“Save me, Mary!”
Mary fell to her hands and knees in the soil and reached down to her screaming brother. She knew her brand new dress was ruined now, but she never liked it anyway.
“Can you grab my hand, Matthew?”
The boy jumped, arms stretched and palms white with strain, but his hands met only the moist and earthy walls of the ditch. He yelled, voice cracking, “Go get Daddy!”
“You shouldn’t ‘ve been playing near the big ditch! Mommy said so, Matthew! This is your fault!”
“I’m sorry!” The boy’s face was caked with filth now, the tears running down his cheeks leaving gaps like rivers.
“It’s gonna be dark soon! I can’t see anything!”
“Mary! Go find Daddy, quick! Please! Please!” Matthew’s knees buckled, and he wept, wiping his nose on his bare arm.
God must really hate Larry Gopnik. His wife, Judith, is leaving him for their old friend. His loser brother sleeps on his couch and spends hours in the bathroom draining a cyst on his neck. His son smokes pot and sneakily listens to Jefferson Airplane in Hebrew School. His daughter sneaks money out of his wallet to save up for a nose job. Larry is a physics professor, and defends his belief in the rational while his life falls apart. He has some small hope for tenure, but apparently an anonymous person has been writing scathing letters to the tenure committee. One of his worst students tries to bribe him and blackmail him for said bribing at the same time. Larry is not doing well.
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