Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir by Tod Goldberg

Author:Tod Goldberg [Goldberg, Tod]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Collections & Anthologies, Jewish, Crime
ISBN: 9781641296144
Google: HVn0EAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Soho Press
Published: 2024-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Liska Jacobs is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Catalina, The Worst Kind of Want, and, most recently, The Pink Hotel. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Literary Hub, Alta, The Millions, and Zyzzyva, among other publications. Born in Los Angeles, she lives in Berlin.

DEAD WEIGHT

Liska Jacobs

It was over. In a couple of weeks, they’d host their annual holiday party together one last time, and then Raquel would have to find somewhere else to live.

She was lying on the Moroccan fainting couch, supine, with the balcony door opened behind her so she could feel the frigid December air. An Alfred Hitchcock movie played on her laptop, Mitzi was curled up beside her. It was one of those cold European days where the sky was like a giant gray light box outside and the cobblestone streets no longer looked quaint, not like they had during summer and fall. Now they were treacherous, icy hazards. Someone could get seriously hurt. Maybe that’s what put the idea in her head.

But that came later. Right now, she was rereading Joel’s text, his gentle reminder that she needed to get serious about finding another place to live. I don’t want to be a dick, it read.

Where had things gone wrong? When was the exact moment their relationship shifted and went bad? She’d tried to make herself as small and convenient as any woman living in someone else’s beautiful apartment. And it was a beautiful apartment. The kind only a trust fund could buy. Did buy. Built in the mid-nineteenth century, when

Germany still had money and artistic flare. There was an ornate marble entryway, like something you’d find in Paris. Double doors and high ceilings and parquet floors. It had ornamental moldings, and two balconies. Sunlight—a rare commodity in Berlin—streamed into every room. The kitchen was large, even for American standards. There was a walk-in pantry; she’d hung herbs from the ceiling, potted a monstera, a saguaro, and great heaving barrel cacti in the winter garden. Raquel’s favorite space was what she called her little nook. The Moroccan fainting couch positioned near the bedroom, overlooking Tiergarten park. In the summer it was a sea of green—maple and oaks and trembling cottonwoods. Beneath them cyclists rang their bells at joggers and tourists and the brigades of new moms, pushing cranky babies in strollers; and near the lake a DJ played electronica at the beer garden, couples hand in hand. Raquel much preferred the winter. When the park was silent, and the trees were bare, and the earth frosted over and was hard. On one end of the park there was a famous Christmas market—it was too far for her to hear or really watch any of the goings-on, but she liked seeing the ruins of the church steeple all lit up, and how on the opposite end of the park, almost in direct contrast, was the thirtythree-foot menorah, lighting up Brandenburg Gate.

An icy gust blew in from outside and she shivered.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.