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“David, we have company at this table. Scott and Hale don’t need to be present for this conversation,” Inger noted.
“And it’s a moot point, since I’m hardly going to give up the fast track to named partner in order to do pro bono cases for immigrants or whatever it is you think would be worthwhile for me to do,” Oskar said.
“Oh great,” Emilie mumbled, heralding this was what it sounded like it was going to be.
The beginning of a well-worn argument.
“Of course you won’t use the educationIpaid for to do something to help people who need it,” David remarked.
“My clients need my services just as much as poor people do. That’s reverse discrimination, Father,” Oskar declared.
“Thank God the kindly, well-off Jews who took in your great-grandparents as they fled the Nazis didn’t have your views on immigrants,” David retorted.
“We all can’t be Hale here.” Oskar flung a hand over the table in Hale’s direction. “Mother Theresa in the form of a surfer dude, giving away his father’s hard-earned billions. Though, nobody is talking about how he’s got more money now than his father left him because that’s what happens. Lots of money makes lotsmoremoney. He comes off as the millennial savior, holier than thou, vaccinating Africans and freeing Tibet and all that shit, but still, he could buy and sell entire countries.”
Hale had gone still.
But not Elsa.
Now her napkin was on the table, and she was out of her seat.
“Come on, honey, we’re leaving,” she stated, pulling on his arm.
“Elsa, sit down,” Inger commanded.
But Hale was up.
“Yes, yes. I was out of line, goading Oskar like that. You have my apologies.” David turned to his son. “Oskar, I’m sorry. We won’t discuss it any further.”
“No, I’m sorry. But we’re going.” Elsa had a hold on his hand and was tugging it.
Everyone was out of their seats, but only David followed them from the dining room into the living room.
Elsa stopped Hale at the front door and got close.
“I’ll be right back, okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, baby,” he murmured. “I’ll get your wrap.”
“Stay right here, I’ll grab it.”
She squeezed his hand and stormed, not to where her wrap was on the arm of a chair, but back to the dining room.
“Tensions are high, Hale. Not to do with you. But I let it leak out at dinner. I can’t tell you how sorry I am,” David said.
He nodded.
It was then, from a distance, barely discernible, but he heard Elsa’s furious voice saying “…his father. Fuck you.Fuck you, Oskar. What the fuck is the matter with you?” A pause then, “No, Mom. It’s done. We’re done. And we’re leaving.”
He saw her hurry back into the room, snatch up her wrap with agitated movements, grab her bag and his scarf and come to him.
She took his hand, this time her grip like a vise, and she turned to her dad.
“Another stellar evening at Chez Cohen,” she remarked irritably.
“I’ll call soon,” David said, looking and sounding forlorn. “We need to talk, honey.”
She studied him a moment before she nodded, got up on her toes and kissed her dad’s cheek.
