12. (14-15) Ali & Dan - Sharing

Slim Novel 12 - http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage

14: Ali and Dan at home

Ali and Dan start to share. Ali lives in 1A one flight below Dan's 2A and their apartments are alike so it is like living duplex except no stairway connecting. But there is a dumbwaiter.
   Pre-1940's apartment buildings in New York City have a shaft running from basement to top floor of each vertical tier of apartments, like A, 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A. The shaft is about 1 meter square, the size of a large carton for removing trash and with a pull-rope lift. Between 7 and 7:30 AM, the dumbwaiter visits all levels and a bell alerts the tenant. Ali realizes she can use the dumbwaiter from her 1A apartment when she needs to get to Dan in 2A.

   She and Dan eat, listen to radio, and also lie together for sex, which also puts him to sleep. Ali is surprised that at Dan's age she can benefit from his lust. She guesses it is due to lifetime of Dan's eating and living healthily. Also, the sex with Margaret had made his lust lively; and now with her death and the young woman, whose body is warm when Sundays are cold, Dan is experiencing a peak higher than the Spanish explorer Balboa did at Darien when he first viewed he Pacific Ocean in the 1500's.

15: Ali Cooks for Dan

Even before Margaret's death, Dan was eating out of cans. Now, Ali does his kitchen service. Tonight is her typical effort. She deplores the usual starting a meal with juice.

 "Juice is ninety-nine percent water of the fruit. But look here! This is the real fruit!" She slices a yellow grapefruit in half and, with a spoon, places it on Dan's plate in the living room at his favorite table by window. 

Dan's table in SW corner . The sofa arm slightly behind & to viewer's right. The chair is normally by window in daytime but on cold nights is moved opposite..

   "Margaret always sprinkled sugar," Dan complains.

   "Margaret don't live here anymore."

   "Oh!" Exclaims Dan after swallowing his first scoop-out of the bittersweet fruit.

   "An't it delish?" Asks Ali, using her upper class accent for the ain't and digging her spoon into her own grapefruit.
   A box of Matzo is on the table, Ali's doing. Though Dan is Jewish, he has had no interest in Matzo.  But Ali, though a typical shiksa in looks (blonde, blue eyes, small nose), knows Bronx Jewish food and loves it. Matzo in particular she approves because least processed and low-calorie. And she likes the crunchy, karrie-karrie sound and feel when she bites into it.

   "It will soon be, Pesach, won't it?" Asks Ali, using the Hebrew for the celebration of the Children of Israel's flight from Egypt.
   "I am atheist," says Dan. " I do not care one way or other."

   "You don't have to believe in religion to enjoy Pesach, do you?"

   "I guess not."

   "Well, why don't we do a seder here?"

   "I do not read Hebrew, for one."

   Then why don't we invite Moyshe with Bren? Moyshe's uncle is a Rabbi and Bren tells me he taught Moyshe to read all the Hebrew prayer books."

   So it is decided to do a seder next week, Passover Eve.  For next - The Seder - click 12.16 A Bronx Passover Seder in 1942