Chapter 42 Chapter Four

She met Saul a week after her transfer to Nattenheiser; three years later he proposed to her, and she said yes.At first she didn't feel much for the diminutive graduate student.Back then she was still wearing Web fashion, studying post-destructionist music theory, reading Obituaries and Nothingness and the most avant-garde magazines from Revival Arrow and Whale Center, playing old-fashioned, pretending to be bored with life, using Rebellious words.At the honor student party hosted by Director Moore, when the small but sincere history student sprinkled mixed fruit on her, these appearances did not make him stay away.And when people heard Saul Winterberg's Barna accent, saw the clothes he bought from Clover's Squire's shop, and the copy of Detresco's "Lonely with a Thousand Faces" that he had inadvertently tucked under his arm when he came, they immediately It will dispel the strange feeling from the Jewish family inheritance that was detected from him when they first met.

Saul fell in love with her at first sight.He stared at the girl with a bright smile and a rosy complexion, completely oblivious to the expensive clothes and fashionable Manchurian-style long nails, which only accentuated her personality, and her charm radiated like a lighthouse. Brighten up this lonely late student.Sol hadn't realized he was alone until he met Sarai, but since the first time he shook hands with her and spilled fruit salad on her front, he knew that if he didn't marry her, his life would be ruined. Life will never be complete. A week after the announcement of Saul's academy appointment, they were married.They chose to travel to Maui for their honeymoon, which was his first trip to an alien planet through teleportation. During the three-week trip, they rented a mobile island and drove it alone among the wonders of the Equatorial Islands.Sol will never forget those sunny and windy days in his mind, and some intimate images of the two of them that he will always cherish, like the stars shining in the center of Sarai's head when he came ashore after a nude swim at night, The carcass is draped in diamonds and gold in the phosphorescent wake of the isle.

They had wanted a child from the day they got married, but it took five years to conceive naturally. Sol remembered how he held Sarai to comfort her when she curled up in pain.Dystocia.Finally, Rachel?Sarah?Winterberg was miraculously born at 2:01 a.m. at the Clover County Medical Center. The birth of a baby intruded into Saul's otherwise solitary life like a serious academic subject, and into Salai's career like a Banadata music review, but neither of them minded.As a new parent, life is always a mixture of exhaustion and joy.In the middle of the night, before nursing time, Sol would sneak into the nursery, check on Rachel, and stand there staring at the baby for a long time.Many times he would meet Sarai, who was already there, and they would link arms, watching the baby sleep amazingly on his stomach, bottom out, head buried in the soft cushion at the head of the crib.

’ Rachel is one of the few children who look cuter by not trying to be cute in order to please others; by the time she was less than two standard years old, she was already endearing in appearance and personality—she inherited His mother's light brown hair, rosy cheeks, and open smile, and his father's large brown eyes.Friends said the boy combined the best of Sarah's sensitivity with the best of Sol's intelligence.A friend, the child psychologist at the college, once commented that at the age of five Rachel was already showing the valuable qualities of a true gifted teenager: clarity, intellectual curiosity, empathy for others, enthusiasm, and a strong sense of humor. sense of justice.

One day, Saul was in his office studying some ancient documents from the Old Lands when he came to Beatrice vs. Dante?Achilleri's attention was drawn to an article written by a critic of the 20th or 21st century: She (Beatrice) herself is still real to him, still the embodiment of all things and beauty.Her nature became his landmark—Melville would call it the Greenwich Standard, with a sublime grandeur. . . . Saul paused to look up the definition of Greenwich Mean, then read on.The critic attached a personal review: I am convinced that most of us have had children, spouses, or friends like Beatrice, whose innate kindness and wisdom made us feel ashamed of lying when we lied.

Sol turned off the monitor and stared at the black geometric pattern of branches above the public field. Rachel is not perfect.At the age of five, she carefully cut the hair of five favorite dolls and cut her own hair shorter than theirs.By the age of seven, she was so convinced that the migrant workers in the run-down houses on the south side of town lacked nutritious food that she emptied the pantry, freezer, refrigerator, and food synthesizer to convince three Accompanied by her friends, they distributed the whole family's one-month ration, worth several hundred marks. At ten, Rachel couldn't stand Stubby?At the instigation of Pokowitz, an attempt was made to climb to the top of Clover's oldest elm.When she climbed forty meters and was only five meters away from reaching the top of the tree, a branch broke and she slid down more than ten meters before falling heavily to the ground.Saul was discussing the morality of the era of Earth's first nuclear disarmament and was busy checking the comlog before leaving the students and running the twelve blocks to the medical center without saying hello.

Rachel broke her left leg and two ribs, a punctured lung and a fractured jaw.She was floating in the restorative nutrient solution when Sol burst through the door, looking strainedly over her mother's shoulder, smiling slightly, opening her stitched jaw and saying, "Dad, I'm only fifteen feet from the top of the tree." feet. Probably closer. Next time I'll make it." Rachel graduated from high school with the honor of being recognized by teachers, and there are five planets in Union College and three universities willing to provide scholarships, including Harvard University in Xindi.She chose Naito Hessel.

Saul was not surprised that his daughter had chosen archeology as a major.One of the fondest memories of my beloved daughter are those long afternoons when she was two years old, digging in the loam under the front porch, oblivious to the presence of spiders and bone debris, bursting into the house to show off what she had unearthed. Every piece of plastic and rusty Finny, wondering where it came from and what the people who left it were like. Rachel earned her bachelor's degree at nineteen standard, went to work on her grandmother's farm that summer, and teleported away in the fall.She was studying at Imperial University on Liberty Island. After twenty-eight months local time, she returned home, and the colors instantly flowed back to the world of Saul and Sarai.

For two full weeks, their daughter—grown, self-aware, and in some ways more reassuring than those twice her age—had recuperated and enjoyed life at home.One evening, as she strolled the campus after sunset, she asked her father some details about his bloodline. "Dad, do you still think you're a Jew?" Surprised by this question, Sol stretched out his hand to stroke his thinning hair. "Jewish? Well, I suppose so. But the word has lost its original meaning." "So am I Jewish?" Rachel asked.Her cheeks glowed slightly in the thin twilight. "You can be if you want to," Thor said, "and the Old Land isn't there anyway, and it doesn't mean much anymore."

"If I were a boy, would you circumcise me?" Sol laughed, amused and a little embarrassed by the question. "I mean it," Rachel said. Saul straightened his glasses. "I suppose so, son. I never thought about it." "Have you ever been to the Barsad Synagogue?" "I haven't been there since my bar mitzvah," Saul said, recalling that fifty years ago, his father borrowed Uncle Richard's light-masted boat to take the family to the capital for the ceremony. "Dad, why do Jews feel that those things...are not as important as they were before the exile?"

Thor opened his arms—his strong hands, not those of a scholar, but those of a mason. "What a good question, Rachel. Probably because too many dreams have been shattered. Israel no longer exists. The new temple has existed for too short a time, and it is nowhere near as old as the previous two. God destroyed the earth again in the previous way , thus breaking his promise. And this left the Jewish people scattered...for ever.” "But the Jews in some places still retain their national and religious characteristics." His daughter insisted. "Oh, that's true. In isolated areas of Hebron and Central Square, you can even find whole religious communities... Hasidic, Orthodox, Hasmonean, just names... ...they've actually all...been devoid of religious significance and garnished...just for the interest of tourists." "Like a theme park?"