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“Ha
He thought he had shouted it, but it came out as a whisper. Her eyes grew large as she stared at him. And then he grabbed her up and she was in his arms.
For a brief moment Aharon held her, felt the soft weight of her pressed tightly to him—blue jeans?—his face against this strange cotton hood, his heart pounding with joy and disbelief. And then she was pushing him away, her pretty face scowling.
“Aharon Handalman, where have you been?” She was seriously angry, spoiling for a fight. But as she got her first good look at him, her eyes widened with fear. “Oh, my heavens, Aharon, what happened?”
He was wearing a heavy Fiorian robe, which no doubt had its own aroma. And he knew he had changed a great deal physically. He must look an impossible sight, like a ghost maybe. But he wouldn’t let her push him away. He cupped her face with his hands, reassuring her with low sounds until she calmed. Only then did he let his own gaze wander up and down.
She was complaining about him? Ha
She glanced at Wyle and pulled away. “Don’t start with me, Aharon. I know, I know, what you think. It’s terrible that I came, a horrible invasion of your privacy, your work, and so on and so on. But what was I supposed to do when the man came to the house and said—”
“Who?” Aharon asked sharply.
“M-Mr. Norowitz,” Ha
Her face looked so stricken and he realized, with a terrible feeling, that her relief at seeing him, and even her anger, had been subsumed by something else—fear of his reprisal. She, his own wife, was afraid of him. What kind of person had he been?
“Ha
He kissed her face, her astonished little face. She had that set look in her eyebrows, the look of a wife who knows for certain that an alien has taken over the body of her husband. She snuck a glance at Wyle, as if wondering how Aharon could dare touch her, kiss her like this in front of another person, and a stranger also. It brought him back to his senses a little. He dropped his hands, his fingers brushing the cottony hood now hanging down her back.
“Of course, why you have to dress like a goyisher teenager to come look for me is another matter.”
He was joking—mostly. But her eyebrow quirked, as if to say, Ah, there you are!
And then another thought hit him. “And, while I’m thrilled, light of my life, to see you, and I would be honored to have you share every detail of what’s happened with me, my rose of Sharon, my helpmate, frankly, it is a little worrying that you have thrown yourself in the path of danger. After all, we have three children. I’m sure they would be put out to lose their mother. Does Norowitz know you’re here? Do you know U.S. agents are just down the road in that house? What are you doing driving a car around in the middle of the woods in the dark of the night, Ha
But she only got that look—that rebellious look—and crooked a devious smile. “Could we get back to the ‘I love you’ part?”
And then… well, what excuse could he possibly have? A rabbi, a man in his forties, and not even alone, and he was behaving like a… like a goyisher teenager himself, kissing his wife right there and not caring.
“Rabbi Handalman?” Denton’s voice, loud.
Aharon broke from his wife, cheeks heated. “A man has been away from his wife for three months, what do you expect?”
“Three months?” Ha
Wyle was jumping up and down. “Hey, I wish you raptures, but could we possibly get out of the cold? I mean, I realize you’re not exactly cold at the moment, but there’s me, Jill, Nate, and an unconscious guy, and we’re all turning into Popsicles.”
“Oh!” Ha
“Thank you, Ha
Ha
Jill was exceedingly grateful to be out of the cold. She and Nate quietly shared their amazement over such a benevolent spike of the one pulse as ru
Upstairs, Ha
They put Farris in the smallest bedroom and left the door cracked open so they could hear if he got up. The rest of them bundled into Ha
Aharon was the most changed. Ha
Nate, if she tried to regard him objectively, had turned from olive to a deep reddish-brown since their days at Udub, and he had lost weight to the point of ski
“Aharon,” Ha