How It All Goes Down
A Parade, a Death, a Proposition, 1804-1969
- Brod has rejected tons of marriage proposals by her twelfth birthday. Awesome, child bride!
- On the thirteenth annual Trachimday festival, Brod is the Float Queen, and she dresses up like a little mermaid. (Who will be Ursula?)
- Even though Brod has a good idea what her future holds, she goes through with it anyway.
- Thin white string is tied to pretty much everything in Trachimbrod, making the place look like a giant spiderweb from the sky.
- The parade begins and Brod's job is to throw a bunch of sacks into the river, so the men can dive in and retrieve them.
- A man named Shalom from Kolki (they call him the Kolker) wins. Hooray! It's eighteen gold coins, which is half a year's salary.
- On her way home, Brod dodges all the drunks in the street.
- Well… except one. The text seems to gloss over what happens, but we know from the last chapter what it is.
- Despite being raped by Sofiowka (at least, we're assuming that's what happened), Brod returns home, seemingly in good spirits.
- She looks for Yankel so they can eat pineapple on the roof.
- But Yankel won't be eating pineapple ever again. Brod finds him dead in the library.
- In shock, Brod removes the mermaid costume and stands naked by the window.
- A bolt of lightning illuminates the Kolker outside.
- Instead of telling this peeping tom to get bent, Brod tells him that he "must do something" (13.93) for her… but we're not sure what.
- Flash forward to 1969, when Jonathan's grandmother watches the moon landing. Her reaction: "Etz vunderful!" (13.95). We were a little verklempt ourselves…