Serializing a new novel.
Chapter 22: Brooklyn, May 2002 — Part 1
Fay and Eli are back in New York City, after months and
months in the Amazon jungle. Someone is clearly out to kill
them, and they are hiding — but they do not know from
whom.
*
"What have you managed to find out?" said Eli to David who
sat opposite him at the simple kitchen table of the
apartment. They had been living in Eli's father's old
apartment for a month.
They had limited their contacts to the outside world with a
call to Maurice, their lawyer, from the public phone box.
They were suspicious of everyone, even Maurice. Who else had
known the precise moment they would step into their
apartment?
However, they both trusted David. Eli had always been
astounded that David, by far the cleverest boy in his class
at school, had remained in the old neighborhood running his
father's clothing store. He had never gone to university. He
had never expanded the business. He had continued to run the
store and mind his business and go to shul, as if
America and all her opportunities for advancement were not
there. Now Eli was more than grateful that his old friend was
there, his one link to the outside world.
Yet through all the years, they had kept in contact. It was
David to whom Eli had gone when he found he could not face
breaking up his parent's apartment, sending off the simple
furniture and books and kitchenware so that the apartment was
bare, empty of all their possessions. It was David who had
suggested he continue paying the rent and allow it to be used
by those in need. It was David who had supplied them with
clothing and taken them to the apartment and then listened
carefully to all they had told him, without interrupting.
David had taken Eli to shul and casually introduced
him as Eli Levy. Everyone had accepted him as a poor Jew in
trouble, making use of the apartment of old Mr. Barchevsky,
as so many others had done. They tactfully refrained from
asking any questions.
Eli and Fay once again took up the old life they had once
led. They appreciated it in a way that was quite new to them.
In the old days, as newlyweds when they had taken everything
for granted, they had not noticed things.
Now, each time they bought a bottle of kosher wine, they felt
a deep thankfulness. They marveled at the beauty of the
twisted Havdoloh candle. They treated every book
brought to them, whether siddur, or machzor, or
Chumash, with awe. What would they not have given for
just one such book in those long months in the jungle.
*
Each time David visited them he asked questions about their
ordeal. Today was no different. "When did you hire that new
assistant, Fred Smith? When did you first receive an offer
for a merger with the other large supermarket chain? Why did
you reject it?
"You spoke to me about two men going to Maurice and offering
him a piece of paper with your signature for an agreement of
the merger. You said to me that Maurice told you about this
the first time he spoke to you, while you were still in
Brazil. What was the date on the agreement for the takeover
that was presented to Maurice? Why didn't he accept it? Why
wasn't this refusal challenged in a law court? Had anything
ever appeared in the papers?"
It was late at night when David left them. He said, "In my
shop we sell to poor people. They clean offices. They work as
waiters. They look after other people's children. People
forget their presence. They talk in front of them as if they
didn't exist. When they buy from me they like to know they
are people, not robots just there to serve others. They talk
all the time — of what they do, and what people say,
and how they feel. Usually I just listen. Now I am going to
ask some questions.
"Meanwhile, you must be patient. It is clear that there are
those who want to harm you. Stay here in safety until matters
become clear."
David started towards the door. Then he turned back. He had
noticed that Eli and Fay were observing the traditions they
had discarded. Perhaps it was time to once again take up old
links, from the days when Eli had been his chavrusa.
"How about learning some Torah each day with me, like
when we were kids?" he said.
Eli readily agreed. Now, when David came each day after work,
Eli learned with David, but not one word about the present
situation was discussed. If David was asked he would say, "I
am working on it. It is like the jigsaw puzzles we did when
we were small. You remember? We got them secondhand, cheap,
without the boxes, so we didn't know till they were done what
the picture would be. At the moment I have a lot of different
pieces of information, but until I am able to put them
together I have no idea of what they mean."
"We must participate in doing something to find our son," Eli
said one day.
"You come to shul and daven. Fay says
Tehillim. That is what is important for you to do. If
there is any way that I receive information that needs your
expertise I will tell you immediately," was David's reply.
He was reluctant to say that he had discovered that once
Thomas received the money for a contract killing he was
relentless in his pursuit of the victim. All signs seemed to
indicate that Eli and Fay and their son Dean had been the
intended targets. David was pushing himself relentlessly to
discover what had happened to Dean, so that he could bring
the young man to safety, to live temporarily in the small
apartment where his parents were, but so far he had met with
failure.
It took some time before David was ready to discuss matters
with them. However, at last that day arrived. David told them
he had managed to find out something about the cause of their
problems. They listened as David told them the result to his
many hours of inquiry.
