THE DIARY OF ONE NOT BORN
145
And she turns her face to the wall. For a while we both lie
quietly. And then I give her a pinch where she's fattest. My wife
shoots up into the air. The bed shakes. She lets out a scream, "Are
you crazy, or what? What are you pinching me for? Heaven help
me-what kind of hands have I fallen into?"
And she begins to weep hoarsely-as can only a friendless
orphan who has waited over thirty years for her lucky day and then
finds herself espoused to a monster. A robber's heart would have
melted. I'm sure that God himself shed a tear that night. But a devil
is a devil.
At daybreak, I creep out of the house and go over to the
rabbi's. The rabbi, a saintly man, is already at his studies, and is
shocked to see me. "God bless a Jew," he says, "why so early?"
"It's true that I'm a stranger here, and only a poor man, but
the town didn't have to wish a whore on me!"
"A whore!"
"What else is a bride who isn't a virgin?" I ask.
The rabbi tells me to wait for him in the study house and goes
to wake up his wife. She gets dressed (even forgetting to wash her
hands) and rouses some of her cronies. A little knot of women,
including the rabbi's wife, goes over to my bride's to investigate
and to look at the bed sheets. Turbin is no Sodom.
If
there's a sin,
the town has to know about it!
My wife weeps bitterly. She swears that I hadn't come near
her all night. She insists that I'm crazy, that I pinched her and spat
in her ear, but the women shake their heads. They bring the de–
fendant to the rabbi. They parade her through the marketplace,
the townsfolk peering from every window. The study house
is
crowded. My wife moans and wails. She vows that no man has
ever touched her, including me.
"He's a madman," she says, and turns on me. But I insist that
she's lying.
"As
a matter of fact," I announce, "let a doctor examine her."
"Where will we find a doctor in Turbin?" they ask me.
"All right," I say, "then take her to Lublin. There's still some
decency in the world," I screech. "I'll see to it that all of Poland
hears about this! I'll tell the Rabbinical Council the whole story!"
"Be sensible. How are we to blame?" asks one of the elders.
"It's the responsibility of all of Israel," I answer piously. "Who-
