LARA VAPNYAR

THERE ARE JEWS
IN my HOUSE

0

n the night when Raya was supposed

Jews." Her hands were getting cold; she shook the

to leave with the peasant, she

water off the doormat and carried it back to the

appeared at Galina's door at about 3

hall. "Raya may be dead in a few days," she

a.m. She stood in the doorway in her boots caked

thought. Both Raya and Leeza. Galina sat down,

with country mud, soaked with sweat under her

making the chair screech. Tanya shifted in her

winter coat and shivering. She said that they had

sleep, and Galina rose to pull up her blanket.

come to the road crossing as had been agreed and

They will be dead unless they come here. Galina's

had waited there until two, but the peasant didn't

heart was pounding, but her mind suddenly

come. Galina tried hard to hide her initial happy

became very clear. Everybody they knew thought

reaction on seeing Raya again. She could barely

that Raya was going to leave with the peasant. Just

Lara Vapnyar

listen to Raya's words; "I saw Russian troops.

a few families remained on their street since the

emigrated from

They were running. Running!" They were jump-.

evacuation, and there was very little chance that

ing over the fences, she said; most of them didn't

Russia to the

somebody had seen Raya returning tonight. If

even have their guns or rifles. They were trying to

Raya and Leeza stayed in Galina's back room and

United States

tear their uniforms off as they ran. "This is the

never left her apartment, nobody would ever see

end," Raya said. "We're going to die." There was

them. Tanya was very smart for her age; Galina

a weird, agitated expression on her face. She seemed

knew that she wouldn't talk. The people who

Her stories have

to be waiting for something. Her eyelids were

used to drop by Galina's place before the war—

appeared in

twitching, and she was rubbing them with the back

mostly Sergey's friends—were all gone. Nobody

of her hand. "Calm down. This is not the end,"

could inform on them to the Germans. And if the

Galina said. They stood in silence for a few minutes.

Germans decided to look for Jews in houses, they

and Open City.

There were dabs of mud on Galina's spotless

would hardly make it to Galina's remote part of

There are Jews in

doormat after Raya left. Galina picked it up and

the town. There still was danger, of course. Great

went to the sink to wash it.

danger. But the thought of the danger didn't

in 1994.

The New Yorker

My House, her

"The Germans will be in town soon, very

first collection of

soon," Galina thought as thin streams of brown

stories, will be out

in December.

10

dampen Galina's ardor; on the contrary, it made

her all the more enthusiastic.

water ran into the sink off the dormat. "They may

Galina didn't remember ever being as excited

even come today. If you believe the refugees, it

as she was, running to Raya's place. They had to

will be a matter of days before they'll round up the

make it to her place before dawn. "Grab your

NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CULTURE