Fima stood up, chastened and humble, muttered an apology, started to look for his coat, and suddenly said shyly:

“It’s February, Yael: it’ll be your birthday soon. I’ve forgotten. Perhaps you’ve already had it? I don’t remember the date. I don’t even have a three-phase system to give you.”

“It’s Friday, February 16, 1989. The time is 11:10 A.M. So what?”

“You said we all want something from you and you have nothing more to give.”

“Surprise, surprise: so you’ve managed to take in half a sentence after all.”

“But the fact is, I don’t want anything from you, Yael. On the contrary, I want to find something that will give you a little pleasure.”

“You have nothing to give. Your hands are empty. In any case, don’t you worry about my pleasure. It so happens I have a real feast every day, or nearly every day. At work, at my drawing board, or in the wind tunnel. That’s my life. That’s the only place where I really exist a little. Maybe you ought to start doing something, Efraim. That’s the whole of your problem: you don’t do anything. You just read the papers and get worked up. Why don’t you give private lessons, volunteer for civil defense, do some translating, give lectures to soldiers about the meaning of Jewish ethics.”

“Somebody, I think it was Schopenhauer, wrote that the intellect divides everything up, whereas intuition restores the oneness that was lost. But I’m telling you, Yael, that our farce doesn’t divide into two but, as Rabin always says, into three. Schopenhauer and the rest of them ignore the Third State. Wait, don’t interrupt. Just give me two minutes to explain it to you.”

But then he fell silent, even though this time Yael had not interrupted him.

He said:

“I’ll give you everything I have. I know it’s not much.”

“You have nothing, Effy. Just the scraps you shnorr from the rest of us.”

“Will you come back to me? You and Dimi? We can go to Greece.”

“And live on nectar and ambrosia?”

“I’ll get a job. I’ll work as a salesman for my father’s firm. A night watchman. A waiter even.”

“Sure, a waiter. You’ll drop everything.”