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suspicion he had taken her temperature, and it turned out he was
right. So he decided to call and cancel at the last minute the meeting
he had arranged with the deputy minister of defense, a meeting for
which he had been waiting for almost two months . He took Yifat to
the clinic and waited for an hour and a half before the doctor ex–
amined her and pronounced that she had "a slight ear infection." On
the way home he stopped at the pharmacy and bought some an–
tibiotics and ear drops. He made her some chicken soup and mashed
potatoes. By cajoling and bribery he managed to get her to drink
some warm milk and honey every hour. At midday her temperature
rose, and Michel decided to call a private doctor. Who confirmed his
colleague's diagnosis, but charged Michel ninety pounds. He sat till
evening, telling het one story after another, and then he managed to
make her eat a little chicken and rice and afterwards he sang to her,
and when she was asleep he went on sitting beside her in the dark
with his eyes closed , measuring her breathing with his stopwatch
and singing hymns. Then he dragged a mattress in for himself and
lay down at the foot of her bed in case she coughed or her bedclothes
fell off while she was asleep. Until he fell asleep too. Instead of
thanking him, admiring his devotion, kissing him and undressing
him and making it up to him in our bed, I asked irritably why he
hadn't telephoned for help to one of his innumerable female in-laws
or cousins. Why had he canceled his appointment with the deputy
minister? Was it really just to make me feel guilty for going away?
Was any means justified to cause guilt feelings? What the hell made
him think that he deserved a hero's medal just for spending a single
day in the home that I was stuck in for the whole of my life? And why
did I have to report to him on where I had been? I wasn't his maid.
And while we were on the subject, it was high time he realized how I
despised the way the male members of his community and his family
treated their poor wives . I refused to give him a report on where I
had gone and why. (In my blind fury I had overlooked the fact that
Michel had not even asked. No doubt he was intending to ask me
and tell me off, and I was merely anticipating him .) Michel listened
in silence as he made me a salad and poured me a Coke. He switched
the water heater on so that I could take a shower if! wanted to. And
made our bed. Eventually , when I stopped , he said: "Is that it? Have
we finished? Shall we send a dove out to see if the water has sub–
sided? We've got to wake her up at one o'clock to give her her medi–
cine." As he spoke he bent over her and touched her forehead lightly.
And I burst into tears.
