Monday the Rabbi Took Off by Harry Kemelman Read Free Book Online

historical. I mean, it is not significant merely because we happened to come from there, but rather because it is the particular place assigned to us by God.”
    “You believe that, Rabbi?”
    The rabbi smiled. “I have to believe it. It’s so large a part of our religious beliefs that if I doubted it, I’d have to doubt the rest. And if the rest were in doubt, our whole history would have been pointless.”
    Chief Lanigan nodded. “I guess that makes sense.” He offered his hand. “I hope you find what you’re looking for there.” At the door, he stopped. “Say. how are you getting to the airport?”
    “Why, I expect we’ll take a cab.”
    “A cab? Why that will cost you ten bucks or more. Look. I’ll come down and drive you to the airport.”
    Telling Miriam about it afterward, he said. “It’s curious that of all the people who came to see me. it should be the one Gentile who offered to take us to the airport.”
    “He’s a dear, good friend.” Miriam agreed, “but the others probably thought you had already made the necessary arrangements.”
    “But he was the one who thought to ask.”

Chapter Seven
    As she hung his coat in the hall closet, his eyes flicked around the room for some sign of another occupant – a pipe in an ashtray, a pair of slippers beside the easy chair. After all these years. Dan Stedman told himself he was not jealous of his former wife, only curious. If she wanted to take a lover, it was no business of his. Certainly he had not been celibate since their divorce. He told himself that she meant nothing to him now, and yet although he had been in town for several days, as a kind of insurance he had held off coming to see her in response to her letter until today, his last day in the States. But as he had mounted the stairs to her apartment, he could not help feeling a quickening of interest, an excitement at the thought he was going to see her.
    She joined him in the living room. She was still attractive, he noticed objectively. Tall and slender with her bobbed hair brushed back around her ears and her fresh complexion, she did not look her – he made a mental calculation – forty-five years. As she rounded a table to sit opposite him. he decided she was one of the few women who could wear slacks successfully. She got up again immediately to go to the sideboard.
    “Drink?” she asked. “A little gin.”
    “On the rocks, I believe?”
    “That’s right.”
    She regarded him covertly as she poured. He was still distinguished-looking, she thought, but he looked neglected. His trousers bagged at the knee – she would have seen to it that they were pressed – and his shirt cuffs looked frayed – she would have noticed and insisted he change to another shirt before going out.
    “I called you and called you. I must have tried a dozen times. And then I decided to write.”
    “I was at Betty’s in Connecticut for a few days. I just got back last night.” he fibbed.
    “And how is she? I should write to her.”
    “She’s fine.”
    “And Hugo?”
    “All right. I guess. He’s retired from his congregation now. you know.”
    “Oh, yes51 remember you saying he was thinking about it the last time I saw you. Is he enjoying retirement?” She handed him his drink and then sat down in a straight-backed chair opposite him.
    He grinned. “Not particularly. There was so much he was planning to do once he was retired and had the time. But you know how those things work. When he was busy at the temple, he had an excuse, and now that he isn’t, he doesn’t know how to begin all the projects he stored up all those years. It’s even harder on Betty. He’s underfoot.”
    “Poor Hugo.”
    “But he’s getting another job5 so it won’t be bad. He’s substituting for a rabbi in Massachusetts who’s going to Israel for a few months. There’s even a chance that he might be asked to stay on.”
    “Oh, that’s good.” She looked at him over her drink. “And how have you been?”
    “All