Page 134 - issue

in her pocket. There was someone else
in her life. Someone else who needed
to learn about the release of funds –
both because of his indirect involve-
ment with the case, and because of his
future involvement in her life.
Reuven Berkowitz.
They’d been dating each other for
over three weeks now, and Chana knew
that he was ready to get engaged. So
long as her sense of security and well-
being had been hanging in the balance,
she hadn’t felt ready to commit to mar-
riage.
But now it was almost as though her
late husband was winking at her from
above. Telling her that he cared about
her, loved her, and wanted her to have
only the best in life.
Remarriage was the logical next
step.
◆◆◆
“Rusi?” It was Etty Taub. “How’s it
going at Mercy Care? Now that you’ve
become a full-time masseuse, you don’t
have time for your friends anymore,
huh?”
It was true. Rusi’s time had become
much more limited since she’d begun
working in the hospice. She wasn’t sure
that was such a bad thing, though,
since an honest assessment of her
friendships showed her that 90 percent
of them existed due to circumstance.
She had free time, her friends had free
time, and so they hung out together.
Would she have become so close to
Etty if the circumstances were different?
It was hard to know.
“Earth to Rusi. Are you there?”
“Yeah, sure I’m here. I’m just think-
ing about my job. It’s demanding, and I
get home exhausted most days.”
“We’ll have to meet up some day,
then, so you can chill.”
“Yeah.” It felt good, however, to push
off such “chilling time” for an unspeci-
fied date in the future. “It’s kind of hard engaged…and then she would get mar-
to think of chilling when you work with
people on the brink of... well, on the
brink of the next world.”
“Oh, don’t be so morbid, Rusi. Can
we please change the topic?”
Rusi grinned. That was one thing
she liked about Etty, her ability to float
quickly from one subject to the next.
126 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
“Sure, what do you want to talk about,
Etty? I heard that the price of tea in
China is on the rise.”
“And I heard that your mother is
dating these days.”
Rusi fell silent for a moment and
then quickly recouped. Their commu-
nity circle wasn’t that large. It made
sense that Etty had heard the news.
“She’s about to announce her engage-
ment, actually.”
“Really?” A squeal and then, “Oh my
goodness Rusi, how are you coping?”
Rusi looked down at her fingers. An
ostentatious ring with a large stone
gleamed up at her. One of the nurses at
Mercy Care had commented on it that
morning, asking her if she was married.
No. She wasn’t married. And her
mother was about to get married for a
second time.
She sighed.
“My mother has a right to move on
with her life,” she said stiffly. “She’s not latest trends, and her taste bordered on
a child. And neither am I.”
“You’re right,” Etty said, but there
seemed to be a note of reproach in her
voice, and Rusi wondered whether it
was aimed at her or her mother. “So
who’s the lucky man?”
Rusi hesitated. She didn’t feel it was
right to reveal the name of her mother’s
date before things were official. “How
about we wait until the official engage-
ment before I say?”
Etty tutted, but, to Rusi’s relief, she
didn’t press the issue. “Just tell me one
thing. Does he live in Brooklyn?”
“No, he doesn’t,” Rusi said. “But why
does that matter?”
“For you it matters,” Etty said. “Don’t
you realize that?”
“Actually, no,” Rusi said. She looked
around her room, trying to figure out
what Etty was getting at. And then it hit
her. Her mother was going to be
ried and move to Far Rockaway. As for
her... “You’re right,” she said slowly. “I
didn’t even think of that aspect.”
“Your mother’s going to be moving
away,” Etty said. “That basically means
you’re on your own.”
“It’s not like my mother is leaving a
child,” Rusi said, her voice tinged with
annoyance. “I’m a big girl and my moth-
er has every right to make her own
decisions in life. It’s time for each of us
to look out for ourselves.”
Etty was silent for a moment.
“Maybe you want a roommate?” she
asked quietly. “Someone to live in your
house with you and pay your mother
rent?”
Bam! So that was what Etty was
after. It made sense, to a certain degree.
Etty didn’t like the limitations of her
home life, and now she wanted to live
with Rusi. As two singles on their own.
The image of Rusi’s morning and
her work at Mercy Care came to mind.
Her work with people who had one foot
out of this world and who were already
shining with a glow of otherworldly
light.
It was difficult to be petty and mate-
rial-minded when confronted with such
scenes on a daily basis.
Etty Taub was a very sweet girl, but
she was a bit too preoccupied with the
the outrageous. Did Rusi want to live
with her and interact with her every
single day of the week? “You’ve given
me something to think about,” she said
slowly. “I’m not even sure that my moth-
er is thinking along those lines yet, and
I’m not about to pressure her now.”
“You really are at the peace with the
fact that she’s getting married and
you’re not,” Etty said, and this time her
voice was filled with admiration.
Rusi could have easily said, “It’s not
like I have a choice in the matter,” but
she didn’t. She knew that such a state-
ment wasn’t true. First, she really did
have a choice. She could have
expressed her distaste and upset and
even balked or thrown a tantrum. Her
mother would have taken her seriously
if she’d done such a thing. Because she
knew her mother cared about her chil-
dren very much.
But there was more to it. It was pre-
cisely because of her mother’s caring,
because of the unequivocal way in
which love and attention and time had
been lavished upon her since infant-
hood, that Rusi knew the time had
come for her to pull back. Her mother
deserved another stab at happiness.
She couldn’t, and didn’t want to,