“Where to?”
“I don’t know yet,” Dov Ben Dov said. “I haven’t thought about it. We’ll decide on the way.”
HE WAS WALKING DOWN THE LONG HOSPITAL HALL WITH the doctor, a young blond man with a heavily tanned face. It was six in the evening.
“Don’t you have anything that makes a man full of pep after he has drunk too much and slept too little?” Dov asked.
“No,” the doctor said. “If I did, I’d take it myself. So, what happened last night?”
“I don’t know,” Dov said. “We went to a bar — my friend, his girlfriend, and I. We had a few drinks and then she left, saying she was sleepy, and we stayed on and drank some more. Then my friend said to me: Let’s leave the jeep here and walk home. If a cop stops us for drunk driving, we’ll be in big trouble. So we walked home and went to bed. I fell asleep almost immediately and slept for about two hours when some men came to our house to tell me my brother had been beaten up by some fishermen and taken to the hospital. After that I slept maybe another three hours.”
“Do you know why they beat him up?”
“No, I don’t,” Dov said. “Maybe he started the fight himself. There’s been a lot of bad blood between them. Actually I had been thinking it wouldn’t be too bad if one of them gave him a good licking; it might be a lesson to him.”
The doctor didn’t say anything. Dov looked at him.
“Hey,” he said, stopping and taking the doctor by the arm. “It’s nothing serious, is it?”
The doctor gently disengaged himself. “He’s in here,” he said. “Be nice to him.”
“Is it serious?”
“Be nice to him,” the doctor said again. “And then come to see me.”
He gave him a gentle shove and Dov walked into the room. Little Dov had the room to himself; Dov approached his bed.
“Hi, Dov,” Little Dov said. “Why didn’t Esther come with you?”
“I don’t know.” Dov said. “Somebody from the hospital dropped in and asked the old man to visit you. But he wouldn’t because today is Friday. So I came instead.”
“I don’t feel well.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“I don’t know. Ask one of those white coats. I got slugged a few times and I lost consciousness.”
“Was it those fishermen who fixed you like that? What made you pick a fight with them?”
“I didn’t, Dov. I was walking along the beach, sometime around six, not even looking where I was going, when suddenly these three guys jumped me and started pummeling away. I began defending myself and threw a few good punches before one of them whacked me on the head from behind and I just folded up and went to sleep.”
“Why did they attack you?”
“I don’t know,” Little Dov said. “I wish I did. I’ll ask them myself as soon as I leave the hospital.”
“Do you want to know what they said at the police station?”
“Yeah. Shoot.”
“They said you ruined their boats,” Dov said. “Ruined the engines.”
“They’re crazy. Why would I do anything like that?”
“Who else would? You and they are the only fishermen here. And you were squabbling constantly. Who else could have done it?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Little Dov said. “I didn’t do it. You know I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“Were you on the beach last night?”
“I go to the beach every night,” Little Dov said. “With Esther, so that you can sleep. So that you can feel at home in my house.”
“Can you swear by the Ten Commandments that you didn’t do it?”
“Cover my head with something and I will.”
“Okay, you don’t have to. I believe you. Then who did it? And why?”
“I don’t know,” Little Dov said. “And it’s none of my business. I’m neither a snoop nor a cop. I’m a fisherman, because that’s what I wanted to be and that’s the trade I learned.”
“But you were on the beach at night, weren’t you?”
“So what? Anybody can go to the beach at night. Haven’t you ever gone to the beach at night?”
“No,” Dov said.
“Then you can start going now,” his brother said. “And I’ll stay at home with my wife, in bed. She has counted all the stars in the sky by now, and the outdoors is beginning to bore her.”
“I wonder who could have done it,” Dov said.
“What do you care? Are you a cop? Let the fuzz work it out. What do you care?”
“You’re acting like a child,” Dov said. “Things don’t look good for you.”
“Esther is my witness.”
“I don’t know if the court will accept her testimony. She’s your wife.”
“Look,” Little Dov said, “this is beginning to bore me. Leave the guesswork to the cops and the courts. That’s what they’re there for. I know nothing. I don’t follow anybody around. I don’t go running to Israel to tell him I saw his girlfriend on the beach last night. It’s none of my business.”
“Who was she with?” Dov asked. “Some guy?”
“No, she was alone. When I saw her, I pulled Esther deeper into the shadows. I had no desire to talk to her and didn’t want her to bother us.”
“Are you sure it was her?”
“I’m bored with all this,” Little Dov said. “And I feel sleepy. I guess they must have given me something.”
“Okay. Do you want anything? Maybe something to read?”
“I want Esther to visit me,” Little Dov said. “You know, I’m all bandaged up.” He pulled back the blanket; his lower abdomen and his thighs were covered with bandages. “I feel dead down there,” he said. “As if I didn’t have anything. I want to see her. I know that when I touch her my body will come alive.”
“All right,” Dov said.
“You know,” Little Dov said, turning his face to the wall, “I haven’t had her for three days now. I don’t know what’s come over her.”
“Remember Esther is a woman. Maybe she has her period.”
“Esther is my wife,” Little Dov said. “Her period never stopped us before.”
“I’ll tell her. And I’ll tell her to bring you something to read.”
“I don’t want anything to read. I want to touch her.” “Okay, I’ll tell her you want her to visit you and you want to touch her.”
“And when I get back home, I’ll say to her what one American soldier said to his wife when he came back from Korea. He took her to the window and said, See those trees over there? See how beautiful they are? See how beautiful the sky is? Well, have a good look, because the only thing you’re going to see for the next two weeks is the ceiling. Good night, Dov.”
“Good night,” Dov said. “Sleep well.”
He went out and began to look for the doctor, and finally found him by the stairs, smoking a cigarette.
“Well? How is he?” the doctor said.
“That’s what I expect you to tell me,” Dov said. “You’re the doctor.”
“Dov, do you remember that the doctors declared you temporarily insane after you killed that man you found with your wife?”
“So even you know about it?”
“Dov,” the doctor said, “the fact that they declared you temporarily insane was the only reason you didn’t go to jail. But that can happen only once. I’m telling you this as a doctor, not as a cop.”
“Why are you telling me this at all?” Dov asked. “I’m okay now. You should be worrying about my brother.”
“The reason I’m telling you is so you’ll know that if you do anything rash, nobody can help you. Your brother will never be a man again, Dov.”
“I see,” Dov said softly. “That’s why he feels dead down there.”
“We give him morphine, Dov,” the doctor said. “And we’ll keep him on sedatives for the next few days. And then we’ll have to discharge him. And only then will he find out the truth.”