He turned his face to the wall and lay all night wide awake on the couch, hating himself for something he wasn’t to blame for. I couldn’t sleep either. And when it was almost morning, the thunder and lightning woke Yoni, and Tia wanted to go out. So Yoni got up and saw me sitting in my nightgown, thinking. You’re crazy, he said. Then Tia scratched to come back in. And Yoni went to open the door while Zaro lay there without moving, almost without breathing, that’s how scared and embarrassed he was. And Yoni grabbed me by the shoulders and took me and threw me on the bed like a sack and did it to me all clumsy and wrong and so mean that it hurt. Yoni, I whispered, stop, he’s awake, he can hear, don’t do this to him. Fuck him, whispered Yoni, what do I care? This is it because tomorrow I’ll be gone. How can you go when you’re sick? Just look how you’re burning with fever. Tomorrow I’m taking off, you crazy woman. If you want that crazy nut, I don’t care. He’s all yours, enjoy him, I’ve had it. Yoni, can’t you even see that you love him a little yourself? But I’m sleeping, Rimona. You can get up and go to him dripping with my sperm, what the hell do I care? Fuck it all! So I went to him dripping and sat down on the floor by his side and said I had come to sing to him. Then I put my hand on his cheek and it was burning too. Don’t talk now, child, give me your hand and see what I have, don’t say a word. Until a dirty light came through the slats of the blinds and Arbor Day began. I took a hot shower, dressed slowly in the shower stall, and went to work in the laundry. When I came home, the two of them were down with a high fever. I gave them aspirin and tea and covered them and put them to sleep. Black women by the blue Nile will change Efrat’s diaper.

Now they’re waking up. One is squirming, the other tossing from side to side. I’ll put away my embroidery.

Good night, Efrat, good night, Mr. Bach, good night, Mrs. Bach, good night, Mr. Yehoshafat. Yours, Rimona Fogel, says do not worry because everything is for the best. Whoever is sad will be happy. There is a mercy to be found behind all this rain. The refrigerator is humming because the power is back on. We will all be good.

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