Posted As Missing

Chapter Forty-Two

A few minutes later, David stood as Bethia rejoined them in the parlour. She was quiet and appeared to be deep in thought as she sat. After a minute, she looked up. "Pardon my distraction. I'm forgetting I have guests — no, not guests — family. I have family to enfold and to welcome, and here I am, off somewhere in my mind doing business."

"Tante, business is important," Rachel said.

"Never more important than family."

"I was concerned, Tante Bethia," Maria said. "I peeked through the curtains to check on you. Who was that elegant couple?"

"They want to buy the Schlachthof, the slaughterhouse. This was their third visit. I've tried to convince them to also take the Metzgerei, but they say they know nothing of this end of the business."

"So where do the negotiations sit?" David asked.

"Their lawyer is coming on Wednesday. I need to find out who our lawyer is. Aaron always did such things. Unimportant things to me. People are so much more important. Will you stay?"

"Of course, we'll stay, Tante." Maria nodded. "How can we not support family? David was studying business and accounting before the war. He's wonderfully inventive and creative with everything I've seen. He's wise far beyond his age, so I'm sure he can poke holes in any strange offers and give their lawyer every good reason to be reasonable. How could we not stay?"

"I've locked and shuttered the front and tomorrow is our closed day. Now we can relax and enjoy each other without interruption. I'm excited by your adventure getting here. Please, Maria, continue the story. More tea?"

Maria continued to unfold their adventure, often pausing in amazement it had happened, or pausing at memories so deeply intense in her nethers and in her soul. She led the story to the door of Tante's Delicatessen.

She looked up into her great aunt's eyes and said, "And that's how we've arrived here, ragged, exposed and vulnerable. Far out on a limb whose strength we're unsure of, but wrapped in the confidence the power we share will pull us through."

"I'm in awe. What strong people you are. I'm honoured and privileged to have you under my roof."

They sat and caught up on family since Edom had moved Rachel and the children to the Kaiserstühl in 1905. Bethia told stories of people Rachel had long since forgotten about, but she kept going back to the relationship among the three of them. She sensed there was more than just David and Maria involved after such a close, intense encounter.

Rachel finally said, "Tante, this may seem strange, but bear with me as I unfold it. I'm not sure where this is going, but there is a strong force inside me pushing. Please don't be taken aback by this question. I need to know. Have you ever experienced an uncircumcised penis?"

Bethia looked her in the eyes, paused only a second or two and said, "The only non-Kosher men's meat I've seen were a week or less old, before their circumcision. They were the size of the tip of my little finger, impossible to see any detail. I have no idea what a grown one looks like."

"Tante, they are so completely different. The rabbis have been cheating us. Robbing us of God's design. I discovered what the actual design is during the past week and a half. We must stop the horrid mutilation of our boys."

"Am I correct in assuming David isn't circumcised?"

"Yes, you are. That tiny skin snip the book and the rabbis talk about, Tante, that snip is a major mutilation. I don't think many are aware how much is destroyed. Tradition doesn't allow us to venture outside the faith to experience."