CHAPTER TWELVE
PHONECALL

"Phone," says one of Hadassah's roommates, sticking her head into the bedroom briefly before letting the door fall back again.

Hadassah climbs off of her bed where she has been sprawled, writing a letter home and listening to the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. Her portion of the room is decorated with various memorabilia from her many trips to the Holy Land -- a small menorah sits amidst figurines of Madonna and Child, a golden cross on a chain, a camel carved out of olive wood bought from one of the Arab stalls in the Old City. Dave would have been appalled. On the wall is a poster of three Israeli soldiers with their arms around each other's shoulders, guns slung over their back, praying at the Western wall.

"`Lo," she says picking up the phone in the hallway.

"Shalom," says the male voice.

"Hey Dave!" she says slipping down onto the thinly-carpeted floor.

"My brain's overloading. Too much Hebrew."

"Listen, all you need is a yarmulke. You're more Jewish than any Jew I know. I'm buying you one next time I'm in Jerusalem."

"You may not have to. I might get a chance to go myself."

"No way!" says Hadassah, cradling the phone on her shoulder to pull her hair back into a ponytail. "That's fabulous!"

"Would you miss me?"

The question is thrown out like a card in a poker game. She almost drops the phone.

Hadassah thinks for a moment.

"Yeah, Dave, I would."

"So, do you really think woman was created to be a helper to man?" His voice changes slightly, more intellectual, more objective.

"Well, the Hebrew word seems to indicate a helper, yes," replies Hadassah. "The only other time it's used in the scripture though, it's God saying he'll be our helper."

"I didn't know that."

"I kid you not. That's why I don't get too upset when people say it's a second-rate position. It's not."

"Yeah, but Eve did pick that fruit." Now Dave's voice is mischievous.

"Yeah, but it took a lot of convincing. Notice how all she had to do was hand it to Adam and he ate it."

"OK, you got me there." Dave groans and she can almost see him closing his eyes and covering them with his hands.

"This is why the Greek philosophers avoided women," he says. "They're too distracting."

"Those Greek philosophers did some irreparable damage to the Hebrew faith," says Hadassah. "They're the ones who wanted to put women in their place and unfortunately some of their ideas caught on."

"To hell with the Greeks," says Dave cheerfully. "They asked too many questions anyhow."

"They certainly weren't into revealed knowledge, that's for sure," agrees Hadassah.

"Come, let us reason together," drawls Dave. He sounds as if he's not particularly thinking about what he's saying, he's just happy to be on the phone talking.

Regardless of their theological differences, Hadassah knows their love for wisdom is what has drawn them to each other. She is far from the orthodox Jew that Dave seems to idealize, but he knows that she is trying to redefine her Jewish faith, building on what she has been given. It gets exhausting sorting out a creed after awhile though -- too many questions that once asked seem to raise even more questions. Sometimes it's a tempting thought to just give into Dave's convictions about her inherited faith.

"So what is the deal with men and women?" asks Dave.

"Well, I trace it back to the rib incident in the garden. Women are biologically connected to men and thus, you see in the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures for you, that a woman's identity revolves around man. She's some man's wife or sister or daughter. There are very few examples of women who weren't shaped by what man they belonged to. Prophetesses probably had more independence. Harlots certainly. Even then though, they lived in a male-dominated society and depended on men's business."

"Of course you believe we're past that now...?"

"I believe that women are still shaped by the men they know," says Hadassah softly looking down at her thumb nail and vaguely noticing it is in need of an emery board. "It's just that nowadays it seems like sometimes you have to have the courage to take what you learn and move on."

There's a pause. Hadassah knows that Dave won't probe.

"The way I see it," says Dave, his tone of voice sounding as if he's carrying on the conversation. They both know he's changing the topic. "There're three types of women -- the prophetess, the temptress, and the mother."

"And which do you prefer?"

"Can't I have all three in one?"

"Very unprecedented. Has such a woman ever existed?"

Dave sighs.

"In my dreams."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
FIFTEEN DOLLAR FASHION AND OTHER SHOPPING EXPERIENCES

Tom has a car but Judith doesn't want to explain to him why she's buying ten bottles of wine, especially since she didn't invite him to the party.

I even give up my bi-weekly visit to Union to see if I can find someone with a car who's going into Haven.

I'm about ready to hitchhike when Judith comes flying up to me in the dining hall to tell me that Tara Levin is driving to the mall and we can go with her. I give her a big fake smile.

"Listen," says Judith. "It's seven o'clock. We've been looking all day and Tara said she wouldn't mind doing it, so let's go."

"OK," I sigh. It's all for a higher cause anyhow.

"Hi!" says Tara as we climb in. "You guys just want to go to the liquor store?"

"Yeah," says Judith.

