Wednesday the Rabbi got wet

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Mrs. aptaker did not raise her voice, she was calm and controlled. But she was adamant. "I will not invite the Kaplans here and if they invite me to their house, I won't go."

Her son was anything but calm, he did not shout, but his voice shook with despair and frustration. "But, Ma, will you think of me? Will you please for one lousy second think where your refusal puts me? Mrs. Kaplan tells me she'd like you to come to dinner Sunday night. So what am I going to tell her? That my mother thinks she's too good to eat with them?"

"I didn't say I was too good. I just said I wouldn't go, that's all."

"Yeah, but what am I supposed to tell her?"

"Why did she ask you in the first place, Arnold?"

"What do you mean?"

"If she wants to invite me to dinner," his mother said, "why does she have to ask me by way of a third party? This is the way she always invites people? She sends around messengers?"

"I was there, so she mentioned it, that's all."

"No, Arnold. You know better than that, she asked you to ask me instead of calling me on the phone because she knew if she called, I wouldn't accept. By going through you, she thinks maybe you could persuade me."

He tried a new tack. "All right, let's say you're right. Let's say Mrs. Kaplan is aware that you have a grievance against her or her husband. But I'm marrying her daughter. Doesn't she have a right to meet her future son-in-law's folks? And I should think you'd want to meet the parents of your future daughter-in-law."

"I’ve met them," said Mrs. aptaker. "I know who they are. When you carry on a retail business in a small town like Barnard's Crossing for almost forty years, there's not many people in town you haven't met, and don't worry, she knows who I am and she knows what your pa looks like, too."

"Look, Pa offered me the store, didn't he? So the store is like mine, isn't it? So shouldn't I have some say about the lease? I mean, if the store is mine, shouldn't I feel sore if there's been a dirty trick played on us on the lease?"

"But you it didn't give a heart attack."

"Well I don't think it gave Pa one, either." Arnold replied. "He told me that he'd had several other attacks that he thought were only indigestion. What happened on the lease is one of those things that happens in business, as far as Mr. Kaplan is concerned, he's a nice man, he's religious—"

"Oh, religious!"

"Yes, religious, and the letter he wrote to Pa was just what he had to write as president of the temple, the board voted on it and he naturally wrote to tell us the result, that's all there was to it."

"That's all?" she challenged. "According to Kaplan's letter, it was a unanimous vote, and the rabbi, who is a board member too, said he didn't even know about it. You think the rabbi was telling a lie?"

"Look, Ma, the rabbi wasn't there, the unanimous vote came from those who were there, as for the lease. I don't give a damn. If it expires and Safferstein wants the store, that doesn't mean we have to move out the next day. It can drag on for months, and we can get another store. I'm not crazy about the location anyway. What's more. I don't see why you're so— so stubborn about it when Pa isn't."

"Oh, your father, he thinks the rabbi can do something for him," she said scornfully.

"Maybe he can."

"So when he does, I'll accept Mrs. Kaplan's invitation."