Unwind

Soon people grab the microphone and, holding up glasses of champagne, they start making toasts to Lev. His parents give a toast. His grandmother gives a toast. An uncle he doesn’t even know gives a toast.

“To Lev: It’s been a joy to watch you grow into the fine young man you are, and I know in my heart that you’ll do great things for everyone you touch in this world.”

It feels wonderful and weird for so many people to say so many kind things about him. It’s all too much, but in some strange way it’s not enough. There’s got to be more. More food. More dancing. More time. They’re already bringing out the birthday cake. Everyone knows the party ends once the cake is served. Why are they bringing out the cake? Can it really be three hours into the party?

Then comes one more toast. It’s the toast that almost ruins the evening.

Of Lev’s many brothers and sisters, Marcus has been the quietest all evening. It’s unlike him. Lev should have known something was going to happen.

Lev, at thirteen, is the youngest often. Marcus, at twenty-eight, is the oldest. He flew halfway across the country to be here at Lev’s tithing party, and yet he’s barely danced, or spoken, or been a part of any of the festivities. He’s also drunk.

Lev has never seen Marcus drunk.

It happens after the formal toasts are given, when Lev’s cake is being cut and distributed. It doesn’t start as a toast; it starts as just a moment between brothers.

“Congrats, little bro,” Marcus says, giving him a powerful hug. Lev can smell the alcohol on Marcus’s breath. “Today you’re a man. Sort of.”

Their father, sitting at the head table just a few feet away, lets out a nervous chuckle.

“Thanks . . . sort of,” Lev responds. He glances at his parents. His father waits to see what’s coming next. His mother’s pinched expression makes Lev feel tense.

Marcus stares at Lev with a smile that doesn’t hold any of the emotion a smile usually comes with. “What do you think of all this?” he asks Lev.

“It’s great.”

“Of course it is! All these people here for you? It’s an amazing night. Amazing!”

“Yeah,” says Lev. He’s not sure where this is going, but he knows it’s going somewhere. “I’m having the time of my life.”

“Damn right! The time of your life! Gotta wrap up all those life events, all those parties, into one—birthdays, wedding, funeral.” Then he turns to their father. “Very efficient, right, Dad?”

“That’s enough,” their father says quietly, but it only makes Marcus get louder.

“What? I’m not allowed to talk about it? Oh, that’s right—this is a celebration. I almost forgot.”

Lev wants Marcus to stop, but at the same time he doesn’t.

Mom stands up and says in a voice more forceful than Dad’s, “Marcus, sit down. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

By now everyone in the banquet hall has stopped whatever they were doing and are tuned in to the unfolding family-drama. Marcus, seeing he has the room’s attention, picks up someone’s half-empty glass of champagne, and holds it high.

“Here’s to my brother, Lev,” Marcus says. “And to our parents! Who have always done the right thing. The appropriate thing. Who have always given generously to charity. Who have always given 10 percent of everything to our church. Hey, Mom—we’re lucky you had ten kids instead of five, otherwise we’d end up having to cut Lev off at the waist!”

Gasps from all those assembled. People shaking their heads. Such disappointing behavior from an eldest son.

Now Dad comes up and grabs Marcus’s arm tightly. “You’re done!” Dad says. “Sit down.”

Marcus shakes Dad’s arm off. “Oh, I’ll do better than sit down.” Now there are tears in Marcus’s eyes as he turns to Lev. “I love you, bro . . . and I know this is your special day. But I can’t be a part of this.” He hurls the champagne glass against the wall, where it shatters, spraying fragments of crystal all over the buffet table. Then he turns and storms out with such steady confidence in his stride that Lev realizes he’s not drunk at all.

Lev’s father signals the band and they kick into a dance number even before Marcus is gone from the huge room. People begin to fill the void of the dance floor, doing their best to make the awkward moment go away.

“I’m sorry about that, Lev,” his father tells him. “Why don’t you . . . why don’t you go dance?”

But Lev finds he doesn’t want to dance anymore. The desire he had to be the center of attention left along with his brother. “I’d like to talk to Pastor Dan, if that’s all right.”

“Of course it is.”

Pastor Dan has been a family friend since before Lev was born, and he has always been much easier to talk to than his parents about any subject that required patience and wisdom.

The banquet hall is too loud, too crowded, so they go outside to the patio overlooking the country club’s golf course.

“Are you getting scared?” Pastor Dan asks. He’s always able to figure out what’s on Lev’s mind.

Lev nods. “I thought I was ready. I thought I was prepared.”

“It’s natural. Don’t worry about it,”

But it doesn’t ease the disappointment Lev feels in himself. He’s had his entire life to prepare for this—it should have been enough. He knew he was a tithe from the time he was little. “You’re special,” his parents had always told him. “Your life will be to serve God, and mankind.” He doesn’t remember how old he was when he found out exactly what that meant for him.

“Have kids in school been giving you a hard time?”

“No more than usual,” Lev tells him. It’s true. All his life he’s had to deal with kids who resented him, because grownups treated him as if he was special.

There were kids who were kind, and kids who were cruel. That was life. It did bother him, though, when kids called him things like “dirty Unwind.” As if he was like those other kids, whose parents signed the unwind order to get rid of them.

That couldn’t be further from the truth for Lev. He is his family’s pride and joy.

Straight As in school, MVP in little league. Just because he’s to be unwound does NOT means he’s an Unwind.

There are, of course, a few other tithes at his school, but they’re all from other religions, so Lev has never felt a real sense of camaraderie with them. The huge turnout at tonight’s party testifies to how many friends Lev has—but they’re not like him: Their lives will be lived in an undivided state. Their bodies and their futures are their own. Lev has always felt closer to God than to his friends, or even his family. He often wonders if being chosen always leaves a person so isolated. Or is there something wrong with him?

“I’ve been having lots of wrong thoughts,” Lev tells Pastor Dan.

“There are no wrong thoughts, only thoughts that need to be worked through and overcome.”

“Well . . . I’ve just been feeling jealous of my brothers and sisters. I keep thinking of how the baseball team is going to miss me. I know it’s an honor and a blessing to be a tithe, but I can’t stop wondering why it has to be me.”

Pastor Dan, who was always so good at looking people in the eye, now looks away. “It was decided before you were born. It’s not anything you did, or didn’t do.”

“The thing is, I know tons of people with big families . . .”

Pastor Dan nodded. “Yes, it’s very common these days.”

“But lots of those people don’t tithe at all—even families in our church—and nobody blames them.”

“There are also people who tithe their first, second, or third child. Every family must make the decision for itself. Your parents waited a long time before making the decision to have you.”

Lev reluctantly nods, knowing it’s true. He was a “true tithe.” With five natural siblings, plus one adopted, and three that arrived “by stork,” Lev was exactly one-tenth. His parents had always told him that made him all the more special.

“I’ll tell you something, Lev,” Pastor Dan says, finally meeting his eye. Like Marcus, his eyes are moist, just one step short of tears. “I’ve watched all your brothers and sisters grow and, although I don’t like playing favorites, I think you are the finest of all of them in so many ways, I wouldn’t even know where to start. That’s what God asks for, you know. Not first fruits but best fruits.”