The Big Nap Read Online Free PDF

drawings that covered every wall, every cabinet door, and the fridge. A large round table scarred by years of use was shoved into a corner. Sitting around the table and leaning against every counter were women. There were old women in stiff, discolored wigs, younger women wearing fashionable well-coiffed wigs or headscarves, and girls with long braids or hair cropped to chin-length. The room smelled warm and yeasty, like baking bread. The woman who had taken my arm was wearing a loose-fitting gray woolen dress. Her brown wig was slightly askew and her face was red and blotchy. Her large, violet, lavishly lashed eyes were bloodshot. Clearly she, too, had been crying.
    “Please excuse my husband, Mrs. Applebaum. He is not used to dealing with . . . with other people. Not from our community, I mean. He is upset. We are all upset. Come through here to the back bedroom. Nurse your baby there.We’ll talk in a minute, okay? Nurse your baby and then maybe you’ll tell us what Fraydle did yesterday. Maybe you’ll be able to help us figure out where she is, okay?” She led me into a back room and shouted over her shoulder, “Nettie! You come sit with Mrs. Applebaum.” Mrs. Tannenbaum, who had followed us into the kitchen, quickly walked into the room. Fraydle’s mother backed out the door and shut it quietly behind her.
    I looked around me. Mrs. Tannenbaum and I were standing in a small bedroom with a twin bed tucked into a corner. There was a desk chair against one wall. The room was dim; the only window was covered by a dark shade pulled tightly closed.
    Isaac was still crying, and I sat down on the bed and quickly undid my shirt. His tears had started my milk flowing and I had soaked right through the nursing pad and my bra. My shirt had a large wet spot right around Madonna’s grimacing profile. I pulled out a breast and drew Isaac close to me. He began sucking desperately. I sighed and looked up at Mrs. Tannenbaum, the woman who’d gotten me into this mess in the first place.
    “You told me that Fraydle’s father wouldn’t mind if she worked for me. That he’d
love
for her to work for me.”
    She didn’t answer.
    “But you didn’t even ask him,” I continued.
    “I was going to tell him, I’m telling you.” She sounded defensive. “I was going to talk to him today. I came over this morning to tell him. But by the time I got here, it was already a huge
balagan.
A mess. The girl was gone. My sister-in-law was hysterical. The men were here. My brother, he’s out of his mind with worry. I told him right away about Fraydle’s job.” She sat down next to me andgently stroked Isaac’s head. “
Oy vay
, what a catastrophe this is. A complete
imglik.
”
    “I’m sure she’ll be back,” I said. “Teenage girls run away all the time. Mostly they come home right away.” I couldn’t help thinking of all the girls I’d seen during the years I’d practiced as a public defender. Young girls who ran away from home and ended up on the street dealing drugs, turning tricks, doing robberies with their no-good boyfriends. I didn’t mention them.
    “Our girls don’t run away, Mrs. Applebaum. They never run away, and certainly not when they are about to be married.”
    “Fraydle was getting married?”
    “Of course, didn’t she tell you? A wonderful
shiddach
, a match. A very important New York family, I’m telling you. The boy’s father leads the biggest yeshiva in Borough Park. A wonderful family. Very important.”
    “Fraydle didn’t tell me that.”
    “She’s a shy girl. Quiet. Maybe she didn’t feel like she knew you well enough. This is a very lucky match for our Fraydle. The boy is smart, destined to follow in his father’s footsteps. And not bad-looking, either.
Oy
, Fraydle. If Rav Hirsch hears of this, he’ll call off the wedding, for sure. He’ll never let his son marry an uncontrollable girl.
Chas
’
shalom
he should hear about this. I’m telling you, it’ll kill my brother if Hirsch