Seven Days- Part III
Day Three
After the second day, Joshua was getting used to the thought of this rather strange religiously-mandated "house arrest"- the rooms were dark and clammy, the entire building felt like a prison, but the point of such austere conditions brought to mind the kind of agony that his brother David must have gone through on a daily basis. ‘Why was I such an idiot to neglect you while you were dying in this filthy shack, my brother? Can you ever forgive me for this dereliction of duty?', the fox thought to himself, wondering once more what might have been if he had not been so callous and so worldly. And to think if only somebody had been paying attention to David, even as the degradation of his brain made him into a vegetable, his own bodily and mental functions failing him until the inevitable end.
But today, Joshua determined would be a much brighter day because while David was alive (and still of sound mind and body), he had conceived some children. The fox knew full well that in the Jewish faith, reaching back to the days when the Scriptures were being written, one who had his "quiver full" was truly blessed. But the first indication that perhaps maybe things would not turn out as planned came to Joshua the moment he answered the phone, a herald of the next mourner to find that the caller on the other end of the line was none other than the Miami Police Department. It seems as though David's son was not the kind of individual to be trusted alone and had already earned several felonies before being allowed this one day of freedom, albeit with several conditions. Joshua felt uneasy knowing that he would be probably the first mourner to be consulted by someone in a bright orange jumpsuit, shackled so as not to cause any more trouble. But the fox decided that the momentary intrusion by a police officer on this memorial to his dear brother was out of necessity.
Sure enough, the fox spied from the tattered shades of his brother's former dwelling, the traditional black-and-white squad car of the Miami Police Department outside the shack. Emerging from that car was a leopard in the garb of a police officer, accompanying a canid-feline hybrid at least one-half fox in the aforementioned bright coverall uniform of an inmate underneath a strait-jacket to restrain movement of the upper body.
"Hello, this is Leroy Connors of the MPD. This house is in such disrepair-"
"It's not mine- this is just a part of the mourning process. I have to occupy the house for a week, as per our religion's laws."
"I confess I know nothing of the Jewish faith," the policeleopard said. "But I can say one thing- this guest is a tiger-fox hybrid named Chad Kleiner-Jurgens convicted of several armed robberies and vandalism of gravestones. He is very dangerous and very angry with the world. He does not take kindly to Jewish people."
"As hell I don't. They're responsible for the world's ills," came the rude and high-pitched voice, from behind the police officer. "And I can't stand the fact that I am a mixed-breed twice over." The hybrid animal, whose past was filled with anger and hatred which fueled his anti-Semitic feelings stared at Joshua with a look of unbridled hate.
There was no need for a greeting or the cutting of clothes because Joshua knew full well that this "mourner" was not really mourning at all his father's passing. Rather it was him walking (waddling considering the strait-jacket which kept him from using his upper body at all) while being shepherded by the officer to the sitting room. When they reached the room the officer stood by the door as the two began to talk. "Don't mind me, I'm just a neutral observer- in fact I don't exist."
"Let's cut to the chase- I don't care about you, I don't care about your stupid Chosen People traditions, and this house is even worse than the prisons I usually call home," the tiger-fox said, a sneer and a scowl evident in his facial expressions.
"Enough of your racism and chewing the scenery. We're here for one reason and one reason only. It's not to talk about how much you hate Jews or how shabby this place is. We're here to talk about your old man and my brother, David Kleiner. He died recently."
"Well, thanks Captain Obvious. I heard that I'd get a day off for mourning and I couldn't be happier to leave the shithole, all because some stupid kike fell dead," the hybrid said, pure venom spewing forth from his muzzle in those words.
"Well, that ‘stupid kike' gave you one-half of your genes so I can't believe you have a right to complain. You really feel that way about your father?"
"Yes, I do. He never was split between two faiths and two species. Look, I'm some pathetic monster, unworthy either to be named a canid or a feline. And I'm neither Jewish either, or Catholic like my mother, Rosa Jurgens."
As he listened to the confession, Joshua gained a better understanding of what his son-in-law as going through, though he would never get a full knowledge. "So I take it your criminal acts stem from your hatred of Jews, right?"
"Well, yeah. I robbed that convenience store owner because his last name ended in "Stein" and those gravestones I marked with swastikas, I guess it goes without saying they were Jewish graves. All my life I'd been told that Jewish people are all wealthy moguls who secretly own the world."
Joshua had heard this speech before, "It's only a stereotype."
"I know that now but when I robbed those stores and marked all those graves, I thought I was striking a blow against the people who cause all the strife in the world and oppress people. I was mad because my father was Jewish and I was thusly half-Jewish. I fell in with a bad crowd and saw my father as a villain. Hate, hate, hate- that's all my life has been." There was somewhat of a softness in this speech but Joshua knew that his heart had not been softened yet completely.
"Your life has been filled with hate- have you ever tried loving? Even though the world might not give back in return."
And this awakened something in the tiger-fox that never had been active before. "Life has been kinda rough on me- single-parent household, always blamed that on Dad. And the crime sprees, I won't see freedom for another ten years. But you really think I can get my life back on track, just like that?"
"Well, there's a holiday in our faith, called Yom Kippur where the congregation asks God for forgiveness of all our sins and vows to try harder. We know we'll always fall short and need His forgiveness but we try hard to live better lives. It's not going to be that easy for you-" the fox stared briefly at the police officer, the obvious proof that such atonement would require years of contrition for his acts. "but this whole experience has been a form of repentance for me as well. If you think your father was a bad person, what do you feel about me- the stereotypical Jew come to life with a fortune in real estate who couldn't even come to his own dying brother's bedside?"
"So what you're saying is- I should try to live a better life and start loving the world that seems so dead-set against me? And that you made mistakes, like I did?" the fox-tiger said still a bit confused.
"Well, yes. I know it may seem impossible in the prison to do so but try harder to love the world even if it doesn't love you. Even if the cards are stacked against you. Your sentence will end and then you'll get back into the wild and you don't want to go back to jail. Then you contribute something positive to the community and isn't that what your father would have wanted for you?"
Now David's son began to tear up, though the prison masculinity kept him from completely losing it and crying. "You're right. I've got to grow up and get a future, even if it means I have to confront my past. The time for the juvenile stuff- the hatred, the fear, the robberies, the vandalism- that's going out the window. Right here, right now, I'm starting over."And as he motioned for the door, a simple nod was enough to tell the officer that the visit had been satisfactory. Now, the only thing that Joshua Kleiner could hope (and for that matter, Chad could hope) was that he was serious in that regard, that he would turn over a new leaf.
As the car sped off back to the jail, Joshua looked up to the sunset from inside the window of that house and he thought of his brother, David and he prayed. ‘If this was Your Divine will to take David from us, then it must have been for atonement- not just for me but for Chad as well, and who knows who else could use this? I wish he were still here but I know that you work in mysterious ways. Behind every cloud, there's a silver lining.' Tomorrow would be Shabbat and that meant he would finally take a short leave of absence, though he figured that another mourner would come, his daughter-in-law.