Between Friends by Amos Oz

off. When Yoav looked up, he saw a mass of low clouds gathering above his head and said to himself that all the things we think are important really aren’t, and he had no time to think about the things that really are. His whole life was going by and he had never contemplated the big, simple truths: loneliness and longing, desire and death. The silence was deep and wide, broken occasionally by the cries of jackals, and Yoav was filled with gratitude both for that silence and for the cries of the jackals. He didn’t believe in God, but in moments of solitude and silence such as this, Yoav felt that someone was waiting for him day and night, waiting silently and patiently, soundlessly and utterly still, and would wait for him always.
    As he walked slowly between the cold-storage room and the fertilizer shed, the rifle slung over his shoulder, he saw a thin silhouette between the shadows of the walls and suddenly a figure wearing a coat blocked his path. A woman’s voice, deep, pleasant, slightly husky, said, “Don’t be frightened, Yoav. It’s just me. Nina. I’ve been waiting for you to pass by here. I knew you would. I have to ask you something.”
    Yoav drew back, then focused his eyes in the darkness, pulled Nina by the arm to the nearby streetlamp, and asked worriedly if she was cold and how long she’d been waiting there alone. Nina was a young woman known on the kibbutz for her strong, unwavering opinions. She had green eyes, long lashes, and thin, finely sculpted lips. Her forehead shone in the dark and her blond hair was cropped short.
    “Tell me what you would do, Yoav, if you had to live every day and sleep every night of your whole life with someone who repulses you. Has repulsed you for years. The things he says, his smell, his jokes, his scratching, his hiccups, his coughing, his snoring, his nose-picking. Everything. What would you do?”
    Yoav put his hand on her arm and said, “Tell me exactly what happened, Nina.”
    In the light of the streetlamp, he saw that her face was pale and tense, but her tired green eyes, looking straight into his, held not a single tear. She clenched her lips and said, “Nothing happened. He even argues with the announcer on the radio.” Then she said, “I can’t take it anymore.”
    “Can we wait till tomorrow? Come to my office tomorrow and we’ll talk. There are things that seem terrible at night but in the light of day, they look completely different.”
    “No. I won’t go back to him. Not tonight, not ever. Give me a room tonight, Yoav. Even in a shed. In a lean-to. You must have one empty room.”
    “Tell me what happened.”
    “There’s nothing to tell. I just can’t go on any longer.”
    “And the children?”
    “The children will come straight to me from the children’s house every afternoon. To the room you give me.”
    Yoav felt uncomfortable standing and talking to Nina in the dim light of the streetlamp in the narrow alleyway between the cold-storage room and the fertilizer shed. If anyone happened to walk past and see them standing there, whispering, rumors would fly tomorrow. He said firmly, “Nina. I’m sorry, but I really can’t arrange something like this in the middle of the night. I don’t have rooms in my pocket, you know. I’m not the one who allocates rooms here. The committee will have to discuss it. And I’m on guard duty now. Please go home to sleep and we’ll meet tomorrow and try to find a solution together.”
    But even as he spoke, he backtracked and found himself adding in a different tone of voice, “Okay, come with me. We’ll go to the office. There’s a key to the lecturers’ guest room hanging there. You can spend the night in the guest room and come back tomorrow so we can figure out what to do. I’ll speak to Avner tomorrow too.”
    She leaned toward him, took his hand in both of hers, and pressed it tightly against her breast. Yoav was embarrassed and even blushed slightly in the dark because Nina was an