Faivish the Imbecile – Robert Bagnall

When I returned to the shop a boy and a girl—he was wearing his, she was carrying hers—were looking at our $74.99 tees through the window. “What are they thinking,” I thought I heard her say to him as I pushed past into the shop.

My father, Faivish, and me. We stood there like Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, and Lee van Cleef, just staring at each other. I could tell that my father was lost in the enormity of it all.

“I don’t know what to say,” I said, only because somebody needed to say something.

“I do,” said Faivish. “I may not be good with my mind, I may not be clever, but I do know that there are some things in this world which are wrong, and there are some things that are right. An honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay is right. Knowing the cost of things as well as the value of things, and giving yourself an honest profit, is right. But I also know that simply writing a number on something doesn’t make it worth that. And selling it for that is wrong. It’s wrong and no good will come of it. That’s all I know.”

Faivish hung his head. At that moment, I felt sorry that he didn’t have his customary broom in his hand because I could see his fingers twitch, embarrassed, wanting something to do to deflect our astonished gaze. It was an unprecedented speech and it had, both mentally and emotionally, exhausted him. I had never heard him speak like that before, nor did he ever again in his life. Indeed, he barely spoke more than a handful of words for as long as he lived.

The effect on my father was profound. His body sagged and he slumped down onto a packing crate, chairs being far too prosaic for the ambience he was after for his new shop. Wordlessly, he seemed to question everything that he had done, the very basis for his existence. I crouched down, put my arm around him, but in a very real sense he was a long way from us. Then, slowly but surely, he began to nod his head, as if, mentally, he had reached a place of profound understanding. He turned and looked at me, surprised to find me there, and then, in wonderment, up at Faivish.

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