Read Online An Orphan's Tale by Jay Neugeboren - Free Book Online Page B

gone.
    Charlie wondered what Dr. Fogel would do when the Home closed. He smiled to himself, thinking of telling Murray that he’d take him in also, and let Fogel and Sol fight it out for the leadership of his new Home! He heard Murray lecturing him about trying to turn everything into a joke, but he knew, at the same time, that he was really worried about Sol. Did Murray know that? Did Murray understand that taking Danny in was more than a crazy scheme? Charlie admitted that, like Sol, he liked being the center of attention, he liked thinking of people laughing and repeating stories of things he’d done. The story of Sol coming through the door had become a Home legend within days, and, at his own Seders, Murray would now tell the story to his children every year. But Charlie also believed in the things he did and the schemes he thought up.
    He reached across the back of the front car seat with his right hand and patted Danny’s head. He answered the boy’s question and told him that it was true, Dr. Fogel had really been the coach, and he added that he had been the best coach because he’d never played himself and didn’t know how to. He told Danny that if he’d learned one thing in all his years at the Home it had been the thing Dr. Fogel had taught him—that desire is everything. Dr. Fogel had wanted to know how to do something he would never be able to do.
    Danny shrugged and said that Charlie was a great athlete and now he was a coach too, and Charlie was surprised—pleased—by the boy’s sharpness. “Sure,” he said, “I was a natural—but it’s what made me work even harder, don’t you see? I can never know what it’s like to desire things I already have.”
    Danny laughed. “Everything is upside down sometimes, isn’t it?”
    They drove in silence on dark winding roads where the houses were set far back, behind walls or trees or hedges. Charlie was glad to see the boy more relaxed than he’d been in Murray’s house. He listened to the boy tell him that Dr. Fogel had given him a book, and that he tried to memorize something from the book every day. Danny recited something in Hebrew, but Charlie didn’t pay attention. “I can remember when it used to be romantic to be an orphan,” he said. “I got a lot of mileage with girls when I was younger, being an orphan.” He looked at Danny. “But who gives a shit about orphans anymore, right?”
    Danny nodded. “We’re an endangered species,” he said.
    â€œA what?” Charlie asked, but before Danny could repeat himself, Charlie was laughing and telling Danny that he’d have to remember the line for Murray.
    Danny saw a sign in the front window, a red neon light: Mittleman Realty . “I think I’m very hungry,” he said. He looked down at his legs, at the cloth sack on his lap. “But—but I’m not sure I can get out of the car.”
    Charlie was trying to make the boy understand. “Don’t get me wrong about what I said before,” he said. “Don’t think I’m one of those guys who’ll keep going forever, never satisfied. I have a plan, right? When I get to forty, I stop—whether I’ve made my bundle or not.”
    â€œAnd then?” Danny asked.
    â€œThen—? Then I’ll become a rabbi.”
    Danny felt his heart jerk. “Really?” he asked.
    â€œSure,” Charlie said, and he laughed in a way that made Danny feel uncomfortable. He got out of the car and walked around to Danny’s side. When he reached in for him, Danny shook his head sideways, leaned on the seat, pushed himself up, and stepped out. His legs were cold.
    â€œI didn’t have to say it—that I felt as if I couldn’t move, did I?” Danny asked.
    They walked up the front steps and into the house. A woman called and asked if it was Charlie and he called back that it was and that