Read The Last Demon for Free Online

Soon it would be summer. Not far from Bechev there was a river where all the yeshiva students and young men went swimming as soon as it was warm enough. The lie was swelling like an abscess and one of these days it must surely burst. Anshel knew she had to find a way to free herself.
    It was customary for the young men boarding with their in-laws to travel to nearby cities during the half-holidays in the middle of Passover week. They enjoyed the change, refreshed themselves, looked around for business opportunities, bought books or other things a young man might need. Bechev was not far from Lublin and Anshel persuaded Avigdor to make the journey with her at her expense. Avigdor was delighted at the prospect of being rid for a few days of the shrew he had at home. The trip by carriage was a merry one. The fields were turning green; storks, back from the warm countries, swooped across the sky in great arcs. Streams
rushed toward the valleys. The birds chirped. The windmills turned. Spring flowers were beginning to bloom in the fields. Here and there a cow was already grazing. The companions, chatting, ate the fruit and little cakes that Hadass had packed, told each other jokes, and exchanged confidences until they reached Lublin. There they went to an inn and took a room for two. In the journey, Anshel had promised to reveal an astonishing secret to Avigdor in Lublin. Avigdor had joked: what sort of secret could it be? Had Anshel discovered a hidden treasure? Had he written an essay? By studying the Cabala, had he created a dove?
    Now they entered the room and while Anshel carefully locked the door, Avigdor said teasingly: ‘Well, let’s hear your great secret.’
    ‘Prepare yourself for the most incredible thing that ever was.’
    ‘I’m prepared for anything.’
    ‘I’m not a man but a woman,’ said Anshel. ‘My name isn’t Anshel, it’s Yentl.’
    Avigdor burst out laughing. ‘I knew it was a hoax.’
    ‘But it’s true.’
    ‘Even if I’m a fool, I won’t swallow this.’
    ‘Do you want me to show you?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Then I’ll get undressed.’
    Avigdor’s eyes widened. It occurred to him that Anshel might want to practice pederasty. Anshel took off the gaberdine and the fringed garment, and threw off her underclothes. Avigdor took one look and turned first white, then fiery red. Anshel covered herself hastily.
    ‘I’ve done this only so that you can testify at the courthouse. Otherwise, Hadass will have to stay a grass widow.’
    Avigdor had lost his tongue. He was seized by a fit of trembling. He wanted to speak, but his lips moved and nothing came out. He sat down quickly, for his legs would not support him.
    Finally he murmured: ‘How is it possible? I don’t believe it!’
    ‘Should I get undressed again?’
    ‘No!’
    Yentl proceeded to tell the whole story: how her father, bedridden, had studied Torah with her; how she had never had the patience for women and their silly chatter; how she had sold the house and all the furnishings, left the town, made her way disguised as a man to Lublin, and on the road met Avigdor. Avigdor sat speechless, gazing at the storyteller. Yentl was by now wearing men’s clothes once more.
    Avigdor spoke: ‘It must be a dream.’
    He pinched himself on the cheek.
    ‘It isn’t a dream.’
    ‘That such a thing should happen to me!’
    ‘It’s all true.’
    ‘Why did you do it?
Nu
, I’d better keep still.’
    ‘I didn’t want to waste my life on a baking shovel and a kneading trough.’
    ‘And what about Hadass – why did you do that?’
    ‘I did it for your sake. I knew that Peshe would torment you and at our house you would have some peace.’
    Avigdor was silent for a long time. He bowed his head, pressed his hands to his temples, shook his head. ‘What will you do now?’
    ‘I’ll go away to a different yeshiva.’
    ‘What? If you had only told me earlier, we could have …’
    Avigdor broke off in the middle.
    ‘No – it wouldn’t have