“Well, I could have told you about it or said something at some point. I did kind of hide the piece from you, okay? And I admit I was tempted a little, when I had the CAG testing done, but I never went back to the piece at that time. So look, I’m not going to work on it, you don’t need to worry. Never. So relax. Okay? Done.” He pulled her over to the sofa, and they sat huddled together and touching each other—the way couples waiting for their appointments with her often sat huddled together and touching each other, Rebecca noted.

“George, listen. Seriously. We definitely should have talked about this long before now. It’s ridiculous that it never came up over all this time. I’m sorry if I made you feel that you couldn’t talk to me about it, for whatever reason. You sound angry.”

“I’m not angry at you.”

“I’m not angry at you, or I’m not angry at you?”

“I’m not angry at you,” George said, “but that reminds me of someone who probably is. Isn’t that Ruth person coming over later?”

“Damn it, yes, she is. I keep forgetting she’s coming. Taking this month off, I thought I would get so much done, but instead I get stupider by the day, and now I can’t even remember the days of the week. Or I didn’t want to remember her, because she is such a huge pain. But I guess we’ve just established my excellent denial credentials.”

“She’s coming when?”

“Four.”

“Okay, then. Before she gets here, I want to read through everything she sent you, and then I want to sit down with you and make a plan about what we want to show her, what we want to tell her, what we don’t want to show or tell her, and what we want to find out from her.”

“Good thinking. Thank you. Let’s do it. My guess is, she’ll be early, and she’ll bring dry poppy-seed cake.”

“Isn’t poppy-seed cake supposed to be dry?”

“Esther would have explained to you the world of difference between dry and too dry. It’s like the world of difference between enough and more than enough.”

“Which will this be?”

“Too dry.”

Twelve

Transcription of Esther Gottesfeld interview #1, conducted by Ruth Zion, West Village Jewish Home, New York City, April 12, 1999. Ruth Zion transcription, April 25, 1999

[question] I was born in Belarus—everyone just says Russia, because the names are changing all the time—on October 20, in 1895. I came with my sister Pauline and we got to America on a boat that landed at Ellis Island on January 12, 1909. You want to know about my life before we got here? [explanation of scope of interview from interviewer] Okay, it’s just that lots of people want to know the names of my family and I could tell you if you want, also about life in the shtetl and how it was in Pinsk before we came to America. But you got your plan, okay. It interests some people to hear, anyway, even if they don’t need the information.