"OK, I just gotta buy some stuff in the mall so I'll drop you off."

I'm sitting in the middle between Tara and Judith who start talking about their Psalms class.

"Yeah, I really like it," says Tara. "I was talking to Dave Dian the other day and he says the Psalms contain some of the most pivotal scriptures in the whole Old Testament."

Like, what does this have to do with anything? If Eddie Prince had made the same observation she would have never mentioned it.

"Oh yeah," I say. "Like which ones?"

"Oh, I can't remember specific ones, although he cited quite a few."

Maybe you should have taken notes, I feel like saying. I hate sitting in the middle because I can't just stare out the window. In a way, I dread Saturday night. It hasn't really sunk in what I'm going to do and I don't let myself think about it. I just keep busy.

"Dave is such a sweetie," says Tara. "He's so enthusiastic about Judaism, it makes me excited to be Jewish."

Rub it in.

"He was asking me all sorts of questions about what it's like to grow up in a Jewish household."

"So, what is it like?" I say.

I've been dying to know.

"Well," she looks embarrassed, "I wouldn't exactly say that I was raised in an orthodox house. But we did go to synagogue now and then. Of course we had Passover every year, and Rosh Hashanna, and..." her voice dwindles.

"Did you light candles before the Sabbath?" I say.

"Oh yeah, we did that. I mean, we didn't want to forget that we were Jewish," she smiles.

"So is that why you're majoring in Theology?" I say.

"Basically," she says. "I'm studying other religions too. A lot of my friends in high school were into Zen so I'm interested in that."

Considering that Dave would have given his big toe to have been born Jewish I can see why he didn't last long with Tara.

The liquor store is beside the grocery store in the same outdoor mall that Dave and I and went to for our Seder stuff while the indoor mall is two miles down the road. Tara drops us off and says she'll meet us here in an hour and a half. Judith and I decide that it would be stupid to just buy the ten bottles of wine right away and then sit on the curb. We choose instead to explore the mall.

The first store we go into is called Fifteen Dollar Fashion. The classic thing is that the place is full of tank tops, t-shirts and shorts that all look like they should be about five dollars. Judith tries on a knit tank dress that turns out to have a large rip in the seam.

The next place is a Christian bookstore. I check out the Judaica section while Judith looks at the sheet music.

"This is great!" Judith yells across the store to me, much to the horror of the middle- aged woman at the cash register. "There's a lot of soul here!" She buys several gospel pieces and I purchase a biography about some rabbi in Brooklyn.

We wander into the next store, a health food shop.

"Hey! Look who it is!" says Judith. "Eddie! Hey, Eddie!"

Eddie Prince looks up from the label of a container of soya butter spread.

"I didn't know you were into health food," says Judith going over to him.

"I'm not," he says. "I just came in here because I've never been in a health food store before."

In case I haven't mentioned it, Eddie Prince is good-looking in a moody sort of way, something which Judith seems to be noticing. He's got sharp features and long dark hair that he slicks back, emphasizing his bone structure.

"Neither have I," says Judith. "Well, maybe once, but I was very young."

"Are you buying anything?"

"I dunno. I'll have to look around. You?"

"Yeah, I'm going to look around too. I'm waiting for my dry cleaning to be done."

They wander up and down the aisles, commenting on everything while I read some pamphlets on a little rack by the cashier. I end up buying a two dollar booklet called Health Secrets from the Bible.

"Wow!" Judith is saying. "This is just so neat!" She's got her arms full of packages of fig newtons, containers of pitted dates, sunflower seeds, papaya juice, avocado face cream, aloe vera soap, and wheatgerm shampoo with matching conditioner.

Eddie seems to have gone for the vitamin pills.

They dump their stuff on the check-out counter while I toy with the idea of buying a container of natural muscle enhancers, the healthy version of steroids. I decide that the woman in the pink string bikini on the display board picture looks a little too muscular.

Tara should be coming back in about twenty minutes and Eddie shows no signs of picking up his dry cleaning, so I say that I have to do a little grocery shopping and give Judith a meaningful look. She understands, smiles and says she'll just be sitting on the curb with Eddie.

Liquor stores always give me a feeling of awe, probably because they're forbidden territory for the first nineteen years of life. I need a cart to take my ten bottles of the largest and cheapest wine I can find to the check-out counter. Then I start to think about how at least fifty people are coming and ten bottles seems ridiculously low and so I go back for ten more.

"Having a party?" asks the guy at the cash.

No, I just like to drink alone.

Thankfully he doubles the bags so they won't break on me the minute I walk out the door. I clank as I walk. Thankfully my weight-training has made it possible for me to carry this heavy load. As discreetly as possible I sit down on the other side of Judith, keeping the bags beside me so that Eddie won't notice them. They are so absorbed in their conversation that they barely notice me. I suddenly wonder why I'm instinctively hiding the wine from him since he's invited to the party. It's like, there's always booze at a party, but actually buying it and getting it there seems kind of sordid.

