Гарри Кемельман - Tuesday The Rabbi Saw Red

"Like tempting fate," said the rabbi with the ghost of a smile.

"That's right." Selzer said, pleased that the rabbi understood. "So I suggested to my wife we go to the movies. You know, to give us something else to think about; besides, I know she's not going to ask me to go out in the middle of the picture to make a phone call."

He looked off into space as if marshalling his thoughts, then he continued. "I thought maybe we'd go out for a cup of coffee afterwards, like we always do, but my wife insisted we go right home, like her heart told her, as soon as we drive up to the house, I know there's trouble because the light in the kitchen is on, which means Abner has come home, and why would he come home on a Saturday night if he weren't in some kind of trouble?

Nevertheless, my wife tries to act as though nothing happened. 'Have you eaten, Abner? There's some chicken left. Let me make you a sandwich, he's so thin. Look how thin he is. Malcolm.' Of course, this doesn't fool anybody; not me, not Abner, not even herself, she's just stalling, putting off the time when we'll have to ask him why he came home. But me, I'm a businessman and I don't horse around. So I put it to him straight: 'Are you in trouble, Abner? Are you involved in this bombing?"‘ Selzer raised a forefinger to call for special attention.

"'Involved.' I said. Rabbi. Not did he do it. I just asked him if he was involved. What's involved? Anybody can be involved. If it's my son, I'm involved. My wife is involved, the police are involved. It's no crime to be involved."

He shook his head sadly. "That started it, he starts yelling I don't trust him, he comes home and all I can think is he must have bombed the school or done some terrible crime, that I'm part of the Establishment and the Establishment is trying to suppress the non-Establishment and they're trying to make this a decent world and my generation is not letting them, and how we use the pigs to keep them in line. By pigs he means the police, you understand."

Selzer got up and began pacing the room. "He yells and I yell. I suppose, and my wife cries, and after an hour of it I know as much as I did before. Finally, we all quiet down, and I say to him nice, quiet, calm. 'Look Abner. I'm not accusing you. I'm just asking, not because I'm nosy but just because I want to help. Do you want me to get in touch with my lawyer?'" He rapped the coffee table with his knuckles. "This table answered me? That's how he answered me. Not a word, like suddenly he's deaf and dumb, he just sits there smiling a little to himself like it's all very funny, and then he finally speaks. What does he say? He says. 'I think I'll hit the sack. Tomorrow could be a long day.' And he gets up and goes to bed, and my wife? She opens up on me. Why did I talk to him that way? Why can't I believe in him? Why am I driving my son away from us? You know, my wife. God bless her; for her, Abner can do no wrong. Whatever he wants, give. Whatever he does, fine. When I try to get him to shape up, to study, to act like a responsible citizen, she accuses me of nagging him, he was an honor roll student in high school, so if I want him to get good grades in college, that's nagging him. Why was he on the honor roll? Because I kept after him. I'm in business and I know what it takes these days for a young man to make it. You don't go to a decent college, you're nothing these days. So he gets into Harvard, that was bad? That was nagging? And if he had lived at home, like I wanted, instead of in the dorm, like he wanted and his mother went along with, he'd still be in Harvard right now, that would be bad? I tell you. Rabbi, the trouble with kids these days is their parents don't nag."

The rabbi had not interrupted because he sensed Selzer wanted to talk, but now he brought him back sharply to the main issue. "So what happened. Mr. Selzer? Why did you come to see me?"

"So this morning," said Selzer in a flat monotone, "the pigs came and took him away. Who were the pigs? Lieutenant Tebbetts, who was his scoutmaster, who Abner would talk about so much I would get practically jealous, he was the pigs."

"In that case, I think you had better get in touch with your lawyer, Mr. Selzer."

"Two minutes!" cried Selzer. "Two minutes after my son was out the door, I contacted Paul Goodman, and half an hour later he came by— he wasn't even dressed when I called— and picked me up and we went down to the police station."

"And?"

"And nothing. My son wouldn't even talk to me, or to Goodman. Just. 'Oh, it's you.’ This is the way a boy talks to a father, Rabbi?"

"So what did you say?"

"Nothing! I was embarrassed in front of Goodman. So I didn't show I was sore. I didn't holler at him. I didn't say anything, just told him this was Mr. Goodman who would be his lawyer, and I left them together. But later, when Goodman came upstairs— we saw him in his cell in the basement, you understand— he said the boy had refused to cooperate."

"But he agreed to defend him?"

"Oh sure. What's he got to lose? He won't be sitting in jail." He got up when Miriam entered the room. "Look. I'm keeping you from your dinner. I just came to ask you to go and see him. Talk some sense into him. I know he thinks a lot of you from when he was in your post-confirmation class, he'll listen to you."

"He must’ve been terribly hurt." said Miriam after Selzer had left.

"What do you mean?" asked her husband. "By whom?"

"By his father, of course. Suppose there was a rumor that you had done something terrible, something inherently abhorrent to you, and suppose if instead of knowing you could never do such a thing. I asked you if the rumor was true. You might sit down and patiently explain how unlikely it was. On the other hand, you might feel so terribly hurt, especially if you were a youngster of Abner's age, that you just wouldn't say anything."

"Yes. I see what you mean."

"Go and see the boy., David."

"And tell him what?"

She smiled. "You could tell him to try to forgive his father, I suppose."

"The Boston police asked us to pick up the Selzer boy, so we picked him up." said Chief Lanigan, he was sitting at his dining room table with the Sunday paper spread out before him."

Do they have any real evidence against them?" asked the rabbi.

Lanigan shrugged. "You know how these things are. It's the D.A, who looks over what they've got and who issues the orders, he certainly wouldn't tell me. Even the D.A, of our own county wouldn't necessarily take me into his confidence on a matter that occurred right here in my own bailiwick. But from what Schroeder said, what they have on him is obvious, he was one of a committee that met with the dean, they talk for a while and then one of them gets vituperative and the dean walks out, they wait around for her to come back, and when she doesn't, they leave, a few minutes later a bomb goes off in her office. Now I put it to you, that's certainly grounds for suspicion, add a couple of other little items: one, there was a bombing in the school during the spring semester; two, a member of the committee, somebody called Ekko— I don't know if that's his real name or just a nickname— skips, that suggests guilt certainly."

"On the other hand." the rabbi observed, "none of it is what you would call real evidence, the building is open and anyone can walk in. Dean Hanbury left her office unlocked, so anyone could get in after the committee left. From what little I myself know about conditions in the school, there are other student groups, more or less revolutionary, who are seemingly as opposed to each other as they are to the administration."

"Well, you don't have to convince me. Rabbi. It's the people in Suffolk County you've got to convince."

"Is it all right if I see the boy now?"