Henne Fire

Henne Fire Summary | Detailed Summary

"HenneThis is Fire" tells the story of a woman who lived in a small village in Russia. It is told from the point of view of a man who also lived in the village. Henne was an evil woman with a fiery, shrewish nature. She had dark features, like a gypsy, and was extremely thin. People who had seen her bathing in the river knew she was all skin and bones.

Henne acted like an insane woman. She took offense at anything anyone would say. She would smash dishes, scream, shake her fists, fall into convulsions, spit curses and show all kinds of vile behavior. She suspected that the entire town was out to get her for one reason or another.

She was married to a poor, hard-working sieve-maker, and they managed to have four daughters, all of whom left home as soon as they were old enough. One daughter died of scarlet fever, and one left for America, but the other two remained in the country. One became a servant in a larger nearby town, Lublin, and the other married an old man, because anything was better than living with their mother. Henne's husband finally gave up and left her after 20 years of marriage.

When Henne heard that he had left the village, she had an epileptic fit in the gutter and would not be helped. Her kerchief was knocked off, and the villagers discovered she had not been shaving her head. She cursed her husband, wishing him small pox and gangrene.

She became even worse to deal with when her husband had gone. She never stopped cursing and blaspheming against God, even in the synagogue while the other women tried to pray. She set up a booth in the market to sell fish, but made it impossible for anyone to buy anything without being insulted. When she did her laundry every few weeks, she tore down other people's clotheslines and quarreled with everyone about everything. There was no way to deal with Henne, in speech or in silence, without insulting her.

Occasionally, her two daughters would come to visit from Lublin. There would be a kiss, an embrace and a period of silence, but Henne would soon chase them away, screaming after them. She suspected that they knew where their father was, but when they took holy oaths swearing they had no idea, she accused them of lying. Eventually, the daughters began avoiding her, so Henne had the village teacher write letters to them, disowning them.

A Jewish custom requires that no one should be left to die of neglect. Following this custom, the villagers left food on her doorstep, not wanting to step foot inside her house, but Henne just threw it all into the garbage ditch. Then, because the adults were ignoring her, she picked fights with the children, accusing them of stealing or anything else she could imagine. She denounced the entire town for one thing or another in the middle of the marketplace and then to the police. The Russian officials finally began to think that she might cause trouble, so they had her sent to the asylum in Lublin. However, she was back in the village in fewer than six months.

When Henne returned, she discovered that another family had moved into her house, so she drove them out into the cold and announced the next morning that she had been robbed. She marched from house to house, demanding all the possessions that had been taken from her, humiliating everyone in the process. She was no longer allowed in the women's synagogue, and everyone ran away when she went to the well for water.

She even cursed the dead when a hearse drove by her house. The lower-class mourners beat her, but she seemed to glory in running around, blaming each of her bruises on this or that person. The rabbi would not allow her in his study anymore. She tried her curses and accusations on the Gentiles, and they only laughed at her.

One night, Henne's house caught fire. True to their customs, the villagers came to help and were able to put out the fire in time to save the house, though the fire seemed to have a life of its own. However, in the morning, parts of the house or furniture were still bursting into flame for no reason. Her neighbors wanted Henne out of their alley, fearing for their own families and possessions. She went to the rabbi to complain and curse and blame them, but as she stood before him, her house went up in flames and burned to the ground, leaving only the chimney. This is when the villagers began referring to her as "Henne Fire," rather than "Black Henne."

Without a roof over her head, she tried to go to the poor house, but they would not let her in. They feared she would set the poorhouse on fire, and then they would all be without a home. The rabbi allowed her to stay in his Sukkoth booth over the winter. His son installed a tin stove for warmth, and Henne became very quiet all through the winter, doing nothing but huddling in the featherbed.

One day, after spring had started to melt ice and snow, the booth burst into flame. Henne claimed that a fiery hand had reached down from the ceiling. The rabbi invited her to stay in his house afterward, and everyone prepared to leave in case of fire. Henne almost apologized. The community elders called a meeting. Some people wanted Henne to move to another village, but she appeared and told them she would rather be buried alive than be sent away from her birthplace. Everyone was shocked at her words after her long silence. A plumber offered to build her a brick house on the lot she already owned, free of the labor costs.

The house was built in a short amount of time, with the help and donations of everyone in the village. By Passover, Henne had a house that could not burn down. Her food cupboard had even been stocked with everything she would need for Passover from the poor fund. However, when a few people checked in on her, she was simply munching on a carrot instead of holding Seder, the traditional Passover meal.

Henne continued her quiet way of life a while longer. Then a letter and some money came from her daughter in America. She had married a man who had become wealthy, so she was offering to pay for passage to America if Henne would make peace with her husband. Once the village learned that Henne had money and might be leaving soon, everything changed. An agent offered her special investment deals. A messenger offered to go in search of her husband, but she told him to bring back his corpse or papers of divorce. She took up heavy drinking, which was unheard-of and blasphemous behavior for a Jewish woman. She kept herself roaring drunk, played mean tricks, like throwing coins out the window and then pouring slop on the heads of those who tried picking them up. She also strolled through the marketplace in nothing but her underwear. Everyone said she would drink herself to death.

After this had gone on for some time, no one saw Henne for several days. Her neighbors had to break the lock on her door to check on her. They discovered that she had somehow been burned to a crisp, seated in a chair, and there was hardly a mark on the chair's fabric. It was a mystery. Everyone had his or her theory, but no one was able to find out what had really happened to her.

Henne's remains were put in a sack and buried in the cemetery. The gravedigger said the Jewish prayer for the dead. The village coachman bought the brick house from Henne's daughters and turned it into a stable, but a spirit remained. His horses would sweat in the night and catch cold, which was deadly, and straw caught on fire for no reason. A neighbor who had argued with Henne had her sheets torn from the clothesline, and the washtub was overturned. Henne's ghost persisted with mischief in the village.