When Tara pulls up, they reluctantly say good-bye. I'm sure that Judith would have driven back to campus with him except she knows that I would have killed her.

Tara's backseat is loaded with parcels which means I have to keep some of the bottles with me in the front. A lot of her bags are from clothing stores and in an hour and a half she has bought more than I buy in a year.

"Summer's coming up," she says, "and I realized that I just didn't have anything to wear."

"What are you doing this summer?" I ask politely.

"The west coast," she says.

"So, now you've got Tom, Bill, David, and Eddie," I say to Judith when we get back to the dorm and are stowing the wine bottles under our bed behind our dirty laundry due to prohibition. "What are you going to do with all of them?"

"I think I'll go out with all of them at once," she says. "It's only two weeks until the summer."

I wake up and want to spend the day in bed. But I also want to see Dave so I get up.

"Hi!" he says to me when I sit down in Principles of Theology. I'm glad I came. He's looking good in a white t-shirt, Mediterranean woven vest, frayed jeans, and his sandals.

It's funny. I know practically everyone's summer plans except his, and for some reason I've never gotten around to asking. Before I can though, the teacher starts the class. We're winding up the year with some brief sketches of other religious works like the Koran, and some Buddhist writings.

Once we finished talking about the Bible and the Mishna, Dave had become visibly bored, tapping his pencil on his notebook and shifting his seat throughout the classes. He would have probably stopped coming to class except he said that he knew nothing about Islam and Buddhism and would fail the final.

"So, what're you doing this summer?" I say afterwards. I have to know or else I'm going to go nuts.

"I dunno," he says standing up. "I made some plans, but I'm still working on them. We'll see what happens."

He walks me to weight-training class and I want to ask him what kind of plans he's made but I don't know if he's being intentionally vague or if he just expects me to automatically be on his wave-length.

"I can't believe this class," Dave is saying. "I mean, is it Principles of Theology or is it Comparative Religion? The syllabus says that the class is supposed to focus on Judeo- Christian doctrine, not what Mohammed said, for crying out loud."

"But doesn't it interest you?" I ask cautiously. "I mean, since the Dome of the Rock is on the Temple Mount and the entire Middle East is full of Arabs?"

He looks at me like I'm crazy.

"I want to be Jewish, not Muslim."

"But aren't you just kind of interested to know what they believe?" I ask. I'm thinking if I'm ever going to be a Middle-East correspondent, I'll need to know both sides of the issue.

He sighs.

"There's enough Judaism to study for a lifetime. Where would I find the time to study another religion?"

Our weight training teacher gives us the hardest workout all year, as if knowing that none of us will even look at a weight room all summer. It takes a twenty-minute cold shower for my body to return to its normal colour.

When I go to lunch, Dave isn't there, but Judith is at a table surrounded by Bill, David, and Eddie. I wonder what her secret is since they all look like they're having a great time and none of them seem to resent that the others are there. I take the chair beside Eddie. Tom comes and sits across from me, the closest he can get to Judith.

"Hey Tom!" I say to make up for Judith seemingly not even noticing his arrival.

"Hi," he says, looking at his food. I wait for him to look up but he keeps his eyes on his plate for the entire meal. Once I see him look at Judith.

OTS is our last class together for this year. It's a sentimental occasion for me but I don't think Dave is reflecting on it. We're covering the final few minor prophets and when the teacher asks if anyone knows what the theme of Malachi is, I raise my hand and actually answer. My first contribution all year.

"Coming over tonight?" says Dave after class before his rush down to consult with Rabbi Hirshel.

"For sure," I say.

I've got to somehow get his dorm key from him tonight.

I get my newspaper article back in Reporting for Mass Media with a B- and `improving' streaked across the top. He must have liked all my quotes. Research obviously pays off.

To celebrate the end of classes, after Reporting, I walk to the diner and order a Diet Coke float.

"How're you doing?" says the lady as she serves it to me.

"Great," I say. "Except that I have finals all next week."

"I remember what that was like," she says with a small smile.

"Where did you go?"

"York University in Toronto," she says. "For a year. Then I met my husband. A little word of advice, finish your education no matter what happens." She turns around to the coffee-maker and starts brewing a fresh pot.

"What was your major?" I ask, genuinely interested.

"International Relations." She turns around and looks at me.

No wonder she wanted to form a society for the betterment of mankind.

"Did you like it?"

She sighs. "Not enough to stick with it, but I know I should have. I want to go back though. Does Union have an International Relations major?"

"Probably."

I mean, they have Theology, they're bound to have International Relations.

