Weiser drew a diagram of a five-­pointed star on his napkin and Garfield said they should have charts and flags, like a battle plan. “If there’s no battle,” Weiser said, “then this thing is harmless, and you’re a couple of putzes. So think of it as a battle plan. It wouldn’t hurt. Okay, here’s the star and all its points . . . twelve o’clock is spirit, three o’clock is water, five is fire, seven is earth, and nine is air. Okay, now spirit can’t be just a reference point to you . . . spirit must be spirit . . . Ain Soph Aur.”

“Say it again,” Garfield said softly.

“Ain Soph Aur.”

Ain Soph Aur, Garfield thought. The Aunt Sophie that Hawkins had asked about. The hardest of all concepts to grasp. Ain, nothing; Soph, limitlessness; Aur, light. Nothing limitlessness light. Absolute nothingness, unbeing, infinite emptiness. That was Aunt Sophie. Not death, not prelife, but the state before life ever was. Dear Aunt Sophie. The Infinite. And as the limitless light thickens . . . thickens? Garfield shook his head. It becomes extended into Kether . . . the crown of the tree of life of Cabala. Reach for Kether, reach for Aunt Sophie, and find ecstasy. Tante Sophie, source of ecstasy.

“Okay,” Weiser said. “Each of the elements you represent corresponds to an angel. Fire—Michael; air—Raphael; water—Gabriel. Notice, the angels’ names have seven letters. Start with Michael.

“He leaves the star and circles the golem seven times to his right, saying his name as he goes. But every time he finishes a circle, he drops a letter of the name. So he starts with Michael and ends on the L. He should say it llll . . . as seriously as if he were saying Kaddish. When Fire-Michael is done, Air-­Raphael does the same thing, then Water-­Gabriel. . . .”

“The golem is going to sit still for all of this?” Tepel asked.

“The golem has no will. It can’t speak, it can’t be counted in a minyan.”¶¶¶¶ Weiser grinned and Garfield realized that he was a little drunk. “The golem has no sex drive and no intelligence. It will do whatever its creator tells it. If the creator knows what you’re doing, he will undoubtedly try to stop you. Okay, after the three of you have made your seven circles each, you bow to the south, north, west, and east.”

“Sounds very silly,” Garfield said.

“Of course it’s silly,” Weiser said.

“But it’ll work?”

Weiser finished the water glass of brandy and Tepel poured more. It was almost ten and except for a cop and a bus driver eating soup, the place was empty. The busboy stood at the front, watching them.

“It’s supposed to,” he said.

“Damn it, Weiser,” Garfield cried, “it worked for them.”