The Natural Order by R.A. Zilber (best contemporary novels TXT) 📖

living a mediocre life’. ‘No! Today is a beginning,’ she thought, ‘it’s a sign of things to come.’ She hurled the coffee toward the sink, breaking the cup and splattering the creamy brown liquid against the steel. She tossed the broken cup fragments into the trash, rinsed the sink, and ran upstairs to wake the children.
After meeting with Adam, Rachel’s desire for professional advancement began to wane. All work at the Bureau, she thought, was essentially the same-- cleaning and processing data. She remembered a professor from her graduate program, saying in a thick Russian accent, “Only the top statisticians analyze data, most of you, one way or another --will be cleaning it.”
Rachel didn’t doubt the Oracles ability to reverse engineer Labor Bureau’s algorithm. A short time passed when Michael called with the news, “Raych, the Oracles can consistently match Labors economic indicators, also they found evidence of a data-fudging algorithm that intentionally distorts economic indicators”
“Really!” she exclaimed
Michael said, “Well, it extends time for the rich to convert their bad investments into cash. Adam is anticipating a market adjustment. Economically speaking, the US economy is going to hell in a hand basket and he is preparing to take advantage of fallout.”
To construct a username for the Swiss bank account, Rachel used the Kabalistic method of calculation she described to Adam when they first met. She calculated her Hebrew name’s minor Gematria to be 9. She reasoned nine is three to the second power, a pair of triplets, three points in a triangle; two triangles form the Star of David. She used the census of the twelve tribes from the “Book of Numbers,” for the password. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw a pending deposit of two million.
Rachel executed her scheme with mechanical precision. Each morning she copied the survey files, and keeping only the variables Adam requested, created new data sets, which she transferred to a flash drive, and sent to Adam by overnight mail. Rachel’s scheme provided an escape from her commonplace existence. Possessing a natural inclination toward solitary activities, Rachel found most social interaction aversive and hoped that within a few years she could quit her job and live a bohemian life.
Though their family shared a common history, it was the study abroad program that brought her and Jake together. Drunk with infatuation, they agreed to marry once Jake fulfilled his military obligation—but even the best-laid human plans are flawed. When she returned from her program, her father Laban was diagnosed with inoperable colon cancer; he said to Rachel, “Some things are beyond our understanding when we must do them. During such times, the internal aspects of our character are tested. There is a natural order to things. In it lies truth. Just as it is natural for a parent to precede her child in death, it is natural for the eldest sister to precede the younger in marriage. Before I die I want to see Leila married.”
Rachel’s distressed state prompted Jake to make clear his intentions to marry her. Laban threw the engagement party, and during the festivities he pulled Jake aside saying, “my dear boy, though it’s customary for the couple to be engaged for one year, given the state of my health, I have arranged for you to marry my daughter tonight.” Jake in a drunken stupor agreed to everything. Laban produced a drafted marriage document which enumerated Jakes responsibilities to his future wife saying, “We mustn’t forget the Ketubah,” then Laban stuck a pen into Jakes hand and two men who were holding Jake up witnessed him signing it.
Under a stretched tallit held by four men, the Rabbi read the Ketubah aloud, and placed a ring into Jake’s hand. As he then eased the ring onto his bride’s finger he slurred the words, “You are consecrated to me through this ring, in accordance with the religion of Moses and Israel,” and the Rabbi corrected each word that came out of Jakes drunken mouth. Then the Rabbi recited seven blessings over the couple, each time refilling Jakes wine glass. In remembrance of the loss of Jerusalem and the Temple, with a little help from Laban, Jake broke the wine glass that was placed under his foot.
Jake’s intoxicated state prevented his fingers from lifting his brides’ veil during the ceremony. Joyously Jake surrendered to the men that carried him and his bride to a private room to consumate their marriage. The following morning, Jake woke up with a throbbing headache, and when he looked over at his sleeping bride, he realized that Laban had tricked him.
Before panic took hold of his mind, he remembered when he tricked his own father on his deathbed. Jakes mother said, “Isaac is asking for your brother, I beg you, he is blind, if you speak in a whisper, he will think you’re Edom. Don’t let your father die with a broken heart.”
Jake sat at his father’s bedside, and he heard his father say to him, “Edom my son, I made a secret agreement with Laban, when the time comes, you will marry Leila, and by virtue of being a firstborn son—inherit your birthright.”
Jake sat motionless, only the sound of his breath revealed his presence in the room. When Isaac finished speaking, Jake felt that he could not continue to deceive his father by pretending to be his fathers first born son, but then Isaac touched Jakes face, mumbled some words, closed his eyes and never regained consciousness.