"Hey, well congratulations," she says. "You made it through another year. Just study your brains out for those finals and you'll be OK." She takes a cloth and starts cleaning the counter and the tables around the room leaving me to muse over my float.

I wonder if I even have a relationship, I think as I stir the ice-cream with my straw. I mean, not once has Dave said anything to indicate where I stand with him although I've heard his roommates refer to me as his girlfriend to him when I'm in the lounge of his dorm and he's in the study and he didn't correct them. He certainly doesn't have any other close female friends. All signs indicate that I'm it even if they are by process of elimination.

Since the sun is setting later now, I don't have to get back until seven or so. I spend an hour getting ready and show up at Dave's at around eight.

"Hey El!" he says. "Only one more Sabbath after this."

So he has noticed. I wonder if I'll still keep the Sabbath over the summer.

We go into the lounge and I'm trying to think of an excuse to go into his study to see if I can find his dorm key. Unless it's in his pocket, it's usually just sitting on the desk.

Dave disappears through the study to get the menorah while I lay out the bread and the cheese and vegetables. Dave returns and we sit down and sip glasses of water as we wait for 18 minutes before sunset.

If I don't get that key soon, I'm going to have a miserable evening, so opting for the unimaginative, I excuse myself to go to the bathroom and cut through the study.

His key is not on the desk. There is no way I can get the keys from the pocket of his jeans short of making him take them off. I allow myself to panic a bit. I look around the room frantically. Then I figure, I'll just take someone else's key, and sure enough, there's a set sitting on one of the desks. I grab the ring and stick it in my purse. It's unfortunate that I have to take nine other keys. I decide it may be a good idea to just take the dorm key so the guy doesn't raise a stink when his keys are missing.

Out of the ten keys, three look like they could be dorm keys so I take all three. It takes me forever to unwind them off the ring. I arrive back to the lounge with two minutes to spare and try to look fresh and made-up, as if I just spent extensive time brushing my hair and redoing my make-up. I'm hoping that I don't have to go to the bathroom for real in the next hour or so since it will make me seem as if I have a bladder problem.

We light the candles, say the prayer and Dave pours the bottle of wine.

"How are your summer plans coming along?" I say, holding my glass with my hands trying to shield the beverage in case anyone wanders in and figures out what we're drinking.

"Still waiting to hear," he says. "I sent a few letters off and I haven't gotten them back yet."

Oh well. As long as he doesn't know what he's definitely doing there's no point in wondering.

"What about you?"

"I may go to New Orleans with Judith," I say taking the bottle from the table and slipping it behind the couch I'm sitting on. Dave, as I said, just doesn't think about things like this.

Dave nods.

"You really want to do that?" he says.

"Yeah," I shrug. "It'd be OK."

He seems like he's got a lot on his mind. More than usual. He's just leaning back, looking preoccupied chewing on the nail of his first finger.

"So what're you thinking?" I say.

He takes his finger out of his mouth.

"That this whole life is bigger than any of us."

"Yeah," I say. "For sure."

Then he laughs and his body relaxes.

"So what did you think of Principles of Theology? Overall, I mean," he says.

"I learned a lot considering that I never took a theology class in my life before Union."

"Not even Sunday school?"

"Nope."

"Me too. That's one thing my parents didn't make me do. Both my sisters went, but I always got to be upstairs with them in the service."

"Why? Were you bad?"

"Yeah," he says smiling. "I caused a disturbance the first time I went. I started telling the other kids that God didn't exist and after that I got to stay with my parents."

"Did you really think he didn't exist?"

"No, but I think I wanted to test the other kids' faith. I'm glad I didn't go to Sunday school though because I think I got more out of the services."

"So when did you stop agreeing with it?" I say.

"I got to be a teenager and I didn't see how Christianity was helping me. At least the church I went to didn't seem to." He shifts in his seat and crosses his ankle on his knee. "For me it all revolved around that one Sunday and nothing during the week.

`Then I met this Jewish guy and he told me a bit about Judaism and that made sense because a Jew does Jewish things everyday of the week. I mean, they eat Jewish foods, they have a Jewish heritage, they have holy days in addition to weekly worship. It was a lot more interesting to me at least." Dave pauses to take a sip of wine.

"So I got him to take me to the synagogue and that was really neat. I was only sixteen, but I knew that if I was going to be religious, this was the religion I wanted to be in. And since I believed in a God, I had to be religious."

"Why'd you come to Union?" I say. I can barely eat, so I'm just crumbling the bread on the table and watching him and wondering.

"A lot of Jewish kids come here for a Theology major because it's got enough courses that you can get all your credits with the ones based on the Old Testament. It's pretty fundamental too."

He pours himself another glass of wine.

"How come you came?" he asks.

