24

“Prin, I don’t think you should go to Dragomans,” said Molly.

“Really Molly? Because my parents both called to say they think we shouldn’t come to Milwaukee anymore,” said Prin.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Molly.

“I agree. So what’s changed that now you think I shouldn’t go to Dragomans?” asked Prin.

“What happened today,” said Molly.

“What happened today, Molly, in Milwaukee, at the mall you’ve been going to your whole life? Because of a right-wing talk-radio idiot and some paint-balling left-wing goons? That makes no sense,” said Prin.

Standing in the kitchen, they were both quiet, making all the more noticeable the gruesome sound of Molly cutting through the veins of a grapefruit and dropping the pieces into bowls.

“Okay, sorry dear,” Prin said.

“Sorry about what, exactly? About constantly trying to make me not worry about your going to the Middle East with your ex-girlfriend?” asked Molly.

“So you are worried!” said Prin.

“Yes! But not about her, not about you and her. I’m worried about you, about why you want to go over there,” said Molly.

“Dear, I’ve told you, it’s not me—”

“It’s God. Right,” said Molly.

“So you don’t believe me!” said Prin.

“This is what I know: I don’t want you to go. Your wife, the mother of your children, she doesn’t want you to go. Isn’t that enough? How could that not be enough for you? For God?” asked Molly.

“You think something like this could happen there?” asked Prin.

“Why go across the world to court disaster?” asked Molly.

“Because these days it can find you just as easily around the corner from your mother’s house, dear. We’re all courting disaster by getting out of bed in the morning, by going to the mall, by going to the zoo. Remember?” said Prin.

She gutted another grapefruit.

“Molly, nothing’s going to happen. The government over there has too much invested in this to risk it going wrong. And I’m reading everything I can find online about Dragomans. I even asked Patrick when we Skyped yesterday—”

“And what did he think?” asked Molly.

“Well, it’s Patrick,” said Prin.

“Meaning, he said you shouldn’t go, right?” said Molly.

“Not exactly. He just gave me some advice for how to avoid risks while I’m over there. For seventy-two hours, I’ll remind you again, and almost all of those seventy-two hours will be spent behind the security gates at the airport, or behind the security gates at the government building where we’re holding the class, or behind the security gates at a government hotel,” said Prin.

“All of those are targets,” said Molly.

“True, they are—anywhere in the world, Molly. I really think you’re just shaken up by what happened today, which, in the end, was really nothing, correct?” said Prin.

“What if it’s a warning? I mean, like you said—first the lemurs, now this,” said Molly.

“A warning from who?” asked Prin.

“Whom,” said Molly.

“Are you saying God decided to use a dead lemur, and then Perry Schlaffler and two grad-school dropouts, to warn me not to give a lecture on Kafka in the Middle East? Listen, believe me, and I really mean believe me, Molly, when I say I think God has ways more blunt and more subtle of letting us know His will,” said Prin.

She spat out a grapefruit seed.