It’s 5:00 pm on a Saturday when the drowning incident transpires. Taking into account the setting and the terminology befitting the parties, the drowning incident occurs during seudah shlishit, the third ritual meal of Shabbat. The month is December. The location is a hotel pool in Miami. The stage, upon which this scene unfolds, is an expansive patio extending out from the rear of a hotel overlooking a beach. Upon closer scrutiny, venturing right up to the aqua blue metal railing which lines the patio’s perimeter, and peering below, the very pool where the incident takes place becomes visible, shimmering with the light of the late afternoon sun.
On the patio are six small round glass tables—four wicker chairs each—shaded by aqua blue umbrellas, evenly distributed along said perimeter of the patio. Set apart from the rest of the tables in the right-most corner of the patio, as viewed when facing the hotel itself, back to the pool, are three lower tables, glass as well, square in shape, having been pushed together in order to accommodate a small crowd. This extended table stands out in length, in height, and in the abundance of food of nearly every imaginable kind, all pouring out of, or sitting atop of, multi-colored packages of varied composition brought in from outside the hotel premises.
Seated at a small round table are two elderly couples, each of the men wearing blue blazers, the women wearing pastel-colored cotton sweaters, conversing in German while partaking of tea and croissants. Two tables to their left, a waiter in black-and-white uniform, French in accent, leans forward in a gesture of attentiveness as he notes the desires of a particularly attractive young woman with long auburn hair flowing down her bare bronzed back. The freckled sunburned man seated beside her extends his right arm to cover her left, as his eyes turn to monitor the waiter.
At precisely this moment, one cannot miss, with a measure of surprise, a football sailing overhead, narrowly missing the...
Subscribe now to keep reading
Please enter your email to log in or create a new account.