"I wanted to be at a smaller university. Also, I wanted to go to a place that was into liberal arts."

I wish I could say it was a calling or something, and make it seem like Dave and I were predestined to both be here at the same time. Well, I did get accepted my first try, so maybe that means something.

"What're you going to do when you graduate?"

"Well," I pause and wonder what would happen if I say, marry you. "Since I'm into journalism and theology, I'm thinking of specializing in the Middle East."

"Would you want to live there?" asks Dave.

"Yeah!" I say. "That'd be really cool."

Dave nods, takes a bite of bread and there's a pause.

"So," I say. "What are good Sabbath topics?"

Dave grins.

"Oh, creation, the Torah, the Exodus, things like that."

"How about creation?"

"Yeah," says Dave. "How about that creation, eh?"

"I think I would have made the grass blue and the sky green."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"I think I would have made the oceans out of sand and the beaches out of water." Dave gets into the spirit of it.

In two weeks Dave and I will be apart and I figure I'll look back on this conversation and repeat it in my head until oceans of sand and beaches of water are all I can see.

I can't get to sleep that night. Kind of like pre-wedding jitters, except that when I finally do get married I'm going to be so full of relief that I won't have room for nervousness.

According to Judith, everything's going to be fine. Approximately seventy-five people are scheduled to show up at old classroom five tomorrow night at ten o'clock, including Eddie Prince, David Richler, and Joseph Paige.

I tell myself that I have to relax and sleep or else I'll be tired tomorrow night. When that doesn't work I tell myself that I can stay up all night for all I care. Reverse psychology doesn't work either. I thrash around until I'm physically exhausted and finally fall asleep at about three in the morning.

When I get up I realize that I have no idea what I should wear tonight. I mean, Ruth probably went in her woven robe, or whatever, but there's just too many choices nowadays.

I finally just settle on a black knit skirt and a t-shirt with a muted pattern on it that looks vaguely mediterranean. I borrow a pair of sandals from Judith.

I don't see Dave at lunch which is not surprising since it's the Sabbath and sometimes he doesn't show up for meals in the dining hall.

"Hey! You gonna be at the party tonight?" Eddie Prince sits down across from me.

"Yeah," I say. "For awhile."

I figure I'll stop by and have a glass of wine to relax me before my big night.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it," says Eddie. "I don't think anyone's ever had a party in one of those classrooms."

It would be just our luck if some faculty member happens to walk his dog by the old classroom complex.

"Hey," I say, thinking suddenly. "You can invite all of the guys in your dorm if you want."

The fewer the people in the building, the better, I figure, and I know Dave won't go, especially if he finds out that it's nothing but a jazz party in a classroom.

"Sure," says Eddie. "I'll do that."

I ask him how his dry-cleaning turned out.

He tells me how he had to take one shirt back because it still had a grease stain on it.

There's a lull until Judith comes and sits down beside me and she and Eddie start talking about who's coming to the party and about the music line-up. I get so nervous listening to them that I excuse myself and go back to the dorm and take a nap.

Judith bounds in, waking me up, and starts throwing clothes around.

"I don't know what I'm going to wear tonight!" she screeches. "I mean, I've got this flapper's dress, but I don't know if it's too formal."

She pulls out a black cocktail dress covered in black fringe.

"Go for it," I say. "Be daring."

"Yeah, why not? It's my party."

I haven't exactly decided what my game plan for the evening is because I figure I'll just wing it so it's more natural. Just to be on the safe side though, I reread the book of Ruth and say a little prayer.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AN INVITATION

"Why are you reading an article about Al Gore's opinions on toxic waste buried in Nevada left over from the Cold War?" asks Eddie, sticking his head over Hadassah's shoulder where she's curled up in one of leather easy chairs in the library. "Aren't you supposed to be working?"

Eddie plunks himself down in the matching chair beside her.

"Coffee break."

"How long have you been on it?"

She glanced at her watch.

"About half an hour."

Eddie sighs.

"You have no work ethic."

"Work ethic is a Protestant concept." She turns a magazine page.

"Well, I came by to ask you if you want to go to a party tonight. Nothing big. Just a jazz bash in one of the old classrooms. Lots of booze."

"Sounds lovely," she says, not looking up.

"OK, you don't have to be sarcastic."

"I'm not." Hadassah smiles wickedly.

"You're definitely not Protestant," says Eddie standing up. "If you'd been living in Colonial America, they'd have burned you at the stake."

He receives a flying Newsweek in the back of his head as he's walking away.


CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE BIG NIGHT ARRIVES

At nine o'clock Bill and David come by to pick up Judith so they can go set-up. They've brought along Bill's stereo system which looks quite extensive. I'm relieved when they turn down my offer to help because I know I'd only end up standing around being jittery. Bill and David walk out with the twenty huge bottles of wine in some old packing boxes that Judith found in storage.

