The Cousins by Rona Jaffe Read Free Book Online Page B

head. Then, rushed and slightly late, a couple dressed in ethnic clothing came down the aisle looking for their seats. The woman was wearing a sari, which did not disguise the fact that she was a Bronx blonde, and the beaming little man was wearing a black Nehru suit with an embroidered pillbox hat. They were Gloria and Tenzing. Gloria had lost some weight and her skin was radiant; she looked better than Olivia had ever seen her. They disappeared into one of the front rows and the service began.
    Olivia had never had a religious education because she had refused to go to Sunday school, and her parents didn’t push it, although they would have if she were male. She thought Jason looked like Gloria as a nervous teenage boy. He had been studying and preparing so long for this morning. His hands were shaking but he looked very proud. She didn’t know any Hebrew, but still she felt a part of her cousin’s rite of passage, of the importance, the tradition. She could sense how alien Grady and Taylor felt to the whole event, and therefore to the family, and it made her a little sad.
    Jason had finished his prayers and was making his speech. Now that he was speaking English, Tim began signing for Taylor so she could follow it.
    “I have a pen pal my age who is a Russian
refusenik
who recently emigrated to Israel with his parents,” Jason said. “We’ve been writing to each other for a year. My rabbi arranged it as part of our school studies program. Through our relationship we’ve both learned a lot about other people. Although our lives are very different, in many ways we’re alike, too. What I am going to do is take one third of the money you have all been so kind to give me as gifts, and donate it to help develop my friend’s little town in Israel, where the need is great.”
    A soft rustle and sigh went through the room: surprise, admiration. What a mature young man, what a nice thing to do. Grady raised an eyebrow at Taylor.
    “In conclusion,” Jason said, “I want to thank my father, and my mother, and Tenzing, who has been like another father to me.”
    How sweet, Olivia thought. Another father. Her throat closed up and she tried not to cry. Knowing only the bones of family scandal, it had never occurred to her that they all got along so well.
    The bar mitzvah was over and they filed into the next room where a table had been set up with little glasses of wine for the adults, grape juice for the children, and cookies. Everybody was milling around. Kenny was beaming, proud and happy, his arm around Jason’s shoulders. Gloria came plowing through the crowd to Olivia.
    “Do you remember me? I’m Gloria.”
    “Of course I do,” Olivia said. Does she wear the sari on treks, she thought, or does she wear jeans?
    “You’re looking very good,” Gloria said.
    “So are you.”
    “It’s been a long time.”
    “Yes.”
    “Nobody ever understood my relationship with Kenny,” Gloria said. “I thought somehow that you did.”
    “Maybe I did,” Olivia said.
    “Kenny and I were always best friends,” Gloria said. “We still are. Kenny can’t do anything without consulting me. He’s always on the phone—what should I do about this, about that. That’s why he never remarried. He’s too dependent on me.”
    Maybe if he remarried he wouldn’t have to be, Olivia thought, but she nodded agreeably.
    “I know no one ever forgave me for running away,” Gloria said.
    “Kenny and Jason did,” Olivia said. “That’s all that matters.”
    “You’re right,” Gloria said, pleased. “I knew you would understand.”
    They stood there looking at each other. There wasn’t that much to say.
    “Well, it was nice seeing you,” Gloria said.
    “You, too.” And she was gone, back into the crowd again.
    “Was that Gloria?” Grady asked. He had Taylor in tow and was translating for her. Olivia could see Tim in the corner talking to Uncle Seymour.
    “Yes,” Olivia said.
    “We were saying,” Grady said, “that you