Tepel said something to Garfield in Yiddish, and Garfield blushed. “It’ll have to be a lake somewhere,” he said. “They wouldn’t let you into a mikveh. You don’t look Jewish.” The men started laughing again, but Rachel was quiet. She was thinking about the mikveh, the ritual bath that she’d only heard about and never been to. Orthodox women went there, seven days after they stopped menstruating, because according to the rabbis or whoever made the laws, blood corrupted—menstrual blood, virgin blood, the blood of childbirth. An Orthodox Jewish man wouldn’t shake hands with a grown woman because she might be bleeding and even her touch would make him impure. Keep yourself free of blood, the Torah said, but she couldn’t do that, no woman could. Then laws weren’t for women, she thought. Maybe because women weren’t people to the lawgivers, they were the “other.” Like Lilith, the demon. But if the laws weren’t for them, then they weren’t bound by them either. They could lie, cheat, steal. They could dishonor father, mother, God—their God. They could kill.

***** Children.

4

Chapter 4

Tepel, Garfield, and Hawkins sat on the rim of a lake near Tuxedo Park. Hawkins couldn’t believe that he was going into the water. “Ah,” Garfield said, “the moon . . . it’s time.” He wrapped his cardigan tightly around his thin chest and passed the bottle to Hawkins. Hawkins took a deep swallow and while the other two watched, he took off all his clothes. The wind pimpled his skin and he hugged himself. Tepel stared at his body in the light of the moon, and Hawkins sucked in his belly and flexed his breast muscles without meaning to.

Tepel grinned. “Now, there’s a golem killer,” he said, holding the bottle.

“Pretend we’re not here,” Garfield said gently. He handed Hawkins the comb and shook his head as he looked at the tight curled hair on his chest and at his crotch.

“All of it,” Garfield said. “Every strand. I hope it doesn’t hurt too much.”

It didn’t. The pulling made his skin tingle. It felt good in a way, and by the time he was done he was no longer cold and going into the black water in front of him didn’t bother him anymore. He handed the comb back to Garfield, then realized that some of his hair was still in it, and that the comb was covered with oil from his skin. But Garfield didn’t seem to mind. He pulled the stray hairs out of the comb’s teeth, and put the comb, oil and all, back in his pocket, looking at Hawkins, first his face, then his body.