After I do my make-up -- lightly, because I don't want my face to smear on his bed -- I wander around the dorm trying to work off nervous energy. I'm having second thoughts. Like maybe there are better ways of showing him I love him. Like telling him, for example. But then I remember the last time I incorporated the word `love' into the conversation and I know, even if I'm not doing the right thing, I'm doing the only thing.

About sixty-five people are in the one classroom when I arrive at eleven. The jazz is soulfully loud and people are downing white wine in paper cups.

"Is everyone here?" I ask Judith, who's in the corner with Bill making sure the wine goes at a moderate pace.

"Well, a few more are coming later, but yeah, most people are here," she says.

"No, I mean, is everyone here," I say.

"Oh," she says. "I hadn't really looked." She surveys the room.

"Eddie's here," she says, pointing to the dance floor. "And David came with Bill and I. Where's Joseph?"

We look around for Joseph Paige.

"Did he say he was coming?" I'm getting this panicky feeling in the lower regions of my stomach.

"Well, yeah," says Judith. "Remember I told you that I told him about it and he said he'd be here?"

"Have you talked to him since?"

"No, I never see him."

The way to solve this is quickly and efficiently. I leave the classroom and hike back to the dining hall where I phone Dave's dorm.

"Yeah?" Dave answers after about fifteen rings. A good sign. It must mean there aren't any other guys in the dorm.

I lower my voice and speak quickly.

"Yeah, uh, can I speak to Joseph Paige?"

"He's gone home for the weekend," says Dave. "I don't know when he's coming back."

"Thanks." I hang up. That was easy. Too easy. Watch him come back at two a.m. tonight.

I go back to the party just to make sure that the mickey finn job is going to be carried out.

Judith has some bad news.

"Bill thought you were going to bring the vodka."

"Where did he think I was going to get vodka?" I say.

"The same place we got the wine, I guess," says Judith.

"OK," I say looking around. "We're just going to have to get some vodka."

"Uh," says Judith. "No one's brought booze because they heard they could get it here."

"OK," I say looking around again. "Look for someone with a car."

But all the car-owners are out drinking at some legitimate establishment. I'm about to just trash the Ruth plan when Bill comes up and says sorry about the vodka, or lack of it.

"Listen," he says. "I think I know why you want those guys out all night. They're both Dave's roommates, eh?" He winks. I smile weakly.

"I will personally guarantee that those guys don't make it back tonight," he says. "Don't worry! Have fun!" He grabs Judith's hand and they go out onto the dance floor.

Why is it that Ruth didn't have to go through this? All she had to do was leave early in the morning before anyone else came into the threshing floor.

I've got to kill about an hour before going there because I don't want to take any chances that Dave's not asleep. At least eighty-five people are here now, making the party standing room only. Most people are dancing to the music doing strange movements that look like a cross between the Charleston and hip-hop.

I'm just thinking how glad I am that I'm not out there on the floor when Eddie Prince yells "dance with me", into my ear. I say yell, but since everyone is screaming to be heard, it's more like a regular conversation voice. Before I can say no, he has my hand and I am being pulled through the molecular composition of the crowd.

It's a slow song which thankfully just means a bit of shuffling around.

"All the guys from the dorm are here," he yells. "Except Dave. Dave just doesn't go to things like this."

"Yeah," I say. I can't think of anything else to say I'm so nervous about tonight.

"Having fun?" I ask finally.

"Yeah!" he says. "I didn't realize that I like jazz so much. We've got to have more parties like this next year!"

"For sure," I say. Except, of course, that if all goes as intended, next year I'll be back at the dorm with Dave to begin with.

After dancing with Eddie, I make my way to the wine table to get a drink, I'm so thirsty from the heat in the room.

"Hey babe!" Some guy who's obviously got a drink source in addition to the wine gets my attention.

"Where've I seen you before?" he says. He's got a blond crew cut and looks like he's just stumbled across this party by accident.

"Tiajuana?" I say.

"Yeah! That's it!" he says.

I've never been to Tiajuana.

"What kind of music is this? I've never been to a party with this kind of music."

"It's called jazz. It was pretty big in the twenties and it's making a comeback."

"Hey, I've heard of jazz." He gives me this stop-making-fun-of-me grin. "Want some?" He pulls out a little flask.

"No thanks." I look around for Bill to let him know I've found a potential liquor source but I can't see him in the crowd.

"Hey," he says. "I know of a really cool party going on in Haven."

"Oh really."

"Yeah. Wanna go?"

"Sorry. I have other plans."

"Know anyone who wants to go?"

