Trap (9781476793177) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Sobelman. Zak stood with his head down while Giancarlo and Moishe appeared to be talking to him. Goldie was at Zak’s side with her hand on his shoulder.
    He took a moment to study his boys. They’d grown up so fast, and it was hard to believe that the tiny twin babies he’d held were now young men, and it wouldn’t be long before they’d be out of the house.
    When Zak and Giancarlo began their quest, they were already a little older than the traditional age of thirteen when most Jewish boys go through the bar mitzvah, the rite of passage from the innocence of youth to the responsibilities of manhood. Then the process had taken even longer due to a life that didn’t follow the normal pattern of two young men growing up in America. As the district attorney of New York, Karp was a magnet for sociopaths, terrorists, and other violent criminals of all makes and models. Marlene, who’d once headed the Sex Crimes Bureau at the DAO as an assistant DA, had left the office to become a private investigator/attorney now specializing in advocating for and protecting women from miscreant abusers, also attracted the dark side at an unusual rate. Their children had not been immune to the dangers inherent in their parents’ careers, and in fact had been under siege from dangerous felons and maniacs most of their lives, disrupting normal childhood and youth pursuits. As such, the road to Jewish manhood had been a long one, but at last the boys were in the final stages of their studies needed to achieve their goal.
    However, Zak was having misgivings. In fact, just the previous evening, he and his father had a conversation in which the boy said he didn’t see the point of going through with a ceremony marking his entry to manhood at seventeen years old when he’d already confronted more adult world issues than most people dealt with in a lifetime.
    â€œI’m not trying to talk you into anything, Zak,” Karp responded. “But I’m sure you know that the bar mitzvah is more than just a symbolic ‘rite of passage.’ ”
    â€œI know, I know,” Zak said with a sigh. “It also means I’m now accountable for my actions. But haven’t I been accountable enough? I mean, how many other kids have been kidnapped, shot at, bombed, and chased like me and Giancarlo? And now with these neo-Nazi jerks running around, maybe I’m tired of having a target on my back.”
    Zak said it lightly, but the truth of it went right to Karp’s heart. “I’m not going to argue with you about that,” he’d agreed. “You, your brother, sister, and mom have all had to take on more of this world’s dark aspects than you should have. I was just pointing out that going through with your bar mitzvah is saying more than one day you’re a boy and the next you’re a man.”
    â€œI get it,” Zak replied. He was quiet for a moment and then looked sideways at his father. “Will you be disappointed with me if I don’t go through with it?”
    Karp put his arm around the shoulders of his son. “Zak, I’ve been proud of you from the moment I laid my eyes on you,” he said. “And I’m even prouder of you now. I understand you’re dealing with an internal dilemma, and I can respect that. This decision is yours and yours alone to make, and whatever you decide I will think just as highly of you.”
    â€œThanks, Dad,” Zak said with a smile but then frowned again. “Even if I wanted to go through with it, I still don’t know what I’m going to do. It’s not just the whole idea of whether I’m done with the whole ‘becoming a man thing.’ You know that Rabbi Hamilburg is asking everyone to come up with something special for the ceremony. Some of the younger guys are putting on a skit, or doing a research paper on Jewish history that they have to present to the parents. And my genius bro,