A Late Divorce by A. B. Yehoshua

Author:A. B. Yehoshua [Yehoshua, A. B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Family Life
ISBN: 9780002714488
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 1983-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

—It’s not Tsvi, Mr. Kaminka, but it’s all right.

—It’s all right, Mr. Kaminka. I’m a friend of his. Tsvi knows that I’m here.

—He’s asleep now, but it’s all right. We were just having a chat.

—No. Who’s Yosef? I’m Refa’el Calderon. He’s never mentioned me? We do business together.

—No. I work in a bank.

—I was just passing by and dropped in to chat.

—Refa’el Calderon. I dropped by to help him with something ... with a mouse...

—No, don’t be alarmed. There’s a mouse here ha ha ha. We just saw him a few minutes ago. Tsvi’s known about him for several days, but wasn’t sure where he was hiding. So I told him the best thing was to wait for him at night, in the dark. He’s a little squeamish, and I don’t mind such things. I grew up in the old Jewish quarter of Jerusalem—we were used to mice there...

—Yes, a real mouse. It’s nothing to be scared of. If you ask me, it’s an old one that may have been living here for a long time. It’s odd, though, how it should have managed to get up here ... because you’re on the third floor...

—A dog?

—Ah, the dog we saw there. I remember him.

—In the hospital.

—I drove Tsvi up there on Tuesday.

—Calderon. Refa’el Calderon.

—No. I didn’t take part in their conversation. I was standing off to one side. It was then that I noticed the dog. A big fat one with a tawny coat.

—Yes. Exactly. I thought it was some hospital dog that she had gotten friendly with.

—It lived here? Then you couldn’t have had a mouse. A dog would have gotten it.

—Of course. How long has this apartment been yours, if I may be so free as...

—Well now, that’s quite a while. But please, don’t let me bother you. It’s very late, and there’s nothing to catch a mouse with now anyway.

—Nearly three o’clock.... How’s that?

—Your wife? In what way?

—No. I was off to the side and didn’t hear anything. I know nothing about it ... What’s that?

—Yes. Tsvi had spoken of it vaguely ... you’ve come to separate.

—Begging your pardon?

—Yes. To get divorced. Something of the sort. I didn’t really discuss it with him. I just drove him up there because the public transportation is so poor.

—In what way?

—I didn’t notice anything. She talked sensibly enough. In fact, at first I didn’t even know where I was taking Tsvi. I thought it was to some home for the elderly or something ... I don’t know the northern part of the country at all...

—Yes. Yes. In the end I realized that it was no home for the elderly.

—From a Jerusalem family. Third generation.

—Exactly. A thoroughbred Sephardi, you might say.

—She is? You don’t say. You don’t say.

—Half of one? On her mother’s side? How didn’t I sense it? I always do. I never would have thought ... she doesn’t look it in the least ... you don’t say!

—Come again?

—Abrabanel. Of course. It’s a well-known family.

—From Safed? But there was a branch of them in Jerusalem too.

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