MARIANKA
lOS
The man with the revolver scrutinised the old man, looked at
us
in
tum, stared at the women. He shrugged his shoulders, by now
we all of us were standing, our eyes focussed on his revolver. With
it, he motioned his companions and followed by six men came into
the room. He said:
"Free followers of the hetman Petloura, fighting for the lib–
eration of the Ukraine."
"Peace be with you," Rabbi Mellakh repeated.
The door had been left wide open on the freezing arctic night.
The country side was blanketed in opaque darkness and you heard
the black wind buffet the trees. I moved forward to close the door
but received a slap full in the face. It hurled me under the table.
Myriam opened her mouth, but stifled the shout with her hand.
The old Rabbi stood and helped me to my feet. He said gently:
"Come, there's no reason for grief, Yaniki.... Stand up....
It
did not hurt you, Yaniki, it did not hurt you...."
I rose painfully, the right side of my face was on fire. The
ground slid under my feet and everything rocked in a billow-tom
sea. My tongue was muddied. I spat and a broken tooth tumbled
on the floor, and Rabbi Mellakh pretended to dust my jacket.
"You wanted to close the door, Yaniki.... Why didn't you
say
so? Wait, I will close it."
He moved towards the door and be£ore he got there a punch
aimed at his stomach bent him in two. He nearly fell, but des–
perately stiffened himself and grasped the table edge. His wife
and daughter rushed to him, and while the former held the old
man, Myriam brought a chair. They wept, bewildered and terror–
ised, afraid to utter one word, hardly daring to look at the silent
intruders.
Through a screen of tears, I saw seven men standing with
their legs wide apart. The man who burst into the room first and
who evidently was the leader, seemed to be some forty years old,
tall, strongly built. The
papaha
pushed back on his head revealed
an obstinate forehead, swollen veins and thick flaxen hair, as brit–
e as blades of com. I could hardly see his eyes, since they were
eeply embedded under the frontal bones and a beard several days
ld smudged his lower chin with gingerish pools. Furtively, I
anced at his companions; they seemed to have been moulded in
e same cast. Rigged out in an astonishing kit, bulging through