I give him Tara Levin's dorm number and spend the next forty minutes on the outer perimeter of the party moving quickly if anyone even looks like they're going to talk to me. I don't see Bill though and that disturbs me since he and Judith are supposed to be keeping an eye on Eddie and David.

OK. It's one o'clock. Time to do it regardless of what happens. I take a deep breath, run my fingers through my hair, and leave the classroom. I look for Judith to say bye but I can't find her anywhere. I find out later that she, Bill, David, Eddie, and a girl named Hadassah, drove all around southern Ontario that night, climbing trees and drinking wine in provincial parks, arriving back at Union for breakfast at the diner.

It's cool and peaceful as I walk across the deserted campus. A midnight ballet of gently spraying sprinklers water the coiffured lawns in front of the rising white buildings. I jingle the keys in my pocket and refuse to let myself think about what I'm doing.

When I arrive at the dorm all the lights are out. Very carefully, I try the first key. It doesn't work but the second one does. I cut through the study and put the keys on the desk that I took them from.

I am so nervous that I almost turn around right there. Slowly I twist open the door knob to the room that Dave shares with the three other guys.

I've never been in this room before so I don't even know where Dave's bed is. I quietly close the door behind me and stand in the darkness until my eyes adjust. Each bed is in a corner. The only bed that has a body in it is in the far corner. I move very slowly across the room. Before I lie down I try to see what the pictures on the wall are just to make sure it's Dave's bed and not Joseph back in the dorm. Two posters of scenes in Jerusalem. This is the right one. The last thing I want is for this to be a reverse of Jacob waking up and finding that he's in bed with Leah.

This is the part I've been dreading. First I make sure that I won't be lying on his feet. Then, very carefully, I slide onto the end of his bed. He stirs slightly but doesn't wake up.

Victory is mine, saith the Lord.

Of all things, I wake up first. This is not supposed to happen. He's supposed to get up, be surprised to see a woman in his bed, and then wake me up. I glance at the clock on his night table. It's eight-fifteen and I've been woken up by the sunlight that's starting to fill the room. Dave is still sleeping soundly. He's pulled his feet up to make room for me, as if subconsciously he knows there's something at the end of his bed.

I try not to laugh, he looks so young and relaxed when he's sleeping. It suddenly occurs to me that he could be naked for all I know, he's only got a sheet covering his mid- body.

I have to get back to sleep because Dave's got to wake up and realize the story connection. I close my eyes and focus my whole being onto sleeping even though I'm wide awake.

I'm just drifting off when Dave starts to move around. His foot hits me and then it pulls back as if it's suddenly become aware that something's not right. I'm so afraid that I'm going to laugh. I take a deep breath and try to think of neutral things, flowers in springtime.

"What the...?" Boaz has just woken up to find Ruth at his feet.

"Hey!" Dave says. I can feel him leaning over looking at my face.

"Oh my!" He jumps back as if he just remembered something. He gets out of bed and I hear him fumbling with some clothing. Then I feel his hands on my shoulder.

"Hey!" he says, a lot more gently. "Hey, El! Wake up!"

I open my eyes to see Dave, in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, leaning over me.

"Oh hi Dave," I say sweetly, rubbing my eyes for effect.

"What're you doing?" he says.

"Guess what famous Bible character I am?" I say.

He sits down on the edge of the bed. Then he puts his arm around my shoulders. Then he starts to laugh and he laughs until the tears come.

"You are so funny," he says.

"That's all he said?" says Judith the next afternoon. "You are so funny? Then what?"

"Then we just kind of talked."

"Talked? Talked about what?"

"Oh, I dunno. Just things. Like the posters on his wall."

"You wake up in his bed and then you talk about the posters on his wall?"

"Yeah, but he took it so well. After he stopped laughing, it was like the most normal thing in the world to be sitting on his bed talking about the stuff in his room."

"You are both so strange," says Judith. "It's like you didn't even talk about your relationship?"

"No. Although he did make some comment about how if I were one of the temple prostitutes he would have definitely picked me."

I turn red remembering it. Judith rolls her eyes.

"Well, what about what you're doing for the summer?"

"No."

"So, how'd you leave?"

"He got dressed and we went to breakfast together."

Judith rolls her eyes again and then tells me about her evening and how they didn't get back until ten in the morning. She finally decided that she loved Bill and told him so in a tree in some Conservation Area.

"What're you going to tell Tom?" I say.

"I don't know but I got to tell him soon since Bill and I are officially together now."


CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE LAW

"Surely I have taught you statues and judgements, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess." Dave is reading his Pentateuch, sitting cross-legged on the floor of Hadassah's lounge, leaning his back against the couch that she's sprawled on.

"Their law is what made Israel unique," says Hadassah.

"Exactly," says Dave as he continues reading. "Therefore, be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, `Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'"

"It's 10 simple commandments," says Hadassah. "Then the Jews turn it into 613 ritual rules. It doesn't have to be that complex."

