Chapter 11, Neveh Shalom
1961 "The taktok , the t aktok is here! The taktok is here!" Avi rushed in yelling, "Come. Let's play outside and see the Taktok ." Avi was just three years old, he didn't speak very well. Taktok is a tractor in Avi's language. "Look what you did!" Tata Beya yelled at him in Arabic. (Remember? She spoke only Arabic.) "You brought all the dirt in the house. You always do that! You rush in, and you forget to wipe your feet." Avi looked at her very seriously and listened patiently ‘til she finished. Then he yelled back, "Blah, blah, blah, blah!" and ran outside. You see, Avi does not speak or understand Arabic. Tata Beya was staying with us for the summer. We just moved from the shack in Havatzelet to this bigger place in a Yemenite neighborhood called “Neveh Shalom” - the peace pasture. I say Yemenite because most of the residents of that neighborhood came from Yemen. "The rent is a little higher," Dad said, ...