Birds Of
A Feather

NADINE BONNER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

he beating of wings,
feathers tickling his
nostrils, the acrid
odor of turkey drop-
pings. He threw out
his arm to push them
away...
"Avner, Avner, what's the
matter with you?"
Shira cupped a palm over
the cheek where Avner's
hand had landed.
"Oh, babe, I'm so sorry. It
wasn't you, it was the
turkeys."
He slipped his arm around
her, and she shivered.
"It's always the turkeys,
Avner. You have to convince
Micki to give you another
job. You can't go on this way.
"Look." She pointed
toward the window where
the pitch of night was
melting into gray.
"It's almost five. Time to
get up and feed them."
"Augh." Avner buried his
face in Shira's hair. It was
curly and coarse and tickled
his nose just as the feathers
did. But he loved Shira's
hair, just as much as he
hated the turkeys.
Avner sometimes laughed
at the trick life had played
on him. He'd come to Israel
seeking adventure and ex-
citement. In a romantic
gesture, he'd joined the army
and had found only boredom
and drudgery. His spotty

Nadine Bonner is a freelance

writer in Milwaukee.

Hebrew had kept him out of
the crack units, and by the
time he spoke the language,
he was sick of greasy
shnitzel and sullen Arab
teen-agers.
Still, the army took pity
on single soldiers whose
parents lived in foreign
lands. They found Kfar
Dena in the lush Beit Shean
Valley and offered it to him
as a second home.
The kibbutzniks had
welcomed him, fed him,
laundered his clothes.
They'd given him an
adopted family to fuss over
him and write encouraging
letters in fractured English
to his worried parents.
During his three years in
service, Kfar Dena had
become an oasis from his
base in dusty Gaza. He fled
there whenever he had
leave. He celebrated the
holidays there and never
knew loneliness.
It had taken him two
years to meet Shira. She
was a daughter of the kib-
butz, and like him, she was
serving in the army. They
had bumped into each other
while hitching a ride from
the nearby town, racing to
get back before the Sabbath
began and the traffic
vanished.
Shira had her own room in
the singles quarters, but
everyone knew she spent
most nights with Avner.
Everyone knew everything

Avner's dreams lay beyond the turkeys of Kfar Dena.

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