"Well, better to keep 613 than only keeping half of the original ten like so many Christians today. Besides, the law was given to Israel," says Dave, turning so he could look at her.

"Keep reading," says Hadassah. "God warns them not to forget the miracles they had seen and to teach the law to the children and the grandchildren. They didn't, they got into syncretism, and they were carried into captivity."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that when Christ came the law, as interpreted by him, was opened up to the Gentiles too. The thing about the law is, it doesn't matter who's got it, it matters who does it."

"I can't argue with you on that one," says Dave. "But Christians don't seem to be as concerned about the law as practising Jews."

Hadassah shrugs as best she could in her horizontal position.

"There seems to be a misunderstanding in some circles about why Christ came. He came to magnify the law and add its spiritual intent. I mean, it's a new testament. Dave, do you understand how cool it would have been to hear him speak!"

"He was charismatic I'm sure," says Dave. "I mean, he had a large following so he must have been a good speaker."

"It was so much more than that." Hadassah rolls over onto her side. "It was a movement of thought and spirit...!"

Eddie came hurtling into the lounge.

"Who is this uncircumcised Philistine?" demands Dave.

"No time for jokes, pal! I think I left my Bible here and I've got a open-book exam in two minutes."

Hadassah pulls out his small black New King James that has partially fallen between the cushions of the couch.

"Grazzie," says Eddie flying out.

"Shalom," says Dave politely.


CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE LAST SUPPER

I expected the Ruth plan to have more of an effect on Dave but things seem to be going on much as always. Finals week passes by in a blur of studying and planning for New Orleans. Judith breaks it to Tom that their lives are heading in diametrically opposite directions and he is surprised. I guess he didn't take her music seriously enough.

Friday night comes, my last Sabbath supper with Dave before the summer.

"Hey Ruth!" he greets me. He's been calling me that all week.

"Remember the first time you did that?" he says after I light the candles.

"Yeah, I say. "I didn't know a word of Hebrew and now I know fourteen."

After the prayer, the reciting of the Eshet Chayil, and the singing, we eat the bread and food in comfortable silence. Dave has pulled out a bottle of real Jewish red wine from somewhere.

"I think I want to be a Zionist," says Dave suddenly. He's leaning over the coffee table with his elbows propped up, a chunk of bread in one hand.

"As in, Eretz Israel?" I say.

"Yeah," he says. "I really want to go to Jerusalem."

"When?"

"As soon as I can."

I take a sip of wine. There's something I want to say, but I'm not sure how to put it into words.

The next morning, I wake up realizing that I still don't know what Dave's doing for the summer and when he's leaving. A lot of people are going home on Sunday and Judith and I are flying from Haven to New Orleans on Monday.

After lunch I go over to Dave's dorm.

"Hey! Hey!" says Eddie when I look into the study.

"Hey!" I say. "Is Dave around?"

"Yeah. He's in the bedroom packing. Go on in. He won't mind."

In the bedroom, Dave's standing in the middle of a mess of clothes, books, and suitcases.

"Hey!" I say.

"Hey, Ruth!" He turns around and smiles.

"Where're you going?" I say. I can feel the tears coming to my eyes, just seeing the open suitcases.

"Jerusalem," he says. "I got a letter today. I'm going to Hebrew school. A Talmudic academy. Yeshiva." He savours the word like a man who has just discovered the name of the woman he's infatuated with.

I stand there. The tears just sit in my eyes.

"Are you coming back to Canada?"

"In a year." He comes over and puts his arm around me.

"Look Dave." Now I know what it is that I have to say. "I love you. What do I have to do to get your attention?"

"It's not you," he says slowly. "It's me. It's just that I've got to do this."

"So what am I supposed to do?"

He looks down at my face.

"What do you want to do?"

I think about this. I'll always be number two in Dave's life, but at least I'll be his only woman.

"I'll see you in a year," I say.

Dave laughs and hugs me.

This year slaves, next year free.

This year here, next year in Jerusalem.


CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
GOD SPEED

"Maybe we should quote a few passages from Song of Solomon," says Hadassah jokingly.

They're both nervous. Dave's luggage is tossed by the door and they have about 15 minutes before his ride comes to take him to the airport.

"Behold, you are fair, my love!" says Dave grinning. "You have dove's eyes behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats going down from Mount Gilead."

She hits him. He holds onto her arm.

"Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep which have come up from the washing."

She half-heartedly struggles. They end up on the couch.

"Your lips are like a strand of scarlet, and your mouth is lovely."

They're in each other's arms, their lips pressed together, even though there are still the temples, neck, and the breasts left to be described.

"Oh, I'm going to miss you," Dave mumbles into her hair.