“Wait!”
For the first time since they had come, his father spoke. And now he uncrossed his arms and stalked suddenly to the door.
“Wait!” He gripped Uncle Nathan’s shoulder, towered above him. “Come back!”
“What do you want of my man!” Aunt Bertha snapped in angry surprise. “You let him alone. He’s distraught enough without you troubling him. Come, Nathan!” She redoubled her tugging at the other shoulder.
“It’s you who should let him alone!” her brother-in-law growled dangerously. “You and your cursed deceit! Come in, Nathan!”
Staring amazed from face to face, Uncle Nathan could muster no more than a bewildered grunt.
“I say let him go!” Aunt Bertha shrieked furiously. “Wild beast, take your paws off!”
“When I’m done!”
“Albert! Albert!” his mother’s frightened voice. “What are you doing! Let him alone!”
“No! No! Not till he’s spoken!”
For a moment, half in the thickening light of the kitchen, half in the gloom of the corridor, they wrestled for him, Uncle Nathan’s pale, alarmed face, bobbing back and forth between them, and all three struggling figures, shadowy, unreal as nightmare. A moment longer, and with one vicious yank, David’s father pulled them back into the room, and with such force, the other man pitched forward, his hat flying to the floor. He slammed the door.
“Listen to me, Nathan!” He drummed his stiff hand against the other man’s chest. “You came here to say something, now say it. Stifle that she-ass and her guile! Say it! It isn’t money!”
“N-nothing! Nothing! So help me, G-God!” Before the thrust of the other’s hand, Uncle Nathan fell back against his wife. “Bertha told you everything! May evil befall me if she didn’t! A store! I wanted! I saw! That was all! No, Bertha?”
“You fool!” She spat at her husband. “Didn’t I warn you not to come here! Didn’t I tell you you’d groan and remember? I’ve a good mind to — What do you want of him?” She wheeled furiously on her brother-in-law. “You let him alone, ungovernable beast! Do you hear? He’s come for money and nothing else! How many times do you want to be told? I don’t have to endure any more of your rages! Remember that!”
“Hold your tongue!” His father was beginning to quiver. “You treacherous cow! I know you of old. I know what you’ve already done. Speak, Nathan!” He smashed his fist down on the wash tub. “Don’t let her trick you! Speak! Whatever it is! Have no fear of me! Only the truth! I have reasons! It may do me good to hear!”
“What’s he saying?” Aunt Bertha’s eyes bulged. “What new insanity gripes him!”
“Albert, I beg of you!” his mother had seized her husband’s arm. “If you’ve any quarrel, it’s with me. Let the man alone. He’s told you all.”
“Has he? So you think! Or pretend, maybe! But I know better! I have eyes! I have seen! Will you speak?” Wrath stretched him to his full height. Teeth bared, he advanced, dwarfing the other man who cowered.
“I–I’ve already s-said everything,” his lips trembling, Uncle Nathan reached behind him for the door. “I must leave! Bertha! Come!”
But David’s father had rammed his palm against the door.
“You’ll wait! You hear me? You’ll wait till you answer me one thing! And you’ll answer it!”
“W-what do you want?”
“Why, when you opened your mouth to speak — Before that she-ass brayed you out of words and will — Why did you stare at him?” He hammered the air in David’s direction. “Why that look? What was it you were trying to say about him?”
“I–I have nothing to say. I didn’t look at him. Let me alone in God’s will. Genya! Bertha! Don’t let him quarrel with me.”
“Albert! Albert! Stop torturing the man!”
“A curse on you! You fiend!” Aunt Bertha tried to squeeze in between them “You madman! Let him alone!”
He flung her viciously aside. “And you, will you tell me what he did? Or do you want my fury to burst—!”
“Oh! Oh! Woe me! Woe me!” Aunt Bertha filled the room with a loud gasping and lament. “Woe me! Did you see what he did? He threw me? And me with a child in my belly. Monster! Mad dog! It’s not drawers you’ve ripped this time. It’s a child you’ve destroyed! On your head my miscarriage. Oh you’ll pay for this! May they hang you. May you—”
“Not if you had twins would it trouble me. Your breed is well destroyed. But I will find out what he did. That brat there! I’m waiting!” His voice became strangled. “I tell you I’m at the end of my patience!”
Uncle Nathan began to sag as though about to faint.
“He — uh — uh— oy! oy! He—!”
“Not a word!” Aunt Bertha screamed. “Open that door or I’ll shriek for help! Let us out!”
They faced each other in a silence so awful it seemed as if the very room would burst with the tension of it.
Blind with terror, unnoticed by any, David had already reeled toward the stove. (—It’s there! It’s there!) A tortured, anguished voice babbled within him. (—It’s there! She put it there! It’s there!) Groping, tottering hands reached into the dark niche between the stove and the wall—
“Speak!” In the shrunken, shadowy room, his father had become all voice, and his voice struck with the brunt of thunder.
“Bertha!” Uncle Nathan wailed. “Save me! Save me, Bertha! He’s going to strike! Bertha! Bertha!”
“Help!” she screamed. “Let go the door! Help! Help! Call! Genya, throw up the window! Help!”
“Albert! Albert! Have mercy!”
“Speak!” Above their screaming, the horrible gritting of his teeth.
“I–I— uh — he— it was he— uh. Oh, Bertha! Noth—”
“Anh!” That insensate snarl. The shadowy arm drew back. “You—!”
“Papa!”
The bent arm hung in air, hung motionless. The writhing face above it turned.
“Papa!” In the swirling, crumbling, darkened mind, that one compulsion rallied the body and the brain like a standard. A dream? No, not a dream. Not a dream nor the memory of a dream. An act, ordained, foreseen, inevitable as this very moment, a channel of expertness, imbued for ages, reiterated for ages, familiar as breath.
He approached. The rest stood spellbound.
“I–It was me, papa—”
“David! Child!” His mother sprang toward him. “What have you got in your hand!”
But before she could reach him, he had lifted the broken whip into his father’s curling fingers.
“David!” She seized him, drew him out of danger. “A whip! Near him! What are you doing!”
“This?” The lids dropped over his father’s consuming eyes. “Why do you—? Why is this given? You know what happened to this? Is it your fate you’re begging for?”
“I–I— Please, papa!”
“You shan’t touch him! You hear me, Albert! I won’t endure it!” All entreaty, all timidity had vanished, in its stead a fierce resolve. She bowed over David like a ledge of rock. “Whatever he’s done or anyone thinks he’s done, you shan’t touch him!”
“Band against the alien, the stranger!” His father’s voice was hollow and perilous, “But let me hear him!”
“Say nothing, child!” Aunt Bertha’s warning cry.
But he was already speaking. And the words he spoke were like staggering burdens he bore up a great steep where his own sighs battered him, where he floundered in his own tears.
“I was — I was on — the roof. Papa! I was on the roof! And there was a b-boy. A big one — and — and he had a kite — k-kite, they called it. Kite — goes h-higher than r-roofs — it goes—”
“What are you talking about!” His father ground. “Stop your candle-gutter! Hurry!”