, thinking. “However, I was always a gambler. So here is my offer. You may ask me one question—only one, mind you! It must be something a human can answer. And if I don't answer correctly, I'll do everything in my power to grant your desire, and you will be free of me forever.”

Eli turned away, pretending to be deep in thought while hiding his exultation. She'd taken the bait! He grinned foolishly to himself, and acted as though he were thinking it over for a few minutes. Then he turned back to the dybbuk with a sigh and said, “All right. It's a bargain.”

They shook hands on it, and the dybbuk waited expectantly.

“Here is my question for you,” said Eli, pausing dramatically. “It is this:
What is it that everything has
?”

Then he sat down to wait. The riddle had been told to him years ago by his great-grandmother; he was pretty certain it hadn't been repeated in the village since her death, but one never knew. He tried to calm his anxiety as he waited for her response.

“How many answers can I try?” asked the dybbuk, deep in thought.

Eli was startled; she was still trying to cheat! “Only one, of course!”

“Of course . . . ,” she said dryly, and closed her eyes to ponder the question.

They sat that way for a long time as the shadows lengthened and Shabbes drew closer. For a moment, Eli worried about being out after dark; then he silently laughed at himself. Here he was, facing down a dybbuk, and all he could think of was that?!

Finally he saw her eyes flicker open, and she smiled, a bitter, malevolent, victorious smile.

“Oh, you silly boy! You thought that because I was a woman, I wouldn't be able to guess it, didn't you? Now, confess!”

Eli honestly said no, because he had never thought of the dybbuk as female, only as evil.

“Well, now I've guessed it, and you shall be my guide and protector for all your life!” she said smugly.

Eli was beginning to get annoyed. It was almost sunset. The candles would be on the table soon, and he was getting very hungry. “Then, if you're so smart, what's the answer?”

She laughed, clapped her hands, rose to her feet, and said, “Why, it's a soul, of course!”

And Eli, too, slowly rose to his feet, clapped his hands, gave a little bow, and then said, “No, it's not. That's the wrong answer.”

The laughter died on her lips and she glared at him, her face turning red. “It is
so
the right answer!” she shouted.

“It is not!” Eli shouted back. “I said, ‘What is it that
everything
has?' A rock has no soul. A grain of sand has no soul. That is
not
the correct answer.”

And then he smiled, a terrible smile of righteous joy, as she slowly sank back onto the ground.

He looked down at her, no longer afraid. “And now I will have your end of the bargain, dybbuk,” Eli said.

She looked at him warily. “What is it you want? I can make you as rich as a Rothschild. I can make you as handsome as the handsomest prince. What do you want?” she asked.

He paused, arms at his sides, then simply said, “I want Leah back.”

The dybbuk scrambled to her feet, grimaced at him, and angrily said “No!” Then she began running, running away from him as fast as she could, screaming “No! No! No!” And Eli, desperate to make her fulfill her end of the bargain, raced after her, but he could not catch her. She ran and ran, and he stumbled after her, but the dybbuk was running with the speed of a demon, while Eli was only human. He was panting and winded, about to give up, when there was an enormous clap of thunder, as though heaven itself had parted. Eli smacked his hands against his ears in pain, then froze as the dybbuk fell to the ground, where she lay as if dead.

He looked up at the sky; there was not a cloud in sight. Then he looked at the dybbuk, lying like a corpse. Slowly he approached the body, and standing as far away as possible, he turned it over.

Leah gave a small moan, and her eyelids fluttered open. Eli cautiously moved forward. He saw with joy that there was no sneer on her lips, no cunning in her face now. He helped her sit up, then held her as she wept against his shoulder, smelling her clean hair and marveling at the softness of her tears as they fell upon his skin. When the tears had run dry, he stood and helped her up. He looked into her eyes, and each began to speak at once.

“I'll never be a soldier or want a sword again—” Eli began.

“I never saw anything so brave in all my life as when you—” Leah said.