“Papa, you mentioned retirement. Are you really thinking about it? What will you do?”
IN the silence that followed his unexpected pronouncement, Annie stared at her father. He still had that slight smile and — could it be? — there was a spark of something that she almost suspected was mischief in his dark eyes.
Mischief? Papa? Impossible: You’re imagining things.
“Moishe Baruch, did you think I didn’t notice that the boarders were no longer coming, and that the neighborhood was changing? I was a bookkeeper once, remember? I know when a business is in the red.”
So Papa had known all along.
“I’ve been thinking about retirement for some time now,” he continued, looking squarely at Moe. “I was going to wait until after our happy event, b’shaah toivah” — here he smiled at Annie, not in mischief, but in profound joy — “to discuss it with you. But since you’re bringing it up, Moishe Baruch, if you wish it, you can stay on as manager of the hotel after I leave. But—”
Here Moe finally interrupted. “Papa, I don’t want to stay here.” And he described the Manor House Hotel, listing all the reasons why it made sense to buy the property, while Abe brought him up to date on the Levine family’s relocation plans.
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