Concert of the
Summer". Around midday there was some heavy traffic in the Catalog
Room, and Ms. Yardley sent for me. I passed through the Reading Room on
my way. The woman was sunk deep in a pile of books, twirling her ponytail
with her hand.
At exactly 6:00 I took off for home,
before any more punishments could be heaped on me. When I got there, I
found Mom planting bulbs in the garden. She smiled at me. Once upon
a time, Mom's smiles had been the greatest thing I'd known. Now, perhaps
because of the events of the previous night, I was filled with the awful
suspicion that all the days of my childhood, which had been filled with those
smiles, were nothing more than a fraud.
"Is everything all right?"
I asked, surrendering my cheek to a kiss.
"Why shouldn't it be all
right?" she asked.
And really, why shouldn't it be?
There was a completely repaired car in the driveway, and a note on the
kitchen table. I remember it in detail: "Debbie called looking for
you. She said she called yesterday as well but there was no answer. She
asked that you call." I reached out for the telephone, but then I
discovered another note tacked to the bulletin board above it: "Atlantic
Siren, Dock 2, 4th of September".
I bent out the window to call Mom,
but she was already on her way inside.
"The riddle," she said as she
came in. "I won the trip. This afternoon they called from The
Society for Proper Nutrition and Care of the Body...”
I shrugged my shoulders. Her
solution was wrong - I was certain of that - and the swiftness with which the
notification had come made me suspicious. Just then the world seemed like
the least consistent thing I knew. But I didn't have time to think about
it. From outside came the sound of Dad's horn as he pulled his car into
the driveway and up alongside Mom's car. He waved from the window.
There was an old lady sitting next to him.
Mom said, "Aunt Ida, that's all we
need right now," and went outside.
I opened the fridge. It was
empty. I remember thinking: with all those recipes she's been writing
down, a guy could expect to find something to eat around here.
Then I went outside to greet Dad.
All of a sudden I'm afraid I must be boring you with all these petty
details. I wish I knew exactly what you wanted to know.
tHE
THIRD NOTEBOOK
I wonder if you knew that the reason for Aunt Ida's
visit had something to do with you - or, rather, something to do with the event
that you'd planned at the temple which took place a few hours ago, and which I
ruined. But wait - I promised to tell you everything , so I'll
stick to the order in which things happened.
Aunt Ida came into the house and said, "It
was so nice of Jeremy (she can't pronounce Dad's name in Hebrew - Yermiahu) to
bring me here so that I wouldn't have to spend the holidays all alone in
Chicago. No one," (and here she meant none other than you) "bothered
to invite me, even though there's been so little happiness in my life since
Marvin died," and then it was all over, because the minute Aunt Ida runs
into the word `Marvin', she starts to tell the story of her marriage from the
very beginning, from their famous meeting in the Indianapolis Botanical
Gardens, through the opening of their first photography studio, and the second,
and the third, to their raising of Myrna, who, even though she is Dad's distant
cousin, looks like his sister, and so on and on and on.
In the meantime, out in the kitchen,
Dad had managed to find a quarter of a fried chicken and an ancient container
of potato salad.
"I'm dying of hunger," he
spluttered with his mouth full. "I drove from Chicago without
stopping, except for once, at a gas station, when she had to take a leak...”
Mom was boiling. "What am
I supposed to do with her now?"
Dad waved a chicken leg.
"You could've asked me...
"
"I didn't think you'd mind.
After all, she's my
Summer". Around midday there was some heavy traffic in the Catalog
Room, and Ms. Yardley sent for me. I passed through the Reading Room on
my way. The woman was sunk deep in a pile of books, twirling her ponytail
with her hand.
At exactly 6:00 I took off for home,
before any more punishments could be heaped on me. When I got there, I
found Mom planting bulbs in the garden. She smiled at me. Once upon
a time, Mom's smiles had been the greatest thing I'd known. Now, perhaps
because of the events of the previous night, I was filled with the awful
suspicion that all the days of my childhood, which had been filled with those
smiles, were nothing more than a fraud.
"Is everything all right?"
I asked, surrendering my cheek to a kiss.
"Why shouldn't it be all
right?" she asked.
And really, why shouldn't it be?
There was a completely repaired car in the driveway, and a note on the
kitchen table. I remember it in detail: "Debbie called looking for
you. She said she called yesterday as well but there was no answer. She
asked that you call." I reached out for the telephone, but then I
discovered another note tacked to the bulletin board above it: "Atlantic
Siren, Dock 2, 4th of September".
I bent out the window to call Mom,
but she was already on her way inside.
"The riddle," she said as she
came in. "I won the trip. This afternoon they called from The
Society for Proper Nutrition and Care of the Body...”
I shrugged my shoulders. Her
solution was wrong - I was certain of that - and the swiftness with which the
notification had come made me suspicious. Just then the world seemed like
the least consistent thing I knew. But I didn't have time to think about
it. From outside came the sound of Dad's horn as he pulled his car into
the driveway and up alongside Mom's car. He waved from the window.
There was an old lady sitting next to him.
Mom said, "Aunt Ida, that's all we
need right now," and went outside.
I opened the fridge. It was
empty. I remember thinking: with all those recipes she's been writing
down, a guy could expect to find something to eat around here.
Then I went outside to greet Dad.
All of a sudden I'm afraid I must be boring you with all these petty
details. I wish I knew exactly what you wanted to know.
tHE
THIRD NOTEBOOK
I wonder if you knew that the reason for Aunt Ida's
visit had something to do with you - or, rather, something to do with the event
that you'd planned at the temple which took place a few hours ago, and which I
ruined. But wait - I promised to tell you everything , so I'll
stick to the order in which things happened.
Aunt Ida came into the house and said, "It
was so nice of Jeremy (she can't pronounce Dad's name in Hebrew - Yermiahu) to
bring me here so that I wouldn't have to spend the holidays all alone in
Chicago. No one," (and here she meant none other than you) "bothered
to invite me, even though there's been so little happiness in my life since
Marvin died," and then it was all over, because the minute Aunt Ida runs
into the word `Marvin', she starts to tell the story of her marriage from the
very beginning, from their famous meeting in the Indianapolis Botanical
Gardens, through the opening of their first photography studio, and the second,
and the third, to their raising of Myrna, who, even though she is Dad's distant
cousin, looks like his sister, and so on and on and on.
In the meantime, out in the kitchen,
Dad had managed to find a quarter of a fried chicken and an ancient container
of potato salad.
"I'm dying of hunger," he
spluttered with his mouth full. "I drove from Chicago without
stopping, except for once, at a gas station, when she had to take a leak...”
Mom was boiling. "What am
I supposed to do with her now?"
Dad waved a chicken leg.
"You could've asked me...
"
"I didn't think you'd mind.
After all, she's my
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