“If he really is your secret uncle, there must be some evidence,” Ezra says after the meal

“Just keep Hillel from talking about the body,” Rivi hisses to Gabe as she hands him an artfully arranged plate of gefilte fish. “The kids don’t need to hear any more of that.”

Rivi had invited Hillel and his family for Shabbos lunch as a gift to Gabe, and probably also to balance out the fact that Penina and Daniel are at the meal, too.

Gabe is hiding in the kitchen as often as possible. “I’m just trying to be helpful,” he protests. Rivi gives him a dubious look and hands him the chrein.

There is something to be said for Shabbos in Lenape Falls. Gabe is accustomed to the strange limbo of Shabbos in Manaus, where he stays indoors and davens alone. There is a Chabad and a small Moroccan-Brazilian Jewish community, but both are on the other side of the city, and Gabe had rarely gone, finding little in common with them. Instead, his Shabbosim were spent in solitude, reading and sleeping and quick meals. It’s nothing like the elaborate feast that Rivi and Ezra have put together.

Gabe sets the chrein down in front of Penina to prove that he has no problem with her being there. Penina talks to Hillel’s wife and doesn’t acknowledge him at all, which Gabe figures he kind of deserves. Penina has every right to be angry with him and to never want to speak to him again. Even Rivi hasn’t forgiven him for leaving, and he has no claim to Penina’s graciousness.

But he hadn’t expected her to demand answers from him, to ask why. That chapter of his life is long over, and he doesn’t want to revisit their failed engagement now.

So instead, he avoids Penina. He is a safe distance from her — situated between Hillel and Rivi’s oldest son, in chatting proximity to Ezra. Gabe avoids bringing up the body, conscious of 11-year-old Meir just beside him, but Ezra is the one to broach the topic.

“Have you heard anything about that possible relative of yours?” he asks while Rivi serves the main course.

Gabe shrugs. “No answers yet,” he offers, a response that Rivi won’t hate.

Hillel leans forward. “I heard that the rav okayed the police testing your father, too. And my buddy at the department said that the results are irregular. He didn’t think it was a mistake that the guy was… in there,” he says finally, casting a glance at the boy beside Gabe. “He thinks the story is even crazier than we originally believed.”