The Sunset Gang Read Online Free Page B

deal. And she made you
all hot and crazy, right?"
    She rushed into the living room and grabbed the telephone,
her hysteria mounting. "A psychiatrist is what you need. And quick.
Forty-five years of marriage and he wants a divorce. I got a senile old man for
a husband."
    He shrugged and walked back into the bedroom, hearing her
voice rise behind him.
    "You want me to call your children?" she cried.
"I'll call them. Are you ready for me to tell them about your shame?"
She yelled at him. "I'm calling them."
    "There's the phone." He pointed, surprised at his
calm.
    He went into the bathroom and watched his face in the
mirror as she banged on the locked door.
    "You want a divorce, you bastard?" she screamed.
"I'll show you divorce. I'll get a knife and stick it through my heart
first. You hear me, bastard? I'll put a knife in my heart first."
    How absurd, he thought, feeling pity begin. Listening, he
heard her walk heavily into the kitchen, opening doors, making a racket with
the pots and pans. Then he heard her coming back.
    "I have a knife," she said. "I have it in my
hands pointing into my heart."
    He remained silent, listening. Her breathing was heavy,
gasping. Tempted by the movement at the other side of the door, he put his hand
on the knob, then withdrew it as if it were hot.
    "Do you hear me, you bastard?" she hissed.
    "I hear you," he said, turning on the tap.
    "Your children will curse you forever," she
screamed.
    He could tell by the pitch of her voice that she had
reached the outer edge of hysteria.
    "And you'll rot in hell."
    He knew she was dissolving into self-pity when her deep
sobbing began. She is thinking only of herself, he thought, of her own
humiliation, of the effect on her card-playing friends. Who cares, he thought,
surprised at his own callousness, yet exhilarated by his sense of freedom. I am
no longer frightened, he told himself. I am free. He opened the bathroom door
and saw her face-down on their bed, her shoulders shaking. He kicked the knife
away with his foot.
    "I am going out," he said loud enough for her to
hear and embellished his words with a slam of the door.
    Genendel met him where the cyclists gathered. Her eyes were
puffy, evidence of her own pain of disclosure. He reached out and held her
hand.
    "Done?" he asked.
    "Done." Her eyes filled with tears. "It was
like feeding him poison."
    "Now what?"
    "I had no illusions," she said, the Yiddish
between them a soothing tonic. "It is part of the price. And you?"
    "I got a genuine suicide attempt," he said.
"But don't worry. She's done it before."
    "Have we done the right thing?" she asked,
brushing aside the tears that had rolled down her cheeks.
    "My conscience is clear," he responded. "For
once in my life, I have done an honest thing. Genendel, my darling Genendel. It
was the only way."
    "I hope so," she said, squeezing his hand.
    "They'll hate us," Velvil said, "but that is
to be expected."
    They wheeled away from the main body of the cyclists and
found a bench.
    "Now what? Genendel said.
    "You mean practical considerations?"
    "Yes."
    He patted her arm. For the first time in his life he had
not pondered the consequences, had acted not out of fear, but out of love and
honesty.
    "We'll rent a place and if necessary move in together
now," he said, contemplating financial matters at last. "It will be
no bed of roses," he said, "but we'll have each other."
    "You mean live together before we're married?"
    "We'd share an apartment."
    "I hadn't--" She paused. "It would be
difficult for me." It was against her grain, she admitted to herself.
    "Well then," he said gently, "perhaps David
will move out and I'll rent a place alone." He silently calculated the
burden of supporting two households on his pension. If necessary the children
would have to kick in for Mimi. He knew they did but hid the knowledge from
him. He had been offended by the thought of taking money from his children as
if it diminished him in some way. But that did not prevent his