21. Giving Irving What He Wants Before He Knows He Wants It
And then there is food. Sheila dons her apron and on Saturday 1 PM, when Irving arrives at Flat 1A from his half day at hospital, she has laid out lunch on the bridge-table by the window with Irving's chair giving him an easy view, by just turning head right, of the green Parkway.
She has made her face up nice, showered and has a natural fragrance helped by a touch of French Circe got at Bloomingdale's big store downtown. It is late September and she wears a light green sweater she'd knitted and a white cotton skirt and no stockings with only a black silk shift underneath to prevent the wool from itching. On the way to open the door for Irving she grabs a look at herself in hall mirror on her right, thinking, Mirror, wish me luck.
She embraces him at the open door. "Darling, I have your favorite food on the table. And I bought that book you're raving about Fundamentals of Neuroscience."
Now he kisses her. Is it the book or me? she thinks.
"Sheila, I am hungry but I want to sit with you and listen to Caruso first."
I'm learning from this guy, she thinks. A year here and I'll be slim like him. She gives him a kiss back.
Enrico Caruso is singing through the revolving disc from Aida while Irving sits next to Sheila barely touching. He is silent, eyes closed, following the Caruso and holding Sheila's right hand. An hour earlier on her way from the hospital where she works till noon Saturdays, she stopped at Schweller's Kosher Delicatessen and picked up roast beef half pound, 20 thin red juicy slices. Plus white coleslaw, a couple of light brown potato knish rectangles, two sourest pickles and the free mustard & ketchup that goes with any 5-dollar-or-more order. Also two Celray sodas in bottle. Now all is laid out on the bridge-table and at Irving's place: the book she bought him Fundamentals ... is neatly placed on the window sill next to his chair.
The Caruso ends. Irving opens eyes and smiles at her. "I am ready for a good lunch." He never uses darling or dear and only occasionally Sheila. She does not care; she is learning his ways these days.
They have finished eating. "Darling," she says, interrupting his intense looking through Fundamentals, "What do you plan for your high holy days?"
"Oh, you mean Rosh Hashona and Yom Kippur! I myself don't care about them. At home, of course, I go to synagogue but my mother & father are doing the holidays up at the Concord Hotel in the Catskills so I volunteered for duty at the hospital."
"Do you mind a suggestion?"
"No, not at all. What?"
"On the first day, next Saturday, be at the Nathan Strauss Jewish Center - you know the modern looking synagogue on DeKalb Avenue, across from the hospital, and be well dressed."
"Why there, then?"
"Because a little bird tells me the great Leo Davidoff is going to be there then. And, don't you know, Irving, he happens to be very interested in you?"
"Oh, you mean because of the Joe Pro case?"
"Well, that's one thing. But, don't you know, Davidoff, like your dad, was born in Lithuania and was brought here - USA - as a kid?"
"Yes, I heard it. But how does that relate?"
"I'm Davidoff's favorite scrub nurse, the only one he speaks with rather than to, and I told him you are the son of - as you say - a fellow Litvak. And then the great Leo said he hoped he'd get a chance to see you more."
She notes Irving is interested and she gives what she considers the clincher. "Now listen! I also know that Davidoff controls a special externship of 6 weeks with the Wilder Penfield - you know the world's top neurosurgeon, who even the great Leo looks up to. And you could get it if you just put yourself in Davidoff's way at the synagogue next Saturday."
To read on, click 13.(22-24) Scene From a Relationship 3
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