How It All Goes Down
Falling in Love, 1791-1796
- Yankel takes the baby home and makes her a bed inside the oven. At least it's warm there.
- He thinks about how his wife left him. She just left a note on his doorstep (a "Dear Yankel" more than a "Dear John" letter) that said "I had to do it for myself" (7.3). We hear sisters are doing it for themselves.
- A trial is alluded to, but we have no idea what Yankel did. He was disgraced, changed his name from Safran to Yankel, and fled the shtetl for three years.
- He wears an abacus bead around his neck to signify his shame (better than a scarlet letter) and he gives the baby one of her own.
- Then he names her Brod, after the river in which she was found.
- As Brod grows up, Yankel makes up all sorts of stories about his happy marriage (fake) and how Brod's mother (fake) died an early death (also fake).
- But he keeps the note his real wife left him, and he's unable to let his fantasy replace reality.