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A short story by Isaac Loeb Peretz |
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The Pike |
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Title: The Pike Author: Isaac Loeb Peretz [More Titles by Peretz] THE PIKE [115] [Footnote 115: This is an allegory referring to certain aspects of Zionism.]
Two large pike are lying in a great, green glass bowl filled with water, and a little further off, in one of blackened earthenware, two or three small carp. These are no sea-folk, but they come out of a fairly wide river, and they are straightened for room in the bowls. The poor little carp, in the one of black glaze, have been aware of its confines for some time past. They have lain for a good hour by the clock, wondering what sort of a prison this may be. And there is plenty of leisure for thinking. It may be long before the cook comes home from market with good things for the feast-day long enough for even a carp to have an idea. But the pike in the glass bowl have not taken in the situation yet. Time after time they swim out strongly and bang their heads against the hard glass. Pike have iron heads but dull wits. The two captive heroes have received each a hundred knocks from every part of the bowl, but they have not yet realized that all is closed to them. They feel the walls, but the weak pike-eyes do not see them. The glass is green--it is just like river water--and yet there is no getting out. "It is witchcraft!" says one pike to the other. The other agrees with him. "To-morrow there is an auction. The other bidders have bewitched us." "Some crayfish or frog has done this." * * * * * It is only a short time since the net drew them out of the water. When they got into the air they had fainted, to recover consciousness inside a barrel of which the lid had been hammered down. "How the days are drawing in!" they had observed both at once. There was very little room in the barrel, scarcely sufficient to turn in, and hardly water enough for anyone to breathe. What with having fainted before, and now this difficulty in breathing, they had fallen into a doze, and had dreamt of all sorts of things, of the fair, and even of the opera and the ballet. But the dream-angel never showed them any kind of barrel. They heard nothing, not even the opening of the barrel and the hubbub of the market. Neither perceived they the trembling of the scales in which they oscillated whilst the cook haggled over them with the fish-wife--or remarked the click-clack of the pointer that spoke their doom. They slept still more soundly in the cook's basket, starting into life again only in the bowl, beneath the rush of cold water. And now, after doing unwilling penance for an hour against the glass, they have only just hit upon witchcraft. "What are we to do?" says one to the other. The carp know themselves to be in prison. They, too, have had experience of a long night, and awoke in a bowl. "Someone," say they, "had palmed off counterfeit bank-notes on us!" It will be proved, they are sure, if only one could get hold of someone who will take the matter up properly. They give a little leap into the air, catch sight of the pike, and fall back more dead than alive. "They are going to eat us!" they say, trembling. Not until they realize that the pike are likewise in prison do they feel somewhat reassured. "They, they certainly have been passing counterfeit notes, too!" says one carp to the other. "Yes, and therein lies our salvation. They will not keep silence, and, with God's help, we shall all be set free together." "And they will see us, and, with God's help, will eat us up!" And the carp nestle closer against the bowl. They can just see a tub full of onions on the kitchen floor. "If we signed the contract, we might receive a golden order," observes one of the pike. "Please God, we shall be decorated yet," answers the other. "It is a case of witchcraft, but--" "But what?" "There is one thing." "Well?" "It sounds almost absurd--but--I wanted to tell you--we ought to pray," he stammers, "it is the best thing against sorcery!" "To pray? Perhaps so!!" Whereupon the two pike discover that it is years since they prayed last. They cannot remember a word. "Ashrè,"[116] begins one.
"Oh, I want to pray!" moans the first. "So do I!" chimes in the second, "for when all is said and done, we are but fish!" A door opens in the wall, a little way, and two heads are seen in the aperture--a tipsy-looking man's head, and a woman's with curl papers. "Ah," exclaims the man's head, joyously, "this is something like! Pike--carp--and all the other good things." "I should hope so! And I have sent for meat besides." "My knowing little wife," chuckles the man's head. "There, there, that will do." And the heads disappear. "Did you hear?" says a pike, "there are carp, too." "They have the best of it." "How is that?" "To begin with, they have made no contracts, they are free agents. Secondly, they can leap." "If they would only give a good leap, they would find themselves back in the river." "Quite true." "And something good might come of it for us. Wait a bit--let's try! Carp!" The carp have suddenly swum to the surface of the water, and are poking their noses over the edge of the bowl. The pike, face to face with the carp: "Bad luck, brothers?" he exclaimed. "Bad," answer the carp. "Bitter?" "Bitter!" "Very little water?" "Oh, very little!" "And it smells?" "Ugh!" "Not fit to live in?" "Not fit!" "We must get home, back to the river!" "We--must!" "We have forgotten what it was like in the river." "Forgotten!" "A sin!" "A mortal sin!" "Let us beat our head against the wall and do penance." The carp flatten their bellies against the bowl. The pike run their head against the glass till it rings again. "One should leap away home!" continues the pike. "One should leap!" "Well--leap!" The pike commands, and the carp are out of the bowl and on the floor--lying there more dead than alive. "I never knew," says the second pike, "that you were such an orator--your lips drop honey!" The carp meanwhile are moaning. "Hurry up!" orders the pike. The carp give another little spring. "Oh," they moan, "we do not see any river--and our bones are breaking--and we cannot breathe." "On with you--make an effort! It is not much further--give a jump!" But the carp are past hearing. The carp lie dying on the floor, and the pike are having a dispute. Both opine that any proper leap would carry one into the river, but one says that other fish are wanted, not stupid carp, who can only leap in the water, who cannot exist for an hour without food, and that what are wanted are--electric fish! And the other says: "No, carp--only, lots and lots of carp. If one hundred thousand carp were to leap, one would certainly fall into the river, and if one fell in, why, then--ha, ha!" [The end] GO TO TOP OF SCREEN |