Friday the Rabbi Slept Late Read Free Page A

told her –”
    “Just a minute, Mr. Schwarz. I take it that’s as far as you can go with the story from your own knowledge. I mean, from here on you would be telling what your wife told you rather than what you yourself experienced.”
    “I thought you said we weren’t going to have any legalistic rules –”
    “We’re not, but since we want to get the story down first, obviously it would be better to let Mr. Reich continue. I just want the story in chronological order.”
    “Oh, all right.”
    “Mr. Reich.”
    “It’s just as Ben told it. I started out with Mrs. Weinbaum. It was foggy and dark of course, but we drove along at a good clip. Then, when we were getting home, the car slowed to a stop. Fortunately, a cruising car came along and the cop asked what the trouble was. I told him we couldn’t get started, so he said he’d get us a tow. About five minutes later, a tow truck came from an outlying garage and pulled us to town. It was late then, past midnight I guess, and there was no mechanic in attendance. So I called a Cab and took Mrs. Weinbaum home. And wouldn’t you know it, when we got there the house was dark and Mrs. Weinbaum had forgotten her key.”
    “Then how did you get in?” asked the rabbi.
    “She said she always left one of the windows unlatched and it could be reached by climbing the porch. The way I was feeling, I couldn’t have made it up a steep flight of stairs, and of course she couldn’t. The cabby was a young fellow but claimed he had a game leg. Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t, and maybe he was afraid we were trying to get him involved in a burglary. But he did tell us that the night patrolman usually stopped for coffee and a cigarette at the milk plant about that time. By now Mrs. Weinbaum was almost frantic, so we sent the cabby after the cop, and just as they came back, who should drive up but the two boys. They’d gone to a movie in town! Well, I guess Mrs. Weinbaum was so relieved to see they were all right she didn’t even bother to thank me, just swept into the house with them, leaving me to explain it to the cop.”
    Schwarz, sensing an implied criticism, said, “Sarah must have been very upset because normally she’s very considerate.”
    Reich made no comment, but continued, “Well, I told the cop what had happened. He didn’t say anything, just gave me that suspicious look they have. You can imagine how I felt by that time. My nose was stuffed up so I couldn’t breathe, my bones ached, and I guess I was running a fever. I stayed in bed all day Sunday, and when my wife came home from Belknap, I was asleep and I didn’t even hear her come in. The next morning, I still felt rotten so I decided not to go to the office. When Myra called, Betsy, my wife, answered. She woke me up and I told her what had happened and gave her the name of the garage, to give to Myra. Next thing I know, maybe ten minutes later, the phone rings again and it’s Myra and she insists on talking to me. So I got out of bed and she tells me that she has just called the garage and they say that I ruined her car, that I ran it without oil and that the whole engine is junk and that she’s holding me responsible, and so on and so forth. She was pretty rough over the phone, and I wasn’t feeling too good, so I told her to do anything she darn pleased, and hung up on her and went back to bed.” The rabbi looked questioning^ at Schwarz. “Well, according to my wife, he said some other things too, but I guess that’s about what happened.”
    The rabbi swiveled around in his chair and slid back the glass door of the bookcase behind him. He studied the books on the shelf for a moment, and then drew one out. Schwarz grinned, and catching Wasserman’s eye, winked at him. Reich’s mouth twitched as he suppressed a smile. The rabbi, however, was oblivious as he thumbed through the book. Every now and then, he halted at a page and skimmed through it, nodding his head. Occasionally, he massaged his