Read No Time for Tears for Free Online Page A

teacher, a Bilu , who like Moses will help us find the promised land once again.”
    “When will he come?” Moishe asked.
    “Soon, very soon.”
    Chavala had been listening with some irritation. Believing that there was no hope that they would go anywhere, she felt it served no purpose to remind Dovid of those who had gone to Eretz Yisroel only to come back disillusioned. It wasn’t the land of milk and honey. She remembered well the stories of those who had died from malaria and hunger, and the swamps. If there was any chance to change their lives, it was, she was convinced, in America. That was a new land. There was real equality and freedom there. And people lived decently, not in squalor. She’d literally dreamed about America, about arriving there and seeing the famous golden land of opportunity. That was where hope had reality, she passionately believed. But she kept silent, for now. Let papa have his dreams, and Dovid his hopes…
    Moishe interrupted her thoughts with, “Will you take me to hear more about this?”
    “Yes,” Dovid said. “But no one must know about this, it would be very dangerous for all of us if we were found out. The Lovers of Zion is a secret society—”
    “I’ll never tell, Dovid. Never.”
    Nor would the others, they solemnly assured him. Chavala then scooted them off to bed, saying there had been enough stories for one night.
    Moishe fell asleep thinking about what Dovid had said, conjuring up images in the dark, imagining the heroic figure of Dovid standing in the footsteps of … what was his name?… Ele’azar…
    Sitting at the table drinking tea, Chavala said, “Dovid, please don’t take Moishe to your meeting.”
    “Why? He’s old enough.”
    “But he’s also impressionable and romanticizes everything—”
    “That may be, but it’s also important for Jews to know who they are, where they came from. And besides, what’s wrong with having dreams, hopes…?”
    “That’s fine, if dreams can become reality—”
    “And where is it written, dear Chavala, that they can’t? You had a dream, as I recall, that if I built a shed to house a goat, it would give milk and you would be able to bring your baby sister home. Am I right?”
    “You’re right.” She smiled at him.
    “Well, your dream is now a reality. Tomorrow we can go to Manya’s and bring back little Chia where she belongs.”
    In spite of all that was against it, Dovid had completed the shed. First there was the lumber, which he managed to acquire, then the snows … day after day he’d come into the house so frozen that not even a basin of hot water would thaw him.
    “Oh, Dovid, no wonder my mother loved vou.”
    “Your mother? About her, I knew. What about you?”
    “Me too, Dovid. Oh yes, me too.”
    Winter no longer seemed so terrible. Little Chia had brought a light and joy that leavened all their miseries. She was a ray of sun that no cloud could dull. The children took turns feeding her from a small wine bottle that Chavala had saved since Chanukah. Dovid had formed a nipple from the finger of a rubber glove and fastened it to the bottle with some of Chavala’s elastic….
    At four months Chia had changed from an emaciated, tiny bundle of bones to a chubby infant who cooed and kicked vigorously. At night she slept alongside them in the tiny crib Dovid had made and Chavala had padded with down. How Dovid managed as he did was a thing of wonder to Chavala … even coming home with a bundle of coal and a few eggs.
    Chavala sewed with the baby always at her side, and Dovid worked across the road with more enthusiasm than he’d ever felt before, turning out one pair of boots after another. This summer he and Chavala would take their wares into Odessa, and their combined efforts would secure their needs for the following winter. How good it was, he thought, to have a wife like his … as he worked away his thoughts drifted to the house across the road, to the woman inside it, to how she’d changed