The Big Nap Read Online Free PDF Page B

ends the match. Kill him.”
    I switched Isaac to the other breast. Mrs. Tannenbaum heaved a sigh and leaned back on her elbow. “
Gevalt.
Where is that girl?”
    “Did Fraydle want to get married?” I asked.
    “Of course she wanted to get married. What girl would turn down a match like that? A family like that? And theboy was even good-looking. Maybe a little skinny. Maybe a few pimples. They outgrow that. What twenty-four-year-old doesn’t have pimples?”
    “Had she spent much time with him?”
    “Rav Hirsch brought his son here a little while ago. They met, the son said yes to the match. They met again, maybe twice more. They had some time alone. I’m telling you, when I was a girl, we didn’t have such luxuries. We were lucky to see the boy’s face once before the wedding. Now, these children, they meet again and again.
Oy
, Fraydle. Hirsch hears about this, it will be the end.”
    “Has it occurred to you, Mrs. Tannenbaum, that maybe that’s exactly what Fraydle might want? Maybe she took off because she doesn’t want to get married.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous. This boy is special. This family is one of the Borough Park
machers
, the elite. The father, like I said, is an important rabbi. The mother is from money. Her brothers own half of Brooklyn. This match gives my brother ties to a powerful and important yeshiva and makes Fraydle a comfortable girl. We’re not so rich that she can turn her nose up at such an arrangement.” The woman once again patted Isaac on the head.
    He rolled off my breast with a contented belch. She reached out her arms and took him. I waited for his shriek of protest, but he seemed perfectly content to lie against her shoulder. She burped him gently.
    “Do you have children?” I asked.
    “No. Mr. Tannenbaum and I were not so blessed. My brother’s children are like my own.” She sounded a little wistful as she rubbed my baby’s back with the palm of her hand. He giggled with delight as she kissed him softly on the cheek.
    “You’re good with him. He’s not usually so affectionate with strangers.”
    “What strangers? He knows me. He’s been in my store. We’re friends. Right, Izzaleh? We’re old friends.”
    “Mrs. Tannenbaum, I don’t really know how I can help you here. I just met Fraydle. I really have no idea where she is.”
    “I know. Just talk to my sister-in-law. Let her ask you a few questions. Let her reassure herself that she’s followed every path.”
    “Okay. But I’m warning you, if your brother starts yelling at me again, I’m out that door like a bat out of hell.”
    She looked up and gave a snort. “I like that. Bat out of hell. I’m going to use that one. You, go talk to Sima. I’ll stay here with the baby.”
    I left them sitting on the bed, cooing at each other, and walked back into the kitchen. Once again, all conversation stopped when the women saw me. A young woman in a brown fake-Gucci headscarf patterned with backward logos hurriedly rose from her chair at the table and motioned for me to sit down. I did. A cup of tea and a plate of cookies materialized in front of me and Fraydle’s mother, Sima, sat down at my side.
    “The baby’s okay?” she asked.
    “He’s fine. He’s in love with Mrs. Tannenbaum.”
    She smiled thinly. “Nettie is good with the babies.”
    “Mrs. Finkelstein, I can’t give you much help. I don’t know your daughter very well. I met her only once before she came to work for me, and she only came to work once. I slept the whole time she was there. I didn’t really get a chance to talk to her.”
    “Did she tell you she had plans to go somewhere?Maybe ask your advice about where to go?” She seemed embarrassed to be asking these kinds of questions of a total stranger, but persisted. “Did you give her any money?”
    “No. She didn’t ask for my advice or tell me anything. She didn’t even let me pay her. I was expecting to pay her today.”
    I felt guilty for keeping Yossi’s existence a secret,