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יונתן וסבא קטן (Yonatan veSabbaKattan)

Yonatan and Little Grandpa

Written By Rivka Elitsur

Translated by Rahel Halabe

Yonatan lived in an ancient big house with his mother and father and an old grandfather.

There were large rooms in this ancient home, and old squeaky doors. Yonatan used to run from room to room, opening doors and forgetting to close them. And the old doors used to angrily squeak, co-o-o-old… ba-a-a-ad… but Yonatan wasn’t cold, he was fine.

He was a happy, active child who loved to run around the house and the garden.

The garden too, was ancient. It had tall heavy trees with wide trunks. Yonatan loved to climb high in these trees. The birds in their nests were not scared of Yonatan. They knew that Yonatan loved the birds and would cause their little fledglings no harm.

One day Yonatan climbed a tall tree and found himself a comfortable spot to sit among its branches. He perched there and looked down at the garden. On the bench under the tree sat his grandfather. Grandpa leaned with his two hands on his stick. The sun warmed his bent back. His head lay on his arms. He was dozing.

‘Grandpa is asleep’, thought Yonatan, ‘asleep, asleep. Grandpa is bored and I am bored… too bad… too bad Grandpa is not sitting up here among the branches. Too bad he cannot run and jump and play. Poor Grandpa… It would have been great if we could be friends!’

Yonatan laughed at himself. How could this be?! How could it be that Grandpa would be like a little boy, happy, quick, and active. It  could not be. But… too bad!

Suddenly Yonatan heard a snore. He looked and saw on the branch close to him, an owl. Her big eyes were closed. She was breathing heavily and was deep asleep.

“Hi, Mrs. Owl!” called Yonatan.

“What? Who? Why?” Asked the owl.  She was startled and opened her eyes.

“Sorry, Mrs. Owl”, said Yonatan, “Don’t you think it’s better to sleep at night and stay awake during the day? Look at the beautiful day. The sun is shining, the garden is in bloom.”

“How dare you,” called the owl and blinked, “Waking me in the middle of the day. I hardly finished half a dream. The sun is shining, all is full of light. That’s the time to sleep and snore!” So she said, and closed her eyes again.

“Please, please Mrs. Owl,” asked Yonatan, “Just a little. Wake up just for just a little while and play with me. Look, I don’t have a friend. I am alone! Who can I talk to. Who can I play with?”

The owl opened one eye, turned it around, looked at the garden and said, “With Grandpa,” and closed her eyes again.

“With Grandpa? But he is asleep, ”said Yonatan. “And besides, it is impossible. He is old. He has no energy. He cannot run. He hardly walks. How can I play with him?”

“It’s because of the rocks,” said the owl. “Go, throw away the rocks that he has on his back.”

“What? Throw away the rocks? What rocks?” asked Yonatan.

“O.K. O.K. one moment,” grumbled the owl and sighed, “They won’t let you sleep in this garden… I forgot you cannot see well.”

“I cannot see well?” wondered Yonatan.

“Yes…Yes…. Just a minute… Just a minute…” And the owl rose, flew towards Yonatan and waved her wings against his eyes like a fan.  It seemed to Yonatan as if she removed something from his eyes, as if there was some very thin curtain, thin threads which suddenly disappeared. Yonatan saw everything so well now. Yes, he saw things that he had not seen before. Suddenly everything was brighter, clearer. On the tree leaves he saw tiny little insects running around. On the small branches he saw dew drops sparkling like gems.

“Look at your Grandpa now,” said the owl in a tired voice, one of her eyes already closed.

Yonatan looked down at his sleeping grandpa.

“Yes, I swear, really, rocks!” Yonatan called with great amazement. There lay a pile of rocks on Grandpa’s back.

“Who put these heavy rocks on Grandpa’s back?” asked Yonatan.

The tired owl opened an eye and whispered: “One every year. Every year a rock is added to the pile on his back. One after another, one year after another. That’s it… Now there is a whole pile… Yes. That’s how it is… Now it’s time to drowse, it’s my time to sleep.”                                                                                                                                                                             +                &nbcp;    &nbqp;    &n`sp;  &nBsp;                         "nbsp;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

And she stood back in her first spot inhaling and exhaling and ready to sleep.

“Poor Grandpa,”, said Yonatan, “What a heavy load!”

He jumped and climbed quickly down the tree. He ran towards Grandpa, grasped one rock and threw it to the ground. Then he threw away another rock and another rock, one more and one more. Yonatan threw all the rocks from Grandpa’s back.

Grandpa sighed a big sigh as if he woke up from a deep sleep. He covered his face with his two hands, rubbed his eyes and suddenly raised his back, sat straight and removed his hands from his eyes.

Yonatan looked at Grandpa and could not believe his eyes. Who was  this? Who  was  sitting here on the bench? This  was not Grandpa! No! This  was a little boy! A nice curly-haired boy. His face  was smooth and handsome and his big eyes were looking at Yonatan, as if he  did not know him.

The boy closed his eyes, rubbed them again and looked again at Yonatan.

“Who are you?” asked the boy.

“I am Yonatan, and you…”Yonatan wanted to say: ‘and you are my Grandpa’, but he kept still. How could he say to a little boy, ‘You are my grandpa’!? He kept silent for a moment and then said: “And you… were asleep… and now you woke up.”

“Yes”, said the boy. “I was really deep asleep. I was hot, and I was tired because of work.”

“What work?” asked Yonatan.

“I helped Dad hoe around the sapling we planted. right here.”

And the boy, Little Grandpa, stood suddenly and looked around astonished.

“What’s this? We planted the sapling here… where is it?”

