Levy was still up, and dressed, even though it was ten and he was usually ready for bed by now. He looked terrible, flushed and vague like someone with a high fever. But he said that he felt fine. He’d just started watching Notorious on the TV and couldn’t stop. She sat with him and tried to watch too. But all the actors’ gestures seemed bizarre to her, their problems trivial; she was going to tell Jacob about the knife, and she turned to him to do it, then saw that he wasn’t watching the screen but was staring at the wall, concentrating on nothing, like a man in a trance. She sat back in her chair while Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant kissed for what seemed like the last time in their lives, and she realized that it didn’t matter about the knife. It wouldn’t have mattered if Mike had carried a gun or a bomb. He was mishpochah and the Garners were not. The blacks could never be, and that was all the justice and reason there’d ever be to it. It wasn’t justice that mattered to Jacob nor to any of them, it was . . . affiliation. In the movie, Claude Rains’s Nazi mother understood that. Why should she, Rachel Levy, have so much trouble with it? She went upstairs before the movie was over, and fell asleep sitting up in bed with her book open on her chest and the lights on. At midnight, Willa called her.

“I’m sorry, honey, did I wake you?”

“Half and half,” Rachel said. “Anything wrong?”

“No . . . just fog and feeling down and kind of spooky.”

“Kids sleeping?”

“Yeah . . .”

“Want me to come over?”

“No, just talk a few minutes.”

They talked about the wedding. Rachel wanted to wear a suit, Golda said she should wear a gown, but Willa said a short dress was best. Rachel was too short for suits, she said. Especially with the new big shoulders and short skirts. Ivory silk, Willa said, and as she said it, Rachel saw it, half full skirt, not too short, and a beige veil, maybe some sparkles on it.

“Sparkles,” Willa laughed, then she said, “something just fell downstairs.” She sounded scared.

“Go see, Willa, I’ll wait.”

The other end was quiet for a minute, then Willa said, “I think it’s that exhibit Eric’s building for the science show. He’s got it propped up in the foyer.”

“You okay?”

“Fine. I’ll make him take care of it in the morning.”