Chapter 30There was life after death.
In Ruth’s case, it weighed seven pounds, eleven ounces. She called him Noah. He arrived two weeks early, on November 22, just three days shy of his father’s birthday. He had Samuel’s blue eyes and mercurial temperament, and a head full of wispy red hair.
Ruth had accepted the idea of a fourth child with a degree of equanimity she could scarcely account for, given the circumstances, and the news of a new sibling turned out to be an opportune distraction for the children, who asked mercifully few questions about why Samuel was no longer a part of their lives. The pregnancy was uneventful, as was the birth, and her three older children greeted their new brother with shy smiles and the gentlest of caresses of his soft, newborn head. Avri, in particular,
