Jump and Other Stories

In an idyllic village, people go about their lives. Chickens, ducks, and pigs patrol their pens. An old woman shells peas. A Jewish woman prepares her son for a long journey. Thirteen now, he is considered a man. His family secures him passage on a ship to take him to a foreign land. There, he can start a watch-making business. The boy boards the ship, never to be seen by his family again. The ship is filled with travelers from all over the world. The boy drinks wine with the others. He behaves politely, but another passenger observes the boy’s subdued suspicion of the group: “I caught him looking over us, one by one, trying to read the lives we came from, uncertain, from unfamiliar signs, whether to envy, to regard with cynicism, or to be amused” (60). They arrive at a hunting lodge filled with boisterous English tourists. A guide cautions the new arrivals to be wary of Gypsies, who he claims only steal and have children to get government assistance.

The boy takes a train that cuts through vineyards, mountains, and deserts. He finds his way to a relative, but the man is too poor to provide for the boy. Out of other options, the boy earns money selling watches to White and Black miners and performing odd jobs for them. Time passes. The boy becomes a man. He earns enough money to set up a shop and eventually marries an English woman. They have children together, but the man does not pass down his Jewish traditions to them, worshipping alone instead. During marital bouts, his wife judges the Jewish man’s background, seeing his family as dirty and unkempt. The man is despondent when his wife speaks to him so lowly—as if he were Black, he thinks.

One afternoon, the man’s daughter hides in a field and watches a group of men hunt pheasants. The birds attempt to flee. Some are shot and killed, and one of the dead birds strikes the girl’s shoulder as it falls to its death. She remembers sitting on her father’s lap in his shop and hearing him berate his Black employee: “I saw there was someone my father had made afraid of him. A child understands fear, and the hurt and hate it brings” (66). The girl knows nothing of her father’s home, and she senses the hunters will spread across the world.

An English family living in South Africa takes in a young man, an immigrant from an undisclosed country. The young man goes by Rad. Rad is tidy and polite and doesn’t flirt with the family’s 17-year-old daughter, Vera. One night, Vera parties with her friends and gets very drunk, possibly from a laced beer. She makes it home safely but goes to the bathroom and vomits. Rad consoles her, soothing her with a wet towel. They develop a friendship. Vera wonders if Rad left his home country because of political unrest. Rad is vague and doesn’t answer directly. Vera can’t imagine leaving her home, her family, and her friends. She imagines Rad wants to go back, but he firmly states he doesn’t want to, not yet: “The authority of his mood over hers, that had been established in the kitchen that time, was there” (75).

Rad and Vera grow closer. They have picnics and go to movies, and he cooks her family a nice meal. While on a walk in the countryside, Rad and Vera have sex, their first moment of physical intimacy. Vera’s parents question their relationship, believing Rad will leave for his home country when he’s done with their daughter. Vera continues to see Rad and becomes pregnant. She worries Rad will leave her and considers having an abortion. Rad, however, wants Vera to have the baby. He suggests they marry; he still wants her: “He was gazing at her intensely, wandering over the sight of her.—Because I’ve chosen you.—” (82). Vera is overcome with joy. Her parents are displeased but try to put their doubts aside in the interest of their future grandchild.

Rad insists that Vera fly to his home country to meet his family. Vera is delighted by the opportunity to travel. Her family throws her a going-away party, and Rad buys gifts for Vera to take to his family. At the airport, they embrace, although Vera feels so much of Rad is still a mystery to her. He gives her a final gift: a small box he claims has toys for his nephew. Vera waves goodbye as she boards the plane. Rad doesn’t wave back but only looks on. In the air, the plane explodes, killing everyone. An investigation ensues, but the culprit isn’t found. Then, another plane explodes. A terrorist group claims responsibility. They seek revenge for previous injustices done to their people. Rad is one of the members. His name is one of his many aliases. All along, he had chosen Vera to be sacrificed for his group’s radical cause.

Mrs. Hattie Telford, a White activist and lecturer, walks to her car after attending a conference on education and social justice. Four young Black men stand nearby. Hattie doesn’t fear them; they’re in a nice area, not the city. The group’s leader, Dumile, asks for a ride into the city and refers to Hattie as comrade. She obliges and learns the young men are members of a Youth Congress and attended the same conference. The car ride is mostly silent. Hattie offers to have the group over for dinner before taking them to the city, and they agree. They enter the house through the kitchen. Hattie is aware of the racial implications of not taking the Black men through the front door but rationalizes that she herself always enters the house through the kitchen.

Hattie invites the young men to eat in her well-decorated dining room. Before eating, the men converse with Hattie’s Black maid. Hattie feels embarrassed that the men saw she has a Black maid. Most of them don’t speak English, and conversation is minimal during dinner. Hattie worries she isn’t offering them enough to eat and finds fruit to give them. The young men finish their meal, noticeably out of place in Hattie’s dining room: “They are stacking their plates and cups, not knowing what they are expected to do with them in this room which is a room where apparently people only eat, do not cook, do not sleep” (95).

Hattie learns Dumile is the chairman of their Youth Congress. Two years ago, he was expelled from high school for his political activism. He hopes to finish his coursework so he can go to college. Silence falls over the group again. Hattie realizes the men are destined to become fighters, revolutionaries. Someday, they will take arms and plant mines to fight against the exploitation and segregation their families faced. Hattie intuits Dumile will never go to college. Afraid of the silence now, Hattie mentions one of the expensive paintings in her dining room. Dumile doesn’t respond. No one does. Hattie’s decorations mean nothing to them. The food she offered is the only thing of value to their group.