“I don’t think I can be of much help without seeing her. I have to see her,” the doctor informed Peninit.

“Then we’ll break down the door, there’s no choice,” said Arieh, avoiding the menacing look on Peninit’s face, which passed over him and roamed around in search of Matti.

“Don’t look at me. You can take your eyes off me. Do whatever you like, break down the door, don’t break it down, I don’t care,” Matti said and went into the kitchen.

The parents looked at each other helplessly. “We have one hour, tops, to let Mano Dvir know if we’re canceling. One hour tops,” Arieh said. Peninit went over to the large window, opened the glass door and then the blinds, leaned over the railing with her whole upper body hanging out, and looked down at the street.

“What are you doing?” Arieh hurried over to her, grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“What’s the matter with you?” She pushed him toward the recliner, rubbing her arm. “What’s got into you? Did you think I was going to jump? Is that what you thought? I needed some fresh air, that’s all.”

Nadia reappeared. Her coiffed blond bangs were drooping on her forehead, almost covering her eyes. “Did you hear anything from Margie’s room?” she asked distractedly. “I thought I heard something. There was something in there, someone crying. It sounded like a baby’s voice.”

The doctor considered her words. “It was apparently some sort of doll,” she said finally.

“A doll . . .” Nadia echoed. “Which doll was talking?” she wondered, blinking, while Ilan stood behind her, rubbing her neck. “It’s okay, Nadia, come on, don’t get into that again now. It’s okay, Margie just found that doll in there that belonged to . . . ” (he hesitated, articulating her name with some difficulty) “ . . . to Natalie. She just happened to find it there.” He took Nadia over to Gramsy, sat her down, and arranged their hands together, clasping each other. “Look after her, Gramsy, the way you know how. Look after her well, this whirling dervish of ours, this sweetheart, so she doesn’t go whirling around again and getting into mischief,” he urged Gramsy, whose face lit up with her wonderful, inscrutable smile.

“I have an idea of how you can maybe see her,” Ilan told the doctor in a purposeful voice.

“How?” asked three voices at once. “How?” They gathered around him (Matti was back from the kitchen), full of expectation, like Boy Scouts about to set off on a night trek.

“We bring one of those ladder vehicles—either a fire truck or a cherry picker, with a ladder that goes up to the third floor,” Ilan began self-importantly, but then stopped.

Peninit’s face fell. “What are you talking about? A vehicle with a ladder? Well, honestly! It’s like we’re in kindergarten. A vehicle with a ladder! What about a sandbox—do you want one of those, too?” she dismissed him impatiently.

“He does have a point, actually,” Arieh mused. “If we had that sort of ladder on a truck, the doctor could maybe see her through the window. She could just stand there outside the window and talk to Margie.”

“Have you lost your minds?” Matti burst out. “Have you gone completely insane? Are you seriously going to listen to this nutcase?” (He waved his hand at Ilan.) “Is Margie some sort of terrorist barricaded in that room, threatening to massacre us all? Next thing you’ll be saying the doctor has to dress up as an old Arab lady or something. Good God,” he said, wiping his brow.

Without paying any attention to him, Arieh pressed on, growing more and more fond of the idea (and not only because of the benefit it might bring). “I can talk to Avner from the electric company. He has connections with the garage where they keep the trucks with the ladders. I’ll find his number in a second.” He put his glasses on and leafed through a little notebook.

“Electric company ladders?” Nadia asked with a weak, involuntary smile. (She had retreated, taking no position in the debate over necessary modes of action, and was preventing herself from taking any interest, retiring to a place that was not even her home but a sort of hideout, a secret room that branched off her actual apartment, which in her mind’s eye had been impounded by Peninit and Arieh and the polite doctor and even by Matti, and it was all lawful, she thought, it was a lawful impounding, because she sensed what was going to happen on account of the huge debt she owed them for the wedding expenses, and so she quickly retreated, relinquishing what was far more costly than the apartment itself, which was her sense of ownership of the apartment.)

Arieh left the room with his phone, having tried to hush the voices around him with his hand, and came back a few minutes later. “I talked to Avner, I told him the whole story,” he announced excitedly. “So here’s the deal,” he began, and took a deep breath to prepare for his speech.

“Stop it. I don’t even want to hear it, I don’t want to,” Matti said, stomping his foot.

That foot-stomping infuriated Peninit (she once again noticed Matti’s black patent leather shoes, which she despised) and at that moment she made up her mind to side with Arieh and Ilan. “Run along,” she told Matti impatiently. She picked up her purse, pulled out a coin and put it in his hand: “Here’s ten shekels. Go buy yourself a popsicle at the corner store. Calm down. Run along.”

Arieh continued: “Avner wants to help, he’s a good guy, I know him. But here’s the problem: to get an electric company vehicle out here now, he can’t do that. He could easily lose his job for that. But he had an idea. He has a good friend, Adnan, from the Palestinian Authority’s electrical company, and this Adnan brought one of their vehicles in for repairs at the shop. So Avner says maybe Adnan can come out here with his truck, and it won’t be any trouble. No trouble at all. Adnan owes him a favor—lots of favors—and he’ll do it,” he summed up ceremoniously.

“So this Adnan has to get in trouble instead of Avner? That’s the solution?” Matti asked caustically.

“Who said he’ll get in trouble?” Arieh asked defensively. “Why must you always see the glass half empty? He won’t get in trouble. He’s used to it, with all their chaos over there, I guarantee you. We don’t know what he owes Avner over there.”

“Tell him to come quickly,” Peninit decreed in a foreboding voice.