“How’s it going?” Sammy asked his father.
“Well, this is certainly the highlight of the trip,” Decker said.
“That good, huh?”
“It’s good to see you guys.”
“There’s Eema,” Jacob announced. “At least, I think that’s her. She’s sort of buried underneath all that cargo.”
“What’d she do?” Sammy asked. “Buy out the store?”
“Lord only knows.” Decker sighed. “Why don’t you two go help her?”
“I don’t know, Dad,” Sammy said. “I think she has a certain balance. Far be it from me to disrupt what might have taken five hours to build.”
Decker glared at him. The boys hurried over to their mother and relieved her of the packages. She gave half to Jacob, half to Sammy. “You’ll take these back for me?”
“I’m not going back to Brooklyn,” Jacob said. “I’ve got a train to catch, Eema.”
“I’ll take them back,” Sammy said.
“The good son,” Jacob countered.
They stopped at the entrance to the restaurant. Jacob smiled at his mother. “Buy anything for me?”
“A couple of shirts,” Rina said. “Most of it is for Hannah.”
“Great.” Jacob pouted. “First you send me to a school that locks me up in a cell and scalps me. Then all I get is a couple of shirts.”
“Such neglect.” Rina threw her arm around her younger son and kissed him ten times on the cheek.
“How about me?” Sammy asked.
Rina kissed him as well. When she reached over for Hannah, the girl pulled away. “Not in public.”
Both she and Decker laughed. It was hard to tell the babies from the adults without a scorecard. Rina said, “I think you both grew.”
“You just saw me yesterday,” Jacob said.
“You grew from yesterday,” Rina said. “Shall we go inside and eat?”
“Yeah, it’s better than being dysfunctional out here for the whole world to see,” Sammy said.
Jacob added, “Besides, this is the best food we’re going to have in the next six months.”
Sammy said, “Ain’t that the truth.”
“Go in and get our table, boys,” Decker said. “Take Hannah with you. I need to talk to your mother for a moment.”
“Do I really have to carry all this stuff?” Sammy held the bags aloft. “Can’t we just check it in at a bank vault or something?”
“Go now, please!” Decker toughened his voice.
“Uh-oh…” Jacob took his sister’s hand. “We don’t want to hear this.”
Decker waited until the two of them were alone. He said, “You’re going to make fun of me, but I’d like to stay another day. They’re releasing the body tomorrow, which means the funeral will be on Tuesday. I think we should go.”
And Decker’s last conversation with Donatti had been promising. He was hoping that Chris might come through with something.
Rina said, “Far from making fun of you-although it is tempting-I admire your flexibility and your compassion. It shows what a true man you are. I will, once again, change the tickets.” She threw her arms around Decker’s neck and kissed him hard on the mouth. “It’s not religiously modest, but it is heartfelt.”
“I like that!” Decker said. “To what do I owe the honor?”
“Just for being you. Now, we should go inside so the kids don’t think we’re fighting.”
It took them ten minutes to be seated. The tables were so close to one another that Decker could have lap-danced with his neighbor’s Cornish hen. With all the packages and Jacob’s valise, they were as tight as pack animals. The tables were covered with red-checkered paper and there was sawdust on the floor. It was loud and noisy and smoky, but boy did it smell good.
It took another five minutes to get menus from a waiter wearing a blue denim shirt, white jeans, and sneakers. All the servers were dressed alike. They scuttled and scurried as if their job consisted of aerobic exercise. Another five minutes produced five glasses of ice water and bread and margarine.
Next everyone got up to ritually wash so they could break bread.
The bread was gone five minutes later.
They had been in the restaurant for a half hour, and all they had to show for it were crumbs and ice cubes. Prison could have done just as well.
“Hey, Sammy,” someone called out.
Sammy turned around. “Ari!” He got up and talked to Ari for five minutes. He made introductions. Rina and Decker smiled. Hello, hello. Ari left; then a busboy came, holding more bread. He took orders for drinks, then left.
Rina asked Decker, “How hungry are you?”
“I was hungry when I started out. Now I’m ravenous. And no, I don’t want to split anything.”
“Boy, someone’s blood sugar has taken a nosedive,” Sammy said.
“Eat the bread,” Rina offered.
“I don’t want bread!” Decker groused. “I want meat!”
The waiter finally came back, pad in hand. “Are you ready?”
“I’ve been ready for forty minutes-”
“Peter-”
“Chateaubriand for two for one,” Decker ordered.
“It’s big,” the waiter remarked.
“So am I.” He handed the waiter the menu.
The boys decided to split the Chateaubriand. Rina chose the rib steak. Hannah ordered a hot dog and fries. Jacob heard his name called out, then turned around.
“Reuven! What are you doing here?”
“Probably the same thing you’re doing here,” Reuven answered. “Bumming a meal off my parents. These are your parents?”
Jacob said, “These are my parents.”
Reuven smiled. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Lazarus.”
“Actually, it’s Mr. Decker,” Decker answered. “I’m his stepfather.”
“Yeah, but he pays all the college tuition, so that qualifies him as a dad,” Sammy answered.
Reuven’s father broke into laughter. He offered his hand to Decker. “Shragy Miller.”
“It’s Rav Miller,” Jacob told him.
Decker shook his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Rav Miller.”
“Shragy, please! This is my wife, Rivka, my daughter, Rachel.”
Miller was squat, dressed in rabbinic black. His wife was tall and bone thin, and was wearing a shaytl. Her features were as pinched as her husband’s were round. The daughter’s face had combined the best of her parents-regular features, sparkling hazel eyes, and hair the color of chestnuts. She was very pretty, and Decker wasn’t the only one who had noticed. Sammy had made eye contact with her. Now he was looking at his napkin.
The adjacent table had just opened up. The obvious thing to do was invite them to sit down. Rina did exactly that. She introduced herself to Rivka, and after a few disorganized minutes, everyone was seated. The girl actually managed to speak with Sammy without looking at him. A pretty neat trick; Decker supposed that she had learned it in Being Frum 101.
She asked, “So where do you go to school?”
“One guess.”
“YU.”
“So what else is new?”
“YU and Columbia,” Jacob added.
“Ah,” Rachel said. “One step above the riffraff.”
“I am the riffraff,” Sammy said. “YU was a little weak in my major, so they let me do a joint program.”
“What’s your major?”
“Neuropsychophysiology… premed. But I didn’t want to take the YU premed major. I actually wanted a real major.”
“Yeah, I’m trying to do that with Stern, but I’m getting a little resistance.” There was tightness in her voice. “I don’t suppose you had problems, being male and all.”
Sammy was quick with the comeback. “I’m sure some of the older rabbis at Stern have some antiquated notions of what girls can and can’t do.”
“If you come from a black-hat religious family, they have definite ideas.”
“You have to know where to finagle.”
“Any pointers?”
“A few if you want them.”
“That would be nice.”
Rina said, “You know, kids, why don’t you all sit on one side, and let us sit on the other side?”