Catch a Killer, Save the World by Mel Goldberg

Author:Mel Goldberg [Goldberg, Mel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780982734568
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2014-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Guerevich spent a restless night. He dreamed he walked down an unfamiliar street in front of a large building. It looked like a church but someone inside yelled at him in a language he didn’t understand. It sounded like Arabic. The building morphed into a mosque but when he looked carefully, it became a synagogue and the voice was his father’s. He saw a man running down the street. Betty Stillman’s voice shouted the man was Umar Ifthikar.

Guerevich opened his eyes. A faint light permeated the room. A little before six he quietly slid from bed, not wanting to wake Ann. His movement caused her to open her eyes. “What’re you getting up so early for?”

“I’m going to shabbat services at Beth Joseph. Harry Lewinsky called me yesterday. They’re having a hard time rounding up ten men for a prayer minyon nowadays, even for shabbat.”

“That’s because most of the members are dead. The youngest man at Beth Joseph is what? Seventy-five? But those old men still won’t allow a woman to be considered for a minyon. If you joined me at the Conservative synagogue, we could at least sit together.”

“I feel more comfortable at orthodox services.”

“Yet you’re willing to eat in restaurants and buy meat at Safeway. When are you going to put both your feet on the same side of the fence?”

“I don’t want to argue about it. It’s what I grew up with. Why don’t you come with me?”

Her tone jabbed him like the point of an icicle. “What, and sit behind a black gauze curtain? They still use a mechitzah for women, don’t they. No thanks. I joined Beth Hagivot because men and women sit together. They even have a woman rabbi. Imagine that! No one had been struck by lightning. When I go to temple, I want to be able to participate like a full member of the congregation, not someone forced to watch in isolation.” “Okay, okay, I get it.” He pulled his tee shirt off over his head and walked toward the bathroom wearing only his pajama bottoms.

At the doorway he turned to face her. “I’ve learned a lot from those old men, especially when they share their life experiences. Did you know that Harry is a Holocaust survivor?”

“That’s wonderful,” she declared sleepily. Then she rolled over and pulled the covers over her head.

Guerevich showered and dressed. In Ann’s closet, he found a tan, short-sleeve, dress shirt and navy blue dockers, thankful he had worn black shoes the day before. He walked into the living room, sat on the sofa to slip on his shoes, and leaned back, eyes closed, trying to eliminate all the conflicts that fought for space in his head.

He had been taught that to participate fully in a service he had to eliminate worldly problems from his thoughts to allow unimpeded access to a feeling of God’s holiness. As he bent to tie his shoes, Ann pulled the covers from her face and spoke to him through the open bedroom door.

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