Solly awoke with a start, certain that he heard his name called. Couldn’t be. Must have been my imagination. I’m all alone, he thought. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, and he turned his head in the direction of the voice he was greeted by the sight of an older man seated at the couch. Dressed in a dark, pin-striped, rumpled suit with a shirt buttoned to the neck and a navy overcoat, there was his grandfather, Shmuel, framed by the light reflecting from the street lamp through the curtain-less living room window. This wasn’t possible, thought Solly. Shmuel, after whom he had been named, had died when Solly was 10 years old. He remembered the funeral. It was the first and only funeral he had ever attended. He hadn’t bothered to go to his fathers. His grandfather’s hands were grasped in the very unique way that Solly remembered. The left hand covering only the right pinky finger. This was the finger that his family had deliberately disfigured so that Shmuel could avoid being conscripted into the Russian-Japanese War.
This was no dream. No illusion. Sitting on the couch. was his grandfather.
“Solly” said Shmuel, “I came to tell you something. Something very important, and I don’t have much time, so I want you to listen. Carefully. Very carefully.”
“Zaide” (grandfather), replied Solly. “Is it really you? How can this be? You passed away so many years ago.”
“Solly” answered Shmuel. “You see me, no? Then it’s me. I’m here and soon I have to go back. So listen and open that kupe (head) of yours. Why did I come? I came to tell you that this life you are leading? It’s no good. Worse than no good. You have become a mumzer (estranged person). You don’t care about anybody. Not your family. Not your friends. No one. This is not a way to live, Solly. You have to change. You must change. Maybe you think you’re dreaming. That I’m not really here. So listen carefully Solly. Soon you will get a sign that will prove that I was here and that you must change your life. Think carefully my precious aynakel (grandson). It’s not too late. You can do it. Make your Zaidie proud. Become a mensch (man). Promise me right this minute, Solly, that you’ll change. I love you Solly and I speak from love.”
“I promise you Zaidie” said Solly, “but what will the sign be? How will I recognise it?”
“When you will see it Solly, you will know it. Then you will believe that I was here and that you must keep your promise,” answered Shmuel. With that he was gone. Disappeared. Left. Or the dream ended. Or…
Next morning when Solly woke up still in the easy chair he was very confused. Had it been a dream? Had it really been his Zaide? What would the sign be? He spent the entire day wondering.
There was no sign that day. Nor the next day. Same the day after. A week went by. Nothing. Life continued in its usual pattern for several weeks. With no sign. At least none that Solly could decipher.
