Write me a Letter

Enter’ instead of not trying to go through it. You picked the right washroom, too, and it wasn’t one of those with the figure of a little man above it, ‘Men’ is all it said. Yau also downed that pizza as if it wasn’t the first one you’d ever seen in your sheltered life. However. Onward. Tell me this, Uncle—what’s going on? Don’t you think it’s about time you filled me in?”
    He shrugged.
    ”You know all I know.”
    ”That’ll be the day,” I said. ”How about your sighting, how’s that coming along?”
    He shrugged again.
    ”Still planning on leaving tomorrow?”
    This time he nodded.
    ”Solly going to pick you up, or What’s-her-name, maybe?”
    ”Maybe.”
    ”Why don’t you leave tonight, if you’ve seen what you wanted to see?”
    ”I was told to stay here.”
    ”Could you get in touch with Solly or What’s-her-name if you wanted to?”
    ”Nyet,” he said.
    ”Which doesn’t mean yes,” I said. ”Bet’cha they’re in one of those campers at the trailer park we passed on the way in. That’s where I’d be.”
    Theo looked innocent.
    ”So how do you like living in Israel ?”
    ”It’s a living,” he said.
    ”What do you do there, Theo?”
    ”Retired teacher. I live on a kibbutz in the Negev with my daughter. Still teach a bit. Run the library. Help out in the machine shop. Garden. Usually go on a dig in the summer. Make wine in a modest way.”
    ”Some retirement,” I said. ”Especially when you chuck in and go to war every few months. Do me a favor?”
    ”Maybe.”
    ”What’s your real name, anyway?”
    ”The kids call me Abba,” he said.
    ”What’s that mean?”
    ”Pop.”
    ”That’s a big help,” I said. ”OK, how about this. I want you to switch rooms with me for the night. I am being paid to baby-sit you, after all. I figure it couldn’t hoit, whoever you sighted or didn’t sight or are going to meet or not going to meet or get a phone call from or a smoke signal or a grapefruit with a secret message inside.”
    He thought it over for a minute, then said, ”Why not?” He got up, went out, and returned in a minute with his pajamas and toilet articles.
    ”Uh-uh,” I said. ”You can keep the bottoms, I need the other stuff.” I took them from him, collected the necessities from my room, pulled down the window blind, asked him to hand over his false teeth, which he did reluctantly, told him to lock the door behind me and keep it locked, then tiptoed to his room without being detected as far as I could tell. I pulled the blind down, turned on the light, then made my simple preparations for the long night to come. I used the extra blanket on the bed and one of the pillows to make up a dummy Theo, then dressed it in his pajama top, shaping it to appear that Theo was laying on one side, facing the wall and away from the door, one pajama-clad arm curling up and around his head to hide the fact he didn’t have a real one. I added a few tufts of cotton batting I’d bought at the store for that final touch of the master.
    On the small bedside table I laid out a box of his pills and then his upper plate, in a plastic glass of water. I hung his pants over a chair. I lined his shoes up neatly by the bed. I put the book he’d been reading on the table as well, then a small pocket mirror I chanced to have in my toiletries. Ah, vanity. Then I switched off the overhead light, remembering to unscrew the bulb so I wouldn’t be dazzled if someone turned it on suddenly and also to prevent anyone throwing too much light on the subject. Who looked pretty good, all things considered, as I found out when I checked the dummy Theo by the light of the miniature flash I’d also picked up at Mr. Chong’s. In the darkness, I tested the window to see how easily it opened—very, unfortunately. And its only lock was a simple hook and eye anyone could open from the outside with a penknife. And the door’s lock wasn’t much better.
    Into the bathroom I went. It was roughly the size of one you’d find on a Pygmy Airlines flight. The door opened the wrong way, too, for me to be able to watch the window and the door directly. I sat on the uncomfortable do-it-yourself plastic toilet seat, closed the bathroom door all but a crack, and peeked out. The mirror I’d left on the bedside table to give me a reflected view of the window was at the wrong angle. I snuck out, rearranged it, then went back to my perch. OK. I’d changed earlier into my basic black outfit (all but