He goes back to the kibbutz, of all places.
When Bloom first came here, he used to hate it. Now it’s the only thing resembling a home.
He’s on R-and-R leave, this time for real. His shoulder is healing. His ribs are mending. He can move. He can breathe, almost.
Other wounds run deeper than those covering his face and body.
He hopes the mountain sun and the engine oil will heal and mend what got broken inside him. He’s not sure they will.
Shmulik, the kibbutz’s mechanic workshop boss, was happy to see him.
“At least there’ll be someone other than me working to bring these old beasts back to life,” he said when Bloom asked for his old job back.
Bloom suspects there’s more to that, but not much.
He stops to wind the Breguet outside the mailroom. The glass is still cracked. He runs his fingertips over it. There’s more death remembered in his gesture than there used to be.
He brings out the letter Lucian Paine warned him to expect.
It’s a summons.
A court back in the States wants him to appear before it in his trust’s prolonged litigation. The vultures keep circling. The Paines are trying.
“Let the motherfuckers try,” he says.
“Let them try,” says a voice next to him.
He looks up from the paper to find Orit next to him.
“Hi,” he says.
“Hi,” she says back.
“I didn’t know you were home,” he says.
“I’m not. This isn’t home anymore. I’m here only for the day. I came to pick up some stuff from my mom’s house. Books, mostly.”
“I see.”
“There’s, um, some footage I’d like to talk to you about,” she says.
“Footage?”
“There’s a person of interest to the intel guys in my base. They installed a surveillance system surrounding his house. It surprised the spooks to see a Magav corporal walk around in the rain with said person of interest. They brought it to my attention, as base commander.”
“Mm-hm.”
“There was supposed to be an inquiry about this. Why was a Magav corporal walking around with a person of interest? Who was this corporal? His description didn’t match those on leave that day. His wounds didn’t match any of those in sick bay. We were going to send the footage back to the Kirya for further analysis, but it got deleted, somehow. We’re still looking into it.”
“Deleted?”
“Deleted. Lost. The spooks are spooked. This is a big glitch in the system.”
“I’m sure it is. This corporal of yours, maybe he had something important to talk about with this person of interest. Pay a debt, maybe?”
“Do you think he paid his debt? I wouldn’t want my boys in hock with a person of interest.”
“Well, that’d depend on what was owed. Some debts are just too big to be paid in full,” says Bloom, all the time rubbing his fingers over his cracked watch.
Thick silence between them. Shuffling feet.
Bloom reaches inside his shirt, takes off the leather cord with the asimon from around his neck.
“Here,” he says. “This is another debt I should pay back.”
“Not lonely anymore?”
“Always lonely. Still not brave enough, still undeserving,” he says.
Orit takes it from him, puts it in her pocket. Tears well in both their eyes but stop short of rolling down their cheeks.
Orit nods at the letter in his hand.
“What’s that?”
“The vultures, back in the States. They want me to appear in court. If I don’t, I may lose the lawsuit.”
“After all this time, they won’t let you be?”
“They’re a relentless lot,” he says.
“So? When are you going back?”
“I’m not sure I will,” he says. “I may let them win.”
“You’re going to let them have all that money? Just like that?” she asks.
“I might. I just might.”