90
" Golems don’t age, we simply continue as we are unless we’re destroyed.”
“And all golems are like this?”
“I think so. I can’t be certain. I’ve never met another golem.”
“What, none?”
“I might be the only one,” she said.
Clearly astonished, the Jinni said nothing. They continued on together, walking the perimeter of the park.
“And how old are you?” the Golem said, to break the silence.
“A few hundred years,” he said. “Unless some mishap ends me, I’ll live another five or six hundred.”
“Then you’re also young for your kind.”
“Not as young as some.”
She frowned. “You hold my age against me?”
“No, it explains much. Your timidity, for instance.”
At that, she bristled. “I make no apologies for being cautious. I have to be. As do you.”
“But there’s caution, and then there is overcaution. Look at us. Walking at night in a park, far from home. And yet the moon doesn’t fall from the heavens, and the ground refuses to tremble.”
“Just because nothing has happened yet doesn’t mean that nothing will happen.”
He smiled. “True. Perhaps I’ll be surprised. And then you can declare that you were right all along.”
“It would be small comfort.”
“Are you always this humorless?”
“Yes. Are you always this exasperating?”
He chuckled. “You should meet Arbeely. You two would get along wonderfully. "
― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)
92
" You have such amazing abilities. Doesn’t it gall you to spend your days baking loaves of bread?”
“Should it? Is baking bread less worthy than other work?”
“No, but I wouldn’t call it suited to your talents.”
“I’m very good at it,” she said.
“Chava, I’ve no doubt you’re the best baker in the city. But you can do so much more! Why spend all day making bread when you can lift more than a man’s weight, and walk along the bottom of a river?”
“And how would I use these abilities without calling attention to myself? Would you have me at a construction pit, hauling blocks of stone? Or should I license myself as a tugboat?”
“All right, you have a point. But what about seeing other’s fears and desires? That’s a more subtle talent, and might be worth a lot of money.”
“Never,” she said flatly. “I would never take advantage like that.”
“Why not? You’d make an excellent fortune-teller, or even a confidence-woman. I know a dozen shops on the Bowery that would—”
“Absolutely not!” Only then did she see the smile hidden at the corner of his mouth. “You’re teasing me,” she said.
“Of course I’m teasing. You’d make a terrible confidence-woman. You’d warn off all the marks.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. Besides, I like my job. It suits me. "
― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)
99
" And I suppose I should follow your example, and take all the pleasures I can!”
“Why not, when there’s no harm done?”
“By which you mean that you aren’t harmed, and that’s what matters!” She rounded on him, full of ire. “You go here and there leaving God knows what in your wake, and then you think less of them for worrying about the consequences. Meanwhile, I have to hear every I wish I hadn’t and what’ll I do now! It’s selfish and careless, and inexcusable!”
Her startling anger seemed to have run its course. Frowning, she turned away in stony silence.
After a moment he said, “Chava, have I done something I don’t know about? Did I harm someone?”
“Not as far as I know,” she muttered. “But your life affects others, and you don’t seem to realize it. "
― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)