Laban’s voice roused Jake from his trance, “Jake, my son, Leila is your wife, not Rachel. Your father made a promise-- yesterday you fulfilled it. You restored your father’s honor, so that I may genuinely say, ‘May his memory be for a blessing’.” The last six words reverberating in Jakes mind, may his memory be for a blessing, and in some such way, in his inexplicable situation, Jake found comfort in Laban’s resolve.
In the next ten years, Leila bore seven children, six boys and a girl. After the birth of her last child, a routine mammogram revealed breast cancer. When Leila completed her first course of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, the two sisters sat in the oncologist office and listened to Leila’s doctor’s professionally polished, apologetic, and kind utterance, “Despite our best efforts, the breast cancer has returned and is no longer treatable.“
Rachel moved in with Leila and began taking care Leila’s children. Toward the end of Leila’s illness, she said to Rachel, “I know that Jake loved you for all the years we’ve been married and I know how much you sacrificed for me. After I die, you can marry Jake, only please promise to raise my children.” They hugged and after, for the first time, Rachel allowed herself to cry.
After Leila died, Rachel devoted herself to the care of Leila’s family. With Jake working long hours, Rachel developed an evening ritual that included taking Leila’s pain medication. After a long day with the children, she took comfort in small doses of the liquid opiod that Leila was prescribed towards the end of her illness. Rachel switched roles from aunt to mother, when one evening, Leila’s oldest son showed up in her room, swallowed hard, puffed out his little chest and said;
“We want you to be our mother.” Rachel and Jake soon married, adding two children to their household.
In a restaurant on the top floor of the Mandarin Oriental, Adam said to Rachel,
“My clients are quite pleased with the results. We are holding large amounts of cash, in a cash poor world.”
Rachel began moving her head from side to side, and interjected, “Within the year, the Bureau’s computer security policy will disable the USB ports, rendering our data transfer method useless. Adam, Jake’s clearance reinvestigation is approaching. I feel that this is a natural place for an ending.”
“Rachel, I guarantee that if Jake agrees to accept a detail in the Jerusalem office, there will be no reinvestigation of his clearance application, it will be renewed—I guarantee it.” Ignoring Rachel’s look of discomfort, he refilled his glass, and said, “I suggest you encourage Jake to accept the transfer. Tell him to bring the children, and tell him that you will join them soon.” His features gravely set, he leaned his head closer to her and said, “Rachel, I must warn you, turning to the authorities is never an option, but this is,” Adam reached into his pant pocket and produced a small box with a digital pad, saying, “It opens when you key in the letters of your name,” and he opened the small box to reveal three yellow capsules. “Because they are bitter I recommend you take them with a sweet drink. Death will come quick and painless,” Adam said in nonchalant tone.
“And what about Michael, was he also bestowed with the same benefaction”? Rachel asked sarcastically.
Adam smiled, “Rachel, there is no free lunch. Take what you want—but pay for it.” Before leaving, they amicably agreed to conclude their collaboration within six moths.
That evening, Jake said, “I had a strange dream, a woman-- maybe Leila, was standing tall, her head above the clouds. An angel began clambering up her body, but after a short time he fell and broke into pieces, followed by a second, and a third. But the fourth angel managed to reach the top and disappear into the clouds.”
Rachel felt goosbumps, “And then?”
“Nothing, then I awake,” Jake said.
“Jake, each person has a unique destiny--a spiritual journey. In the dream the angels symbolize four stages of your spiritual struggle and you will come closer to God, by the auspices of a woman.”
Jake with his eyes cast down said, “I believe you’re concealing something, and I must reach beyond myself to discover it.” Rachel pretended to fall asleep, and Jake stopped talking.
Jake accepted a detail in Jerusalem, bringing his children and a housekeeper.
Rachel was in the midst of wrapping things up; she sold her house, moved to a hotel residence, and had paid cash for a one way ticket to Jerusalem. One evening as she was packing, Rachel received a call.
“Hello, this is investigator Ryan Noonan with the department of treasury, is this Rachel Laban?
Rachel’s heart pounded, “Yes.”
“I am investigating a case involving foreign investments in targeted sectors of the US economy.”
Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. Rachel agreed to meet the detective the following afternoon in a coffee shop across the street from the Marriot Residence, where she was staying. That night, she dreamed that she and Adam were walking through a pomegranate orchard, planning to pick 613 pomegranates. An old man appeared saying, “Pick only the fruit on the trees, leave the fruit that’s