Fedka’s Brother

Chapter 1: Misha

It all started when I met Moishe. I was eight, and Mama had sent me to get water so Fedka could wash up. Fedka was almost fifteen, and could read and write better than the priest. Everyone liked him, so when Constable Petrovich found out that some important visitors were coming to the village, he specifically asked if Fedka could help show them around. Naturally, he had to look his best. Katya was too busy stewing about how it wasn't fair that Fedka got to help the constable, so Mama sent me to get water while she put a new patch on Fedka's trousers.

There were two places for me to get water—the public well in the village or the spring out in the woods. The spring was dangerous in late autumn, because there were bears and wolves and things in the woods, but the public well was near where the Jews lived.

Mama had told me about Jews. She'd said that they kidnapped Christian children and drank their blood, or used it to make matzoh. Father Ivan the priest had said that Jews had horns and tails because they were of the devil. I decided to go to the spring, figuring that Jews were scarier than bears. Bears were stupid and slow, and if I met one, I would be able to trick him. Then I could tell Fedka about tricking a bear, and he'd write it down and turn it into a story.

I whistled as I walked, swinging the empty buckets. After a while, I reached the spring, where I put one of my buckets on the rock underneath the water and waited for it to fill.

It was very quiet.

I heard a rustling noise, and a bear cub came waddling out of the bushes. He was funny and fat, with shaggy brown fur and a round face.

"Mishka," I whispered. "Baby Mishka-Mishka." "Mishka" is the diminutive for "Mikhail", which is a bear's first name.

The first bucket was full, so I set it on the ground and put the other one in place to fill. The bear cub sniffed the air and passed to the other side of the clearing. There he sat down on his rump, looking for all the world like a big, furry baby. I laughed a bit at the thought of him wearing baby clothes.

Then there was more rustling, and a full-grown bear appeared. He looked around and saw me between him and the cub, and reared up on his hind legs. At his full height, he was about twice as tall as I was.

In the old stories, bears are easy to fool. All you have to do is tell him a riddle and he'll be so busy trying to figure it out that he won't attack you. Unfortunately, I was too scared to think of a riddle, and I probably would have turned and run if I hadn't felt someone tap my shoulder.

"Turn around slowly, and do not make any sudden moves." I turned as slowly as I could, and found myself facing a Jew.

He was a young Jew, about my own age. He had moved very quietly, and I was very frightened, so it wasn't surprising that I hadn't heard him. His eyes were blue. My own brown ones widened in fear as he put his hand over my mouth.

"Do not talk," he said quietly. "The mother bear will not attack us if we do not startle her." He had a funny way of talking, as if he wasn't used to speaking Russian. I remembered what Father Ivan had said about the Jews having their own language.

The Jewish boy grabbed my arm and began to lead me away from the spring. I didn't fight him, being too petrified to move on my own.

When we were out of sight of the spring, I pulled myself together and peeled his hand off of my arm.

"Um—thank you," I said uneasily.

"Your name is Leonka, right?"

I nodded, then shook my head. I didn't want him using the diminutive of my name.

"My name's Leonid Grigorevich," I told him. "What's yours?"

"I am Moishe."