Песах Амнуэль - Zion's Fiction - A Treasury of Israeli Speculative Literature

“So maybe I should sleep with him once, let him get it out of his system.”

Rina answered in a feeble voice, “I even asked him about it, as long as it would make him calm down. He said ‘no way.’ Bringing you here naked is the top of Yair’s creativity. If you sleep with him it will only give him more stuff to dream about. And it will be even worse. If, when he dreams now, he can confine you to the bed, you don’t want to imagine what will happen if he would actually dream that….” She let her words trail off and sipped her coffee quietly.

Galia drank her tea.

Yair woke up and was relieved to find he was alone on the bed. He got up and went barefoot into the living room. Rina was sitting watching TV.

“Where’s Galia”? Yair asked.

“I took her home an hour ago,” Rina said. Her gaze was fixed on the screen. It was a program about nutrition. A man in a chef’s uniform was discussing sprouting legumes.

“I’m sorry,” said Yair. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I was just lying down for a rest. I didn’t sleep all night….”

“There’s coffee in the thermos,” Rina said without taking her eyes off the screen.

“Thanks, honey,” said Yair.

He went to wash his face in the bathroom. Staring back at him in the mirror was a balding man in his late forties. His face was already beginning to show wrinkles. Small bags hung under his hazel eyes. The mirror didn’t show it, but he knew that his belly also showed. He wasn’t the kind of man a good-looking woman like Galia would be attracted to. Even when he was younger and had abundant hair, they were not attracted to him. Rina was different. She saw in him something else, something that none of the Galias could see, but he wasn’t sure anymore how much was left in him, of whatever it was that brought him Rina. He washed his face, shaved, and went back to the kitchen to pour himself some coffee. Rina still sat in front of the TV. The cook was inspecting the fresh lentil sprouts.

“Did Galia suffer any damages?” Yair asked. He sipped his coffee and slightly burned his tongue. He put the coffee down on the table to cool a little.

“Her car was left without a driver, and it hit a lamp post,” said Rina.

“Did anyone get hurt?”

“No.”

He took the coffee and went to sit beside Rina. He wanted to put his arm around her, but she got up and went to the bathroom. Yair sipped his coffee carefully to avoid burning his tongue again. The cook in the television finally cooked the lentils and went on to beans. Rina came back from the bathroom and went to the kitchen. He heard her pulling out some kitchenware from one of the cupboards.

“Maybe I’ll try the pills again tonight,” Yair said.

“It almost killed you last time,” said Rina.

“Maybe it was something else. I have to try it again. I’m so afraid I’ll dream about her again that I can’t go to sleep.”

The sound of rattling from the kitchen stopped abruptly. Rina came and stood between him and the television.

“It nearly killed you.” She looked at him sternly.

“Maybe it was something else.”

Rina went back to the kitchen. Yair went back to watching the show. The cook was now on to soaking beans in water. It was fascinating.

By one o’clock in the morning, with an inhalation mask strapped onto his mouth, Yair regretted taking the pill. His lungs relaxed after a long and terrifying struggle, and his breathing settled. The doctor Rina had called determined it was an acute allergic reaction to the pills, which could potentially be fatal.

“Thirty percent of the population is allergic to this pill,” the doctor told Rina. “There have been quite a few reported deaths. Allergies can develop even after a certain amount of time. They give the pill only in cases in which the dreaming becomes a danger to the dreamer’s life.”

“And what if it puts someone else’s life in jeopardy?” Rina asked.

“Next time the attack will kill him,” the doctor said.

Yair removed the mask from his face and asked, “And what if I keep an inhaler or this inhalator, and use it right after I take the pill?”

He felt the pressure in his lungs again and quickly put the mask back to his nose.

The doctor looked at him as if he was mad. “It doesn’t work that way,” he said.

Yair managed to remain awake until six o’clock in the morning by reading a book. Rina slept next to him. He wondered what she was dreaming about. Was she dreaming about other men but not realizing them? He switched off the bedside lamp because the light coming in through the window was sufficient to prevent him from falling asleep, and he stared at his wife, trying to think only about her and not anyone else. For him there was nobody else. Just Rina. He looked at her dark, lifeless hair and at the slightly low angle of her eyes, her nose with the tiny protrusion and her thin, pursed lips.

“Yair, Wake up!” shouted Rina.

Yair woke up to find Galia sitting naked on the bed next to him, screaming. Judging by the light from outside, it was already late in the morning.

Rina was standing next to the bed.

“What are you doing sleeping in the morning, you moron?” Galia screamed. “I have a meeting with Ossem’s CEO in an hour. I was just sitting with my boss to go over the final details. I don’t know what I’ll do if they fire me because of you.”

She grabbed a pillow and started beating him with it in a rage. He flinched away from her and fell off the other side of the bed.

“Galia, I’ll take you home quickly,” said Rina, “and then to work. Come on, Hurry.”

Galia got off the bed and opened the closet to take out a robe. Her face was distorted, on the verge of crying.

“I was wearing my best suit. It cost me more than a thousand shekels. I spent half an hour this morning doing my makeup; I was at the hair dresser. And now because of your stupid husband I’ll look like some market girl at the meeting.”

She covered herself with the robe and turned to Yair.

“If you fall asleep again, I swear I’ll kill you! At least sleep at night, so that you don’t completely screw up my job.”

She left the room with Rina following her in silence. Yair got up from the floor, rubbing his aching back, and went to the bathroom.

Galia called her boss to explain what had happened. When she hung up she looked like she was going to put her fist through a windshield.

“He’s furious,” she said. “I was holding some very important document in my hands and they disappeared. Now they’re making more copies, and he’s trying to postpone the meeting, but it’s Ossem’s CEO. It’s not simple. I hope I’ll make it on time. You’ll have to take me to work and then to Ossem, too.”

“No problem, I’ll take you.”

“Oh my god, what am I going to wear? My other suit is at the cleaners. And the third one is for winter.”

“I’ll go upstairs with you and we’ll find you something nice to wear.”

“And then do me a favor and go home to keep an eye on him so he doesn’t fall back to sleep. Just because he is unemployed doesn’t mean he should sleep during the day. He should show some consideration.”

“He does. He’s afraid of sleeping at night because he doesn’t want to dream about you.”

Galia moaned. “It’s better he dreams about me at night than during the day when I’m trying to live a little. Try and get that retarded monkey husband of yours to get it into his head!”

“I’ll watch over him. Look, we’re doing everything we can. Honest.”

“I know you’re doing everything, but I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I really don’t want anything bad to happen to Yair. I know he’s not doing this on purpose and that you’re good people, but this is ruining my life. One day I will have no choice but to file a complaint against him.”