Story Teaser: The Shomer's Shadow

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The night the shomer came, papa had been reading from the newspaper, stories of life in far-off cities we could only imagine. Papa had a lovely voice, smooth and dark, and I felt myself drifting off, imagining great buildings rising three stories high, and men dressed in robes of metal, women in gowns of bright colors, and chambers of stone and gold, where great things were decided.

There was a noise in the street, and papa stopped reading, looking up from the paper with a look of annoyance, the firelight shining off the curve of his glasses, perched high on his nose. There had been many such noises in the past month, our neighbors riding their horses through our streets late at night. So far, there had been no destruction, but I was fourteen, old enough to listen when the adults spoke. It was only a matter of time. First, it would be the swinging of sticks, breaking windows and wheels. Then would come fists, and cudgels. Anyone outside their homes risked broken limbs - or skulls.

The tsar’s men would come then, stern-faced, and the night visits would end.

For a while.

But this was not the sound of hoofbeats.

Mama rose quietly from her chair and went to the window, drawing aside the curtain just enough to peer out.

“There is a man,” she said, voice hushed. “And…another man. Much larger. Outside the rabbi’s door.”

Papa frowned, folding the paper and resting it on his knee. My brother, half-asleep on his pillow, made a protesting sound, and papa shushed him. “Then it is the rabbi’s business, and not ours. Come away from the window.”

Mama let the curtain fall, but did not move away.

“It is a very large man,” she said and her voice was strange, like it was coming from far away.

“Rose.” Papa was still frowning.

I had heard them speak like that before, when a word said more that others could not hear. Whatever he was saying, mama seemed as though she were going to ignore it, before she let the curtain fall, and resumed her seat. But she did not pick up her mending, and papa did not resume reading.

And soon after, my brother and I were sent to our bed, although it was far too early for them to go to sleep.

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