The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Marvin Skrupskelis goes to see Isaac in Philadelphia. Gus Plitzka recently came to see him about shoes, and Skrupskelis learned that Plitzka is indebted to a Philadelphia mob boss named Nig Rosen. Skrupskelis also informs Isaac that Plitzka runs the town’s water department while secretly getting the water for his dairy factory for free. He suggests that someone “put the squeeze on him, so he can put the squeeze on Doc Roberts” (319).

Isaac counters that exposing Plitzka would also reveal the shul’s water situation. He asks Skrupskelis to find two trustworthy Jewish men to meet Dodo on a train out of Pennhurst. Skrupskelis says he can do so easily because the Jewish union members working on the railroad loved Chona for her generosity and passionate writings about justice. Isaac assures him that the “water fix is already in the works” (322).

On Memorial Day, Fatty asks Big Soap to help him and Rusty go down an old well near the dairy factory and rearrange a few water pipes that night, promising he can earn $35 for a few hours’ work. Complications arise when Nate wants Fatty to drive him to Hemlock Row that night for a meeting with Bullis, the egg deliveryman.