Page 6 of The Golem of Mala Lubovnya
But Gospodin Novák was still not very impressed. “Even with strength such as that, my friend, it cannot hold off dozens of armed men. Perhaps hundreds of them, if enough hearts are poisoned by the whispers. They will be armed.”
“I know,” Rabbi Eleazar responded. Then he turned to the youngest stonemason. “Jakob, fetch me your biggest chisel and your heaviest hammer.”
Jakob. The golem smiled at learning the man’s name. He wished he could say it aloud to see how it felt on his tongue and lips, how it tasted. But his master hadn’t given him leave to speak.
Jakob hesitated a moment before running toward the nearly finished house. He returned soon afterward with the tools in his hands. He tried to hand them to the rabbi, but Rabbi Eleazar shook his head.
“No, no. You are much stronger than I. Golem, kneel.”
The golem obeyed. His trousers were too short to cover his knees well, and the cobbles were very cold against his lower legs.
The rabbi nodded. “Jakob, with all your might, I want you to strike the golem’s head with your hammer.”
“I…. Sir?” Jakob looked suddenly pale and uncertain.
“Go ahead.” The rabbi waved his hands. “As hard as you can.”
For a brief moment, Jakob’s gaze locked with the golem’s. The man looked close to panic, and the golem wished he could say something to comfort him. Instead, he gave another small smile. Jakob had such beautiful eyes, very brown and deep as the starry sky.
Slowly, Jakob set the chisel onto the ground. As he walked closer to the golem, it took all the golem’s willpower not to reach out and touch him. He wanted so badly to know whether those curls were as soft as they looked, whether the muscles on the man’s chest felt as tight as his own.
Jakob grasped the hammer very firmly in both hands, briefly closed his eyes and opened them again, and swung. His aim was true. The hammer hit the golem squarely on the side of the head, making a sound very like that of the boulder the golem had split. But although the golem was rocked slightly to the side, and although he uttered a cry at the pain, his head was not damaged.
Dropping the hammer noisily onto the street, Jakob turned to Rabbi Eleazar. “That blow would have shattered stone.”
The rabbi nodded. And for the first time, Gospodin Novák appeared truly shaken. But perhaps the rabbi thought his friend needed more convincing. “Golem, stand. Jakob, drive the chisel into the golem’s chest. As hard as you can.”
As the golem rose to his feet, Jakob backed away. “But…. Rabbi. The hammer hurt him.”
“You won’t damage him.”
Jakob shook his head. “But he feels pain.”
“He is not a person, son. Please. It is important that the duke realize what a mistake it would be to rise against us.”
Jakob’s movements were even slower this time, but he picked up the chisel and again approached the golem. He didn’t raise the tool right away, though. He was a tall man, the golem now realized, although still at least a foot shorter than the golem himself. So Jakob had to tilt his head back to look up into the golem’s face. The golem smiled at him again and gave him the tiniest of nods, encouraging him to listen to the rabbi. The chisel would hurt, but it was the golem’s job to protect the people.
“I’m sorry,” Jakob whispered so quietly that surely nobody but the golem heard him.
At the kindness of those words and the sadness in Jakob’s eyes, something warm swelled within the golem. It was as if something within him was singing in joy and gratitude, because for a moment at least, Jakob hadcaredwhat the golem felt. When Jakob lifted the toothed chisel and jammed it into the golem’s chest, the blade bit deep and pain bloomed, but the golem hardly noticed.
Jakob pulled the chisel away and dropped it next to the hammer. The wound in the golem’s chest sealed immediately, leaving no scar.
“So you see, Gospodin Novák?” Rabbi Eleazar said.
“I see. And I will most certainly tell the duke. But Eleazar, he is a stubborn man and his debts are very large. I do not know if he will be reasonable.”
“Then I will pray that his heart is softened and his mind sees what is best.”
Gospodin Novák nodded and made a slight bow to the rabbi, who nodded back. Then Novák climbed into his carriage. His driver hupped at the horses, which trotted away through the parting crowd.
Voices erupted. Nobody quite dared to approach the golem—nobody but Jakob, who remained standing quite close by. The others rushed the rabbi, asking him questions, congratulating him, arguing with each other. After an existence spent almost entirely alone, the golem felt overwhelmed. He might have run away—back into the shul and up to the attic, shaming himself and his master—but Jakob was still very near.
“You were watching me,” Jakob whispered. “I saw… I thought I saw, up in that window….”
His master was preoccupied, so the golem hazarded speech. “I’m sorry,” he whispered back.
“You can talk!”
