Grub stood up, swiftly opening the door to the waiting room and backing out as quickly as possible into a room full of mostly Orthodox Jews waiting placidly to talk to someone about their aching backs or their sore feet.

28

THE RECKONING

Yaakov opened the door, quietly putting his briefcase down as he awaited the standard rush of greeting from the little ones. To his surprise, it didn’t come.

“Yaakov! How did it go?” Leah asked him, putting her arms around him and pulling him close.

His face was pale, his eyes listless. “Where are Icy and Cheeky?” he asked her, concerned.

“In their room. I told them not to jump all over you when you came through the door. To let you catch your breath.”

Only now, in the quiet of the house that had all but ignored his return, did he realize how precious that moment was and how he couldn’t live without it. He walked down the hall and opened the door to their bedroom. They were sitting on the floor playing. They looked up at him with big, sad eyes.

“Who is going to guess what I have in my pockets?”

They jumped up and ran to him, hugging him and digging their small hands into his pockets, pulling out little handfuls of candies in cellophane and foil-wrapped chocolates.

“Tateh, Tateh, Tateh!” they screamed in joy, practically knocking him over.

He sat down on the floor, letting them climb all over him.

Leah hung back at the door, watching them, happy. “But you can’t eat all that stuff now before your dinner,” she cautioned, smiling. “Give it to me, and I’ll put it away for you in a magic box, and once a day, you can pick one to eat, all right?”

Quickly, Chasya opened a few chocolates, stuffing them into her mouth. Mordechai Shalom tried to follow suit, but he wasn’t fast enough. Yaakov compassionately helped him open one before Leah collected the booty.

“Come, wash for dinner,” she told them as Yaakov got up and dusted himself off. They ran off into the kitchen.

“I have to talk to Shaindele,” Yaakov whispered. “Is she home?”

“Yes, in her room. She’s afraid to come out and face you.”

He shook his head. “My poor little girl.”

“You’ve changed your mind? What happened?”

“I’ll tell you everything after we put the kinderlach to bed.”

He knocked softly on Shaindele’s door. “It’s Tateh. Can I come in?”

He heard a barely audible yes.

She was sitting at her desk, books and notebooks opened, a pen in her hand. Could she really concentrate on homework amid all this turmoil, or was it a pose?

“How are you, maideleh?”