Sabbath's Theater

After Drenka’s death, Sabbath, for the first time, becomes jealous of the other men Drenka slept with, particularly her husband. A few months after Drenka’s death, Sabbath meets Matija in the local Stop and Shop, mentions knowing Drenka through his wife, and offers his sympathy. This is only the second time Sabbath has seen Matija in public, the other being when he gave a speech about innkeeping for the Rotary Club Sabbath attended with a friend. Sabbath helped Drenka advise Matija on the speech and enjoyed watching her flirt with other men at the function.

Sabbath waits outside the grocery store and convinces Matija to join him for a coffee. Matija tells him he does not care about the inn anymore, struggling with his grief and the complexities of his relationship with Matthew. Their coffee date ends when Sabbath mentions Silvija and poorly plays off his knowledge of her by explaining that his wife once met her.

Sabbath visits Drenka’s grave frequently in the middle of the night and often masturbates on her grave, even though the silent ghost of his mother always watches. One night, he begins reminiscing about Christa, the woman with whom they enjoyed threesomes. Drenka often met her alone, and since Drenka’s death, Christa has shunned Sabbath, saying that he exploited her. Sabbath first met Christa late one night in 1989 when he picked her up hitchhiking. He showed her some of his favorite music and she explained her life growing up in Germany and coming to New York City. Her struggles with people and money forced her north into Massachusetts. Sabbath, interested, drove around aimlessly until he found an excuse to see her again, offering to buy one of the quilts she made. This began a series of threesomes in which Sabbath paid Christa and Drenka found beauty in her own body.

At her grave, Sabbath wonders why he and Drenka never left their spouses for each other. He remembers her funeral, with Matthew’s stoicism and the obvious number of lovers in attendance. There was Barrett, the hot, young, dumb electrician who stopped seeing her because of the cancer, and the very tall credit card magnate. Drenka told Sabbath all about her lovers and what they did together, and Sabbath loved it. Just as Sabbath climaxes, another car pulls up and he hides, seeing the credit card magnate get out and leave a big bouquet of flowers at Drenka’s grave. Sabbath is disgusted when the man begins masturbating too and throws a rock at him after he finishes, scaring him away. Sabbath grabs the bouquet and leaves, soon realizing that it is covered in semen. He remembers Drenka telling him how she once had sex with four men in a day—her doctor, the credit card magnate, a college dean, and her husband—and it makes him see her as powerful. He throws the bouquet in the woods and then licks the semen off his fingers, yelling, “I am Drenka” (78). He does not understand these feelings.

Norman Cowen, a partner producer to Lincoln (Linc) Gelman of Sabbath’s Indecent Theater in New York City, calls Sabbath with news of Linc’s death. He tells Sabbath that Linc’s years-long depression finally resulted in his dying by suicide. He observes that depression is a part of getting old and that he himself struggles with it. Norman tells Sabbath that the funeral is the next day and that he can come to see Linc before the cremation. Sabbath considers it, but when Norman mentions that he believes Nikki was doomed, Sabbath declines.

Sabbath and Roseanna hate each other for many reasons. She despises Sabbath, particularly, for his bitterness over his career. He hated her drinking, and now that she is in recovery, he hates her involvement in AA. She goes to AA every day, to different groups in the area, and even attends a battered women’s group, and he detests the language she picks up there. They have only stayed together because Sabbath found Drenka, and she made his marriage tolerable. Roseanna’s therapist, Barbara, says that Roseanna stays with Sabbath because he is a reflection of her abusive parents and that Sabbath needs control and likes how helpless and degraded Roseanna is.

Sabbath feels compelled to tell his wife of Drenka, and she berates him for his pattern of relationships with self-destructive women: His mother was the first to disappear, crumbling after Morty’s death, and then his first wife, Nikki. Sabbath suggests that maybe it is Roseanna’s turn to go too, and asks when she is leaving him. She refuses to answer and starts to sob; Sabbath decides to leave her instead. He goes to visit Drenka’s grave once more before heading to New York for Linc’s funeral. He remembers a younger Roseanna, who was interested in art and puppets and always deferred to him. He also reminisces about his rush to sea after high school and soliciting sex workers in the world’s most famous ports.

As he walks to the gravestone, he sees the young electrician at Drenka’s grave, also masturbating. Just as Sabbath is about to throw a rock, he sees another man walking up behind the electrician. Just as the electrician climaxes, the man beats him over the head with a flashlight and kicks him in the groin twice. As the man drives away, lights flashing, Sabbath realizes that it is Drenka’s son, Matthew.