Read The Last Song for Free Online Page A

of my hands. Mama and Papa began to talk about the old religion, and they would not stop. It was as if the dam that had held water back finally broke, allowing it to gush out unchecked. My mother’s eyes were filled with joy and my father’s with pride when they spoke of their heritage. Their wordsmade their way into my heart. Whenever the panic and fear rose in me, I forced myself not to think about what could happen to us. I didn’t reveal my friendship with Yonah and how he, too, wanted to teach me the old ways. I wanted to tell them about him, but I was frightened that they would forbid me to see him. Not only was he a Jew, but he was also just a silversmith’s son. They would say that he was inferior to me in every way. I told myself that I didn’t care.
    I was up late every night, my mind teeming with questions I couldn’t answer. Who was I? What did I believe? When exhaustion finally drove me to fitful sleep, I dreamed of church, of the familiar smell of incense that made me feel at home, of the dry taste of the host in my mouth when I took communion, and of the sharpness of the wine when I drank our savior’s blood. I imagined singing the hymns that made my heart soar during mass.
    Five long days and nights passed before I came to a decision. I summoned Sofia to my room and ordered her to go to the Juderia. Her eyebrows rose, but she remained silent.
    “I want you to find me Yonah, son of Natan Abenatar, the master silversmith, and tell him that I will meet him tonight in the same place where we met before.”
    Her mouth fell open. “Young mistress, what are you saying? Surely you did not meet a young man – and, to make it worse, one of that cursed Jewish race – without taking me along with you? Your lady mother will have me flogged when she finds out what you have done!”
    “She will never find out if neither you nor I tell her.”
    Sofia walked to the door, dragging her feet.
    “But, my lady, I’ve never been to the Juderia. What if the Jews kill me and use my blood to make their Easter bread?” She spat on the floor. “A pox on them!”
    I threw my shoe at her. “Don’t talk like that! Be gone with you and do as you are told.”
    From that day onward, Yonah and I met under the branches of the orange tree several times every week. On the days that we arranged to see each other, I waited and waited impatiently for night to fall. It wasn’t long before I couldn’t imagine life without him. How wrong I had been to believe that he was a simple servant. I discovered that not only was he a skilled craftsman who learned how to transform gold and silver into beautiful objects at his father’s knee, but that he was also a scholar. Every evening, he and his father studied the Torah, the Five Books of Moses in the Hebrew Bible. He told me of our ancestors. He spoke of Abraham, who was ready to sacrifice his son for the glory of God;of Esther, who saved her people by marrying a king; and of Yonah, who was swallowed by a whale.
    I asked him about his family.
    “I have the best father in the world. He is patient and kind with never a harsh word for me. He is always ready to listen to my problems.”
    His face was full of sadness.
    “What’s the matter?”
    He sighed. “The Lord took away my mama in childbirth five years ago, when I was eleven years old. Nor was my baby brother long for this world. I miss them so much. It’s only my papa and me now.”
    My heart was so filled with pity that I did the unthinkable. I reached over and clasped his hands in mine.
    “Isabel!”
    He was as shocked as I was.
    My fingers tightened. As I felt the warmth of his hand, the coursing of his blood, I began to feel a kinship that I had never felt before. We sat silently listening to the sounds of the night. A toad croaked. The grass rustled as a mouse scurried among the blades.
    Sofia came for me while I was searching for the gold ribbon that Papa had given me. Mama had orderedme to wear it in my hair. Luis was coming