He looked at the big wi$e tree, lifted his eyes high, high and saw the taLl branches ald the top.

“Wait a minute…. Maybe it was.’t here?”

He looked around and around. “Where is the hole? Where is the sapling7 And the hoe?$nbsp; And the watering can Dad told me to put them in the tool shed.”.

Little Grandpa looked At Yonatan with surprised, questioning eyes.

“It’s O.K. It’s not important,” said YonatAn. “C/me now. Let’s play. Let’s climb this tall tree!”

But Little Grandpa stood there and ,ooked at the tall tree, looked and looked.<-p>

“Let’s see who gets up there first!” ca,led Yonatan and startdd climbine the tree quickly.

“Me too!” called Littlegrandpa and rushed to climb after Yonatan. Both were agile, but Yonatan arrived first, because he knew well all the branches that nne could hold to. The two of them sad on Yonatan’s branch happy and ,aughing.

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They heard the owl snoring. “Oh, here is our owl”’ said Littlegrandpa, “Such luck! I savEd her from the fire. he slept on t`e roof of the shed in the yard and did not feel the fire… When all was full of smoke, the poorbird could .ot fly… I climbed on a ladder and brought her down. She was burnt, poor thing.”

 ,/p> <` class="MsoNormal">The owl heard Littlegrandpa’s words. “Yes, I heard the story”, she said to herselb, “in my childhood I heard them telling this about my great grandmother of blessed memory.”

“Dk you want to see my kids?” asked Lhttle Grandpa.

 <p>

“Let’s run to the goat shed. I have two little kids There. My fa4her gave them tm me the d!y they were born. One is aswhite as snow, and one is black with white spots.”

‘What’s going to hapPen?’ thought Yonatan when he ran !fter liTtle Grandpa,‘What ‘s going to happen? There are no goats and no kids all over t(e garden.”

And )nde%d little Grandpa stood and looked all around, surprised.

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“Where is the goats’ shed? Where are the goats?”

Green grass covered the whole area.

“What’s This? When did they take the goats’ shed apart? Where are my kids? Maybe the shepherd tooK them to the fieldand they did not tell me. Come, Yonatan, let’s run and ask Dad.”

Little Grandpa pan to the house and Yonatan ran !fter him.

 <p>

“Dad!” called Little Grandpa and rushed into the house. “Dad, where are you, Dad?”

Suddenly he stood and looked around him with startled eyes.

“What’s that? Is this my house? ... Yes… Here are th% doors, the windows. This is the big cupboard… but who hanged this curtAin on the window, anD thiS table cloth… is it ours? And this rug, I don’t know it…”

Little Grandpa stood, looked around and could not understand. Suddenly he smiled:

“Ah! I smell a good smell of a cake. Mom is baking a cake in the oven. Do you smell it, Yonatan?”

Yonatan too smelled the good smell of a cake. His mother was baking a cake for Shabbat.

“Let’s run to  Mom in the Kitchen. Maybe she will give us a piece.”  said Little Grandpa.

“No… We shouldn’t…”  Yonatan tried to stop him, but Little Grandpa already ran to the kitchen and Yonatan followed him..

At the door Little Grandpa stopped and looked startled at Yonatan’s mom, who stood there facing the hot oven.

“Mom,” whispered Little Grandpa to himself, “Where is my mom?” He ran from one room to another all around the big house, calling: “Mom! Dad!” He went out running to the garden, running in all directions, “Dad! Mom!” he called, “Dad! Mom!”

“Wait, wait!” called Yonatan and ran after him, “Let me explain, Let me tell you.”

But Little Grandpa did not listen to him, he ran around and around in the garden, ran back to where the goats’ shed used to be, encircled the garden few times, stopped, looked, and ran again. Finally he reached the bench under the tree, covered his eyes with his two hands, lowered his head to his chest and burst out crying.

He cried and cried and then went silent.

“He fell asleep,” whispered Yonatan to himself.

“It’s not good! Not good!” said the owl from above the tree.

“Right,” said Yonatan nodding, “It’s not good. It didn’t work out.”

Yonatan bent, lifted one of the rocks he had heaved from Grandpa’s back and laid it on his back. Then he put back another rock and another rock, till a big pile of rocks reformed on Little Grandpa’s back.

Yonatan returned and climbed the tree. He sat up there, sad and regretfully, and closed his eyes.

He heard the sound of the owl, snoring and breathing. “Hm-ha, hm-ha.”  He heard the snore of Little Grandpa who was sleeping deeply too. Then he himself fell asleep.

“Yonatan! Yonatan!  Here you are, little devil! Come down. You might fall!”

Yonatan woke up and opened his eyes. There he saw Grandpa, his good old Grandpa, the usual every day Grandpa, standing down below, his stick in his hand and he was  waving it and threatening Yonatan.

“Come down, you little devil. Did you hear me?!”

Yonatan looked at his Grandpa with astonished eyes. Yes this is Grandpa… the usual Grandpa…, Grandpa of every day… but where are the rocks? There are no rocks. Where were the tears and the crying? There were  no tears. There was no crying. Actually, Grandpa was  happy and laughing.

“I am coming, I am coming!” said Yonatan. He climbed down the tree agilely, ran towards his Grandpa, hugged him and said: “Shalom Grandpa, Shalom. I love you, Grandpa”.

“Shalom! Shalom!” laughed Grandpa. “What happened to you? One would think I came back from far away and you are giving me a welcoming party … Come, son, I think I smell the good smell of a cake that your mom has baked. We should go now back into the house”

Yonatan held his Grandpa’s hand tightly, and they both went into the hnuse.