The Comedown
Page 39
Briefcase in hand, he walked across the main chamber, past the lectern, past the rabbi’s office, and into the room with the mikveh bath. He had always loved cleaning this room: its damp, high-ceilinged echoes, the perfect blue of the bath tiles, the low whispers of people purifying themselves. He had never gone into the bath himself—the rabbi had urged him to, but he’d claimed a fear of water. Now, alone in the middle of the night, he stripped naked and walked the stairs into the mikveh, stopping when he was up to his neck in water. He thought about holding his breath and just sinking but knew he wouldn’t be able to go through with it. Besides, would the rabbi enjoy finding his drowned body in the mikveh the next day? Would G-d?
He doggie-paddled to the edge of the mikveh and clicked open the briefcase. He lined up all the remaining stacks he had on the bath’s edge. Two by two, he grabbed them and swam to the drain on the other side of the bath. He lifted the cover and stuffed the stacks down there, did the same with two more and two more until all the money was gone. He paddled back to the stairs and dipped his head underwater, floated up and spent half an hour watching the moon’s progress through the massive temple windows. Then he climbed out and went back to his car. The night’s heat made beads of the water on his skin and he thought, I am pure now. Now he could leave; he could be in Tampa by morning.
Ari’s father had told him none of this. He hadn’t felt the need to. Now, in front of these people, Ari could feel his blood heating up. Who were they, anyway? Why did he have to be the one to help them? He’d been through enough. He wasn’t going to have his temple ransacked again. He had a life of his own, a congregation to lead! The service would start soon and here he was in the aisle, squaring off with more of these people. Lina was coming down with a cold: tomorrow she would probably wake up at six o’clock, crying, and Shosh would be grumpy. Maybe he and Shosh would have a fight over breakfast. Maybe they’d fight over breakfast every morning after that, and Lina would grow up thinking of her parents as combative, their marriage unhappy. Maybe she’d become a disagreeable and bitter teenager, constantly rubbing salt in their wounds, driving them further apart with her jeers. Maybe they’d divorce and fight over custody. No, no. It was too horrible to think about. He had to get on with what he needed to do.
“Sorry,” he told them. “I don’t think I can help you.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
REBEKAH FRUMKIN is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Medill School of Journalism. She is a recipient of the Richard E. Guthrie and Meta Rosenberg Fellowships. Her fiction, nonfiction, and journalism have appeared in Granta, Pacific Standard, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, among others. She lives, writes, and teaches in Chicago. This is her first novel. You can sign up for email updates here.
Thank you for buying this
Henry Holt and Company ebook.
To receive special offers, bonus content,
and info on new releases and other great reads,
sign up for our newsletters.
Or visit us online at
us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup
For email updates on the author, click here.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Epigraph
Chapters or Parts
Part 1
Prologue
Melinda Bloom-Mittwoch, née Provouchez (1947–)
Reginald Marshall (1945–?)
Leland Bloom-Mittwoch Sr. (1945–1999)
Natasha Marshall, née Harrison (1948–)
Part 2
Diedre Bloom-Mittwoch, née Mifkin (1962–)
Aaron Marshall (1970–)
Leland Bloom-Mittwoch Jr. (1971–)
Caleb Marshall (1970–)
Jocelyn Woodward (1973–)
Netta Marshall, née Barochin (1980–)
Part 3
Lee Bloom-Mittwoch Jr. (1989–)
Tarzan/Tweety/New Person (Edward Jonathan Phillips) (1990–)
Maria Timpano (1992–)
Reggie Marshall (1945–)
Epilogue
About the Author
Copyright
THE COMEDOWN. Copyright © 2018 by Rebekah Frumkin. All rights reserved. For information, address Henry Holt and Co., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.henryholt.com
Cover design by Rachel Willey
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Frumkin, Rebekah, author.
Title: The comedown: a novel / Rebekah Frumkin.
Description: First edition. | New York, New York: Henry Holt and Company, [2018]
Identifiers: LCCN 2017045167 (print) | LCCN 2017035218 (ebook) | ISBN 9781250127532 (eBook) | ISBN 9781250127525 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Life change events—Fiction. | Families—Fiction. | GSAFD: Black humor (Literature)
Classification: LCC PS3606.R88 (print) | LCC PS3606.R88 C66 2018 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017045167
e-ISBN 9781250127532
First Edition: April 2018
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.