Free Where the Jackals Howl by Amos Oz Page B

for the knife, located it, and cut the straps one by one. The silence was total. Only Gideon’s sobbing, a strange, piercing sound, was to be heard intermittently. Finally one last strap was left holding him, which he did not dare to cut.
    â€œCut it,” the children shrilled, “cut it and jump. Let’s see you do it.”
    And Shimshon added in a level voice, “Now what are you waiting for?”
    â€œI can’t do it,” Gideon pleaded.
    â€œOf course you can,” said his father.
    â€œThe current,” the boy wept. “I can feel the current. Get me down quickly.”
    His father’s eyes filled with blood as he roared:
    â€œYou coward! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”
    â€œBut I can’t do it, I’ll break my neck, it’s too high.”
    â€œYou can do it and you must do it. You’re a fool, that’s what you are, a fool and a coward.”
    Â 
    A group of jet planes passed overhead on their way to the aerial display over the city. They were flying in precise formation, thundering westward like a pack of wild dogs. As the planes disappeared, the silence seemed twice as intense. Even the boy had stopped crying. He let the knife fall to the ground. The blade pierced the earth at Shimshon Sheinbaum’s feet.
    â€œWhat did you do that for?” the short officer shouted.
    â€œI didn’t mean it,” Gideon whined. “It just slipped out of my hand.”
    Shimshon Sheinbaum bent down, picked up a small stone, straightened up, and threw it furiously at his son’s back.
    â€œPinocchio, you’re a wet rag, you’re a miserable coward!”
    At this point the sea breeze also dropped.
    The heat wave returned with renewed vigor to oppress both men and inanimate objects. A red-haired, freckled soldier muttered to himself, “He’s scared to jump, the idiot, he’ll kill himself if he stays up there.” And a skinny, plain-faced girl, hearing this, rushed into the middle of the circle and spread her arms wide:
    â€œJump into my arms, Gidi, you’ll be all right.”
    â€œIt would be interesting,” remarked a veteran pioneer in working clothes, “to know whether anyone has had the sense to phone the electric company to ask them to switch off the current.” He turned and started off toward the kibbutz buildings. He was striding quickly, angrily, up the slight slope when he was suddenly alarmed by a prolonged burst of firing close at hand. For a moment he imagined he was being shot at from behind. But at once he realized what was happening: the squadron commander, the good-looking blond hero, was trying to sever the electric cables with his machine gun.
    Without success.
    Meanwhile, a beaten-up truck arrived from the farmyard. Ladders were unloaded from it, followed by the elderly doctor, and finally a stretcher.
    At that moment it was evident that Gideon had been struck by a sudden decision. Kicking out strongly, he pushed himself off the lower cable, which was emitting blue sparks, turned a somersault, and remained suspended by the single strap with his head pointing downward and his scorched boots beating the air a foot or so from the cable.
    It was hard to be certain, but it looked as though so far he had not sustained any serious injury. He swung limply upside down in space, like a dead lamb suspended from a butcher’s hook.
    This spectacle provoked hysterical glee in the watching children. They barked with laughter. Zaki slapped his knees, choking and heaving convulsively. He leapt up and down screeching like a mischievous monkey.
    What had Gideon Shenhav seen that made him suddenly stretch his neck and join in the children’s laughter? Perhaps his peculiar posture had unbalanced his mind. His face was blood-red, his tongue protruded, his thick hair hung down, and only his feet kicked up at the sky.
8
    A SECOND group of jets plowed through the sky overhead. A dozen metallic birds,