Summary

Chapter 9 – The narrative returns to 1947, the year that the grandfather and grandmother met. The grandfather was living in Baltimore, sleeping on the couch of his brother Reynard. After the first meeting between the grandfather and grandmother at Shavas Sholom, they were both invited to a dinner party hosted by members of the synagogue. The grandfather did not talk much through the meal, but he did say that he wanted to go into aerospace engineering. Eventually, he and the grandmother broke off from the party and go to talk to each other on the balcony. They stood in the moonlight and smoked cigarettes. The grandmother confessed that she had a child who is almost five years old. The grandfather happened to meet this child, the narrator’s mother, on a later day as she stood outside in the cold. She said she was punishing...