Collected Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Author:Isaac Bashevis Singer [Singer, Isaac Bashevis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141968629
Google: 1hZoPgAACAAJ
Amazon: 0374517886
Publisher: Penguin Books Limited
Published: 2011-07-28T07:00:00+00:00

II

At the restaurant, I hardly recognized Liebkind Bendel. Even though he wore a yellow jacket, a red shirt, and a tie with golden dots, his face looked as pale as after an illness. He was twisting a long cigar between his lips and he had already ordered cognac. He sat on the edge of his chair. Before I managed to sit down, he called to me. “I’ve found a way out, but you must help me. Eleanor has just perished in an airplane crash. I spoke to Frau Schuldiener and she will back me up. All you have to do is wait for that old skirt chaser at the airport and get him into a hotel. Tell him you are Eleanor’s friend or nephew. I will take a room for him and pay the bill for a month in advance. After that I am not responsible. Let him go back to London to find himself a daughter of a lord.”

“You could pose as Eleanor’s friend as well as I.”

“I can’t do it. He’d cling to me like a leech. What can he get from you—your manuscripts? You will spend a few hours with him and he won’t bother you any more. If worst comes to worse, I’ll pay his fare back to England. You will be saving my life and I will never forget it. Don’t give him your address. Tell him you live in Chicago or Miami. There was a time when I would have given a fortune to be in his company half an hour, but I have lost the appetite. I am afraid of him. I’m sure that the minute I see him and he utters the name Eleanor I’ll burst out laughing. As a matter of fact, I have been sitting here laughing to myself. The waiter thought I had gone out of my mind.”

“Bendel, I cannot do it.”

“Is this your last word?”

“I cannot play such a farce.”

“Well, no is no. I will have to do it, then—I’ll tell him that I am a distant cousin, a poor relation. She even supported me. What name should I take? Lipman Geiger. I had a partner in Vienna by that name. Wait, I must make a telephone call.”

Liebkind Bendel jumped up and ran to a telephone booth. He stayed there about ten minutes. I could see him through the glass door. He was turning the pages of a notebook. He made strange grimaces. When he returned, he said, “I have gotten a hotel and all the rest of it. What did I need the whole meshuggas for? I’m going to close down the magazine. I will go to Palestine and become a Jew. All these writers—empty heads, they have nothing to say. At fifty my grandfather woke up every night for the midnight prayers; Dr. Walden wants to seduce an heiress at sixty-five. His last letter was simply a song—the Song of Songs. And who needs his encyclopedia? That Frau Schuldiener is a fool, and in addition she plays the fool.

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.