fagle!.  . the teacher drones on, writing on the blackboard. danny's eyes flit from the teacher to the student sitting kitty-corner in front of him-a husky youth with shaggy hair. he hasn't heard the prompt. . fagle! the teacher turns from the blackboard and danny leans back, eyes front, folding the twenty up small behind his book.
fagle!
you put the- the old man holds up one hand.
um.  the old man looks down at the little earpiece pinched between two fingers. he examines it as a superstitious native might a coca-cola bottle. the source of the electrical hum: a wall clock whose red sweep-second hand crawls around the dial very, very slowly. the reb continues to squint at the earpiece. danny sighs. he encourages:
yeah, you- the principal's tone is harder:
i had twenty bucks in it too. inside the case.
i bought a lid from mike fagle. couple weeks ago. i still owed him twenty. mark sallerson he already gave you the pot?
yeah but a couple weeks ago my funding got cut off. fagle said he'd pound the crap out of me if i didn't pay up. howard altar what funding got cut off? where do you get your money? another boy, with thick glasses, is ronnie nudell. ronnie nudell what happened? mark sallerson rabbi turchik took his radio. had money in it. ronnie nudell that fucker!
yeah. i think he said he was confiscating it. ronnie nudell he's a fucker! where do you get your money? mark sallerson mike fagle's gonna kick his ass. last week he pounded the crap out of seth seddlemeyer.
studying torah! asshole!
oh yeah? you gonna tell him you've been sneaking it out of his wallet?
dad?
dad, you gotta fix the aerial. judith emerges from the kitchen.
i can't get f troop.
stop it!
she keeps doing that!
i gotta get my radio back. ronnie nudell maybe the fucker lodged it up his fucking asshole.
i gotta get it back. or mike fagle's gonna pound the crap out of me. ronnie nudell
and i'll still have to get my sister the money back or she's gonna break four of my records. twenty bucks, four records. howard altar how do you buy all those records. where do you get your funds.
nothing.
stop it!
stop it! i'm getting it! i'm gonna get it! wider shows that the brain is on television, which danny has muted while he plays the cantor youssele rosenblatt record and drills his torah portion. he and sarah are in a stand-off, hands tensed to either deliver or ward off blows.
nothing.
what? we hear the doorbell off. larry indicates the portable record player.
sure dad. on tv, the handsome man shouts defiance at the brain. from off, sarah projects:
we eating already?
ow! cut it out!
oh yeah. more eating.
dad!
um.
okay dad, but you gotta come home.
huh? no no. mom's real upset.
so are you coming back home? can you fix the aerial? the weeping, off, grows louder and more hysterical.
it's still, you know.  loud wailing.
dad, we get channel 4 now but not channel 7.
he won a lot of money, dad! the mentaculus really works! larry's gaze swings onto his son.
well, um.
at least i'm not saving up for a nose job!
ali! struck by a thought he leaps up and bolts from the room.
sort of. he sleeps on the couch.
dad, why is uncle arthur in handcuffs?
he sleeps on the couch.
it folds out. dad sleeps on a cot.
dad, what's the north dakota?
what's sodomy, dad?
nefesh echad shelchayim, yitzeh gamor shel effashot. .
hey! fagle! from behind danny, over his shoulder: we see a funnel cloud in the middle distance. a growing rumble. the tornado is approaching. at the first downbeat of its chorus the jefferson airplane song bumps up full.