A Possibility of Violence (28 page)

“Can you read it to me?”

“What for?”

“I want to know what's written in it.”

He would have preferred not to. If Sara's version of events was correct, he had been planning to read this letter aloud to his sons in Manila, and here was Avraham reading it to Marianka in Brussels, trying to translate the contents of the letter but at the same time trying to resist the meaning of the words, or to forget them, as if he was afraid they'd stick to him somehow.

Shalom and Ezer,
he finally read,

I know that you came from very far away to look for me with Daddy and that you want to see me and bring me back home, but I can't meet you here. I decided to leave you and our home because I didn't want to be your mommy from the beginning. I know that it will be hard for you without me in the beginning and that it will be hard for you to forget too, but you have a father who will protect you and take good care of you. He loves you very very much and he'll be a good and strong father for you and in the end you will grow up and forget me and start new lives with him. Please help him, because in the beginning it won't be easy for him alone. And maybe one day, when you grow up and are adults, we'll be able to meet. Mommy

Marianka hid her eyes from him. And Avraham said, “Do you understand that the child might have saved him?” And suddenly he also understood that he hadn't asked Ma'alul if Ezer had read the letter and if he thought that his mother wrote it or knew that his father had written it in her name. But, really, which was more terrible? He didn't want to know.

Marianka brought her head close to him and rested it on his shoulder for the first time. He said to her, “Every time it seems to me that the ending will be different, you know? At the start of every investigation. That everything that had happened can be erased or fixed. But nothing is erased, it only piles up from case to case. I was sure that this time I did it, but I didn't manage to save anyone this time either. Not her, and not them, and not even myself,” and Marianka came closer to him and said, “Avi, I don't think it's possible to save children from their parents,” and then added, “but maybe you'll succeed one day.”

He listened to her and closed his eyes.

The next day, when he was at the train station, on his way to the airport, he saw a teenage boy and girl kissing.

They were wearing heavy backpacks, and Avraham stared at them for a little too long, until they noticed him, and he thought that when people hold each other in their arms they don't ever see the other person. And apparently he and Marianka also said the things that they had said that night, without seeing each other, like blind people, or like people talking to themselves. He had said to her hair, “I want us to get married, Marianka,” and she had whispered to his neck, “After everything I told you?”

“Especially after everything you told me,” he answered, and even though he didn't understand what he meant, he knew that it was the right answer.

He asked, “Do you agree?” and she said only, “Yes, I think so.”

On the table before them were two empty mugs and an uncovered bowl of sugar and two teaspoons, and wrapping paper that had been torn hastily, and a wooden case, and also a pipe—which Avraham packed in his suitcase and took back with him to Holon.

About the Author

D. A. M
ISHANI
is a literary scholar specializing in the history of detective literature. His first novel,
The Missing File
, was the first book in his literary crime series featuring the police inspector Avraham Avraham.

 

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Also by D. A. Mishani

The Missing File

Credits

Cover design by Jarrod Taylor

Cover photograph © Sally Mundy / Trevillion Images

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A POSSIBILITY OF VIOLENCE.
Copyright © 2014 by Dror Mishani. English translation © 2014 by HarperCollins. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Originally published as
Efsharut shel Alimut
in Israel in 2013 by Keter Books.

FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

ISBN 978-0-06-219540-1

EPUB Edition JULY 2014 ISBN 9780062195418

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Israel's strict religion-based marriage laws mean that Jews who wish to marry non-Jewish partners must make arrangements to marry abroad and then prove to the Ministry of Interior that their marriage is authentic for it to be legally recognized by the state. Many of these couples choose to marry in Cyprus because it's close to Israel, and the market meets demand with cheap wedding packages.