THE ELECTED MEMBER by Bernice Rubens

Author:Bernice Rubens [Rubens, Bernice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

11

Rabbi Zweck got off the bus at the beginning of the park. It was already dark, and the nature of his adventure and his unfamiliar surroundings, both frightened and excited him. He turned up the collar of his coat, and looked furtively about him. A passer-by might have thought that the Rabbi was acting out his own private fantasy of private detective. He padded along the pavement, keeping close to the wall. Occasionally he repeated the address to himself. A hundred and three was a good walk ahead, a hundred and three houses to be precise, since the road was a one-sided dwelling one. He hoped that the man would be at home and that his business was not restricted to the day-time. He could have phoned of course. But when he’d thought about it, he didn’t want to warn the man of his coming. He would catch him red-handed, unawares.

He had not prepared his reason for going out, and when Bella asked him, as he was buttoning his cat, he was astonished at how easily the lie had come. ‘Mrs Golden invited me. This morning in the shop. I should go for supper. But I said, after supper I should come. Why should I eat with Mrs Golden when in the house we have plenty.’ He was over-elaborating, and he was aware of his miserable performance. It was a story that was easily checkable. He hoped Bella wouldn’t believe it, but would trust that his journey, wherever it was, was necessary. She had smiled at him and helped him on with his coat. She knew that his journey had something to do with Norman, but she was angry than Norman had reduced her father to lying on his behalf. Where would it all end? When Rabbi Zweck had gone, she had stood watching him over the well of the staircase. She shuddered at the thought of how involved they had both become in her brother’s madness. How they had become knowing receivers, as it were, from a thief. That she had allowed, even encouraged Norman to take the shop money, knowing full well why he wanted it. That her father, perhaps even now, was negotiating to get Norman out of that place, when they both knew that it was for his own good that he should stay there. They could not bear to make him miserable, though if she were honest, it was her own pain and her father’s that was unsupportable. And so they had both entered Norman’s derangement, making it workable, tidying it even, making it all ‘nice’. They were both equally guilty. She knew in her heart, it was better for strangers to look after him. Her answer over the years to Norman’s sickness had been that he was doing it on purpose to drive them all crazy. She had to be angry with him. It was the surest hold on her own sanity. If a mind wavered, it was best to keep the kin at bay.

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