Touched by Fire Read Online Free Page A

community and abroad, that the kaiser despises the Jews.
    Mama looks tired. I offer to make the tea. We are accustomed to having a glass of tea together before Kolya leaves.
    One evening, Kolya is not his usual cheerful self. He does not tease us. He even refuses a second helping of cabbage rolls.
    Bubbe asks him, “Is something wrong? I made them especially for you because they are your favorite. You look pale – are you sick? There is trouble at work, maybe?”
    “The supper is good, like always, thank you,” Kolya says. “I had some bad news today.”
    Papa says, “You are among friends. Share your sorrow, my boy. It will help you to speak of it.”
    Kolya falters, “Do you remember what happened in Kishinev?” The grown-ups look at each other, a look I dread.
    Papa whispers, “How can one forget such a tragedy? It will always be remembered. We knew people who came from there. I cannot speak of it – so many dead and injured, so many homes engulfed by flames.”
    “I heard that five hundred Jews were injured in that pogrom,” Zayde says.
    Kolya continues, “Some good friends of mine managed to escape. They took shelter outside the city, in a small shtetl– barely that – little more than a few houses, a barn, and a wooden synagogue. It was not far enough away. I heard today that the village was burned to the ground and again people died. A few were sent to a labor camp in Siberia. I ask myself, why? They had done nothing, except be what they are, who we are: Jews!”
    “From one generation to the next,” Zayde says with a sigh. “It is never-ending.”
    “Kaiser Wilhelm will never let that happen here,” Yuri says. He looks shocked.
    “You are wrong, Yuri.” Kolya speaks to him as if to another adult. “Kaiser Wilhelm is well known to be a hater of Jews. He is a first cousin of Tsar Nicholas – both of them are like-minded on this. That is why your papa works day and night to bring you all to America. Why do you think it is the dream of all oppressed people to go to the Golden Land? In America, there is no kaiser, no tsar – only a president, who is chosen by the people. Jews are treated the same as everyone else. In America, Jews are free to be who they are and live without fear.”
    Yuri says, “I admire the kaiser. I don’t live in fear. I don’t believe you.…” If Yuri says one more time that he is going to be a soldier in the kaiser’s army, I know there will be trouble.
    Papa says, “Believe it. We live here like rats in a trap, so many of us crowded together. When it pleases a kaiser ora tsar to get rid of us, then it will happen. Not today or tomorrow, but one day the burning will reach here too. In America, my son, no one will burn us.”
    “It is late – enough of this kind of talk. I will make tea,” Mama says, rubbing her back. She looks tired.
    “Sit, Mama, it is my job to bring in the tea,” I tell her.
    The baby will be here in a few months. I can hardly wait. How I long for a sister – one brother is enough! But, as Bubbe says, “Boy, girl – as long as the baby is healthy and your mama stays well, that is all that matters.”
    Before I go to sleep, Papa’s words stay with me.
Will the kaiser’s troops come to chase us out of the Scheunenviertel?
All the houses have cellars. Perhaps they would not find us. I don’t believe that it will happen. This time, I think Yuri is right. All the same, whenever I go somewhere new, I look for a place to hide or a door to run through, to get away from anyone who might harm us. I don’t speak of it, but I think Mama knows.
    Tonight, for the first time in months, the old dreaded nightmare returns. First I hear the sound of boots and horses’ hooves on the cobblestones, then shouts and cries in a jumble of German and Russian. Windows smash, shutters splinter close by. In my nightmare, I stumble to the kitchen, where the curtains Mama made are charred. Sparks flare on the neatly folded smocks, ready for delivery.They burst into