"Исаак Башевис Зингер. Taibele and her demon " - читать интересную книгу автора

The greatest punishment in Hell was tickling, Hurmizah said. There was
a certain imp in Hell by the name of Lekish. When Lekish tickled an
adulteress on her soles or under the arms, her tormented laughter echoed all
the way to the island of Madagascar.
In this way, Hurmizah entertained Taibele all through the night, and
soon it came about that she began to miss him when he was away. The summer
nights seemed too short, for Hurmizah would leave soon after cockcrow. Even
winter nights were not long enough. The truth was that she now loved
Hurmizah, and though she knew a woman must not lust after a demon, she
longed for him day and night.

II

Although Alchonon had been a widower for many years, matchmakers still
tried to marry him off. The girls they proposed were from mean homes, widows
and divorcees, for a teacher's helper was a poor provider, and Alchonon had
besides the reputation of being a shiftless ne'er-do-well. Alchonon
dismissed the offers on various pretexts: one woman was too ugly, the other
had a foul tongue, the third was a slattern. The matchmakers wondered: how
could a teacher's helper who earned nine groschen a week presume to be such
a picker and a chooser? And how long could a man live alone? But no one can
be dragged by force to the wedding canopy.
Alchonon knocked around town - long, lean, tattered, with a red
disheveled beard, in a crumpled shirt, with his pointed Adam's apple jumping
up and down. He waited for the wedding jester Reb Zekele to die, so that he
could take over his job. But Reb Zekele was in no hurry to die; he still
enlivened weddings with an inexhaustible flow of quips and rhymes, as in his
younger days. Alchonon tried to set up on his own as a teacher for
beginners, but no householder would entrust his child to him. Morning and
evenings, he took the boys to and from the cheder. During the day he sat in
Reb Itchele the teacher's courtyard, idly whiting wooden pointers, or
cutting out paper decorations which were used only once a year, at
Pentecost, or modeling figurines from clay.
Not far from Taibele's store there was a well, and Alchonon came there
many times a day, to draw a pail of water or to take a drink, spilling the
water over his red beard. At these times, he would throw a quick glance at
Taibele. Taibele pitted him: why was the man knocking about all by himself?
And Alchonon would say to himself each time: "Woe, Taibele, if you knew the
truth!"
Alchonon lived in a garret, in the house of an old widow who was deaf
and half-blind. The crone often chided him for not going to the synagogue to
pray like other Jews. For as soon as Alchonon had taken the children home,
he said a hasty evening prayer and went to bed. Sometimes the old woman
thought she heard the teacher's helper get up in the middle of the night and
go off somewhere. She asked him where he wandered at night, but Alchonon
told her that she had been dreaming. The women who sat on benches in the
evenings, knitting socks and gossiping, spread the rumor that after midnight
Alchonon turned into a werewolf. Some women said he was consorting with a
succubus. Otherwise, why should a man remain so many years without a wife?
The rich men would not trust their children to him any longer. He now