Yes, they would be there when she got back. Poor Socorro. Pity poor Socorro finding them. Socorro who was innocent of all this.
“Can I get a model rocket,” Kevin asked. He turned off the television.
“And a shopping cart? They were out of them before,” Harlow said.
“We’ll see,” Joshua answered.
“That means ‘no,’ ” Kevin said to Harlow.
Joshua closed the door to the garage. He didn’t push the automatic door opener. “Get in and buckle up,” he said. How many times had he said that. He got into the car and started the motor.
“You better open the door,” Kevin said.
“In a minute.” Joshua got out of the car and opened Harlow’s door. He adjusted the car-seat belt, kissed Harlow on the cheek.
“You dumb-head,” Harlow said.
He didn’t know how long it would take. He could smell the supposedly odorless gas. Or maybe the car needed a tune-up. Probably did, hadn’t been tuned up in…
He got back in his seat.
“Dad.”
Socorro didn’t mind the rabbi talking over the boys. Joshua might have minded, but she didn’t know anymore. He had changed so much in the last months.
The old man, Joshua’s father, had arranged everything. If it had been left to Socorro, they would still be—
She didn’t mind the rabbi talking. She listened to his words, the rolling murmur of them, but didn’t understand, even when he spoke English. It didn’t matter. What could words do? What could anything do?
The old man, Joshua’s father, sat next to Socorro, and next to him was his wife. They had grown gray together. To lose a son was their grief. But she had lost two. And a husband.
The old man held his prayer book so tightly his knuckles showed white. More words.
She didn’t mind the rabbi and his words. What did he understand? The music was strange, and he never mentioned death.
Life. All he talked about was life. Those who go on, not those who have left. Those who have chosen to leave.
Life… she never had the chance to tell Joshua…
How could he have done such a thing? To his own sons? She knew it was no accident.
She was almost glad she hadn’t been able to tell him the news from the doctor. Two children were enough for him to take. She would protect the third, the one in her womb. Yes, for the good man that Joshua had been, for the man she had loved and married—not for the monster he had become—she would protect their child. She would give Joshua someone to carry his name, Yosevs, down through the years. She would protect his heir. Their child.
She placed her hands on her belly.
Their son.
Copyright
Copyright ® 1993 by DAW Books, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Cover art by Les Edwards
DAW Book Collectors No. 928.
If you purchase this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher. In such case neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
First Printing, October 1993
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