The Family Moskat (24 page)

"I suggest the young lady have some soup. It's just ready--

tomato and rice."

"All right."

"For you too?" Asa Heshel shook his head, and the man went out.

"Everything seems so topsy-turvy," Hadassah continued. "I look at you, but I hardly recognize you."

"I hardly recognize myself."

"You made such a good impression on Klonya and her mother. I got there just a little while after you left. I didn't sleep all night, or the night before, either. I telephoned you twice, but you weren't home."

"Gina's husband came home; I spent the night at Abram's."

"Everything's so complicated. My Aunt Hama's gone to Grandfather's. Did you meet Stepha?"

"Yes."

"What did you think of her?"

"She's like her father."

"Yes, you're right. They told me you telephoned and Mamma told you not to call any more. I was so upset I cried. Shifra told me."

"It wasn't your fault."

The saloonkeeper came in and put a bowl of soup in front of Hadassah. She picked up the spoon.

"What will you study in Switzerland?"

"Mathematics is what I like best."

"I thought you were going in for philosophy."

"The philosophers know nothing. Everything has to be started over from the beginning."

"What I'm interested in is biology. I love to work with a mi-croscope. I'm sure Papa would change his mind after a while and send me some money."

"I'm sure of it."

-

149-"How much does the trip cost?"

"Less than fifty rubles. I have twenty-five already. I loaned it to someone, but they'll pay it back."

"Who? Never mind--it isn't important. I have two diamond rings and a gold watch. They're worth a few hundred rubles."

"Then you're really in earnest! But they'd never let you go."

"What's the alternative? To stay here and get married." She spooned up some soup, raised it to her lips, and then put it un-tasted back in the plate.

"Don't you like the soup?"

"Yes. I always knew that a day would come when I'd have to leave everything behind me. I walk around the house as though it were a deserted ship. A few days ago I dreamt that you went away on a train, a long train with the windows covered with curtains. I ran after it--but it was too late."

"I dreamed about you, too," he said, his face flushing. "We were together, all alone, on an island, near a brook; we were ly-ing on the grass, and you were reading to me."

"I always dreamed of islands, even when I was a little girl."

She was suddenly silent. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and smiled, a far-away smile. Then her face took on an expression of deep seriousness. Something he had thought before returned to Asa Heshel. "How can I aspire to her? She's all belief, I'm all doubt. I'll only do her harm." He started to say something, but the door opened and Abram came in, stamping his feet. His fur hat was aslant on his head. The familiar cigar was stuck between his teeth. For a moment he stood in the doorway and looked at the pair. Then he shouted: "My God, the world's turned upside down and they sit there like a couple of doves! Look at them! Romeo and Juliet or my name isn't Abram!"

"Uncle!" Hadassah got up from her chair and rushed over to him, almost overturning the bowl of soup.

He caught her in his arms and kissed her. Then he held her away from him and growled: "Let me take a look at her, the lost heiress, the enchanted princess. Your mother's running around like someone insane. She's convinced you're somewhere at the bottom of the Vistula. You telephone her right away! You hear? This minute."

"There's no telephone here."

"All right, I'll call her myself. There's a telephone not far -150-away. And

suppose your father did slap you around a bit. Does a girl run away from home? My father almost killed me. And he was right."

"Mamma was already over at Klonya's. She knows I slept there."

"That's no excuse. Ah me, ah me! A new generation! And I thought that I was full of adventure."

While Abram was talking, Asa Heshel managed to empty the sausages off the plate and drop them to the floor so that Abram should not see what he had been eating. A cat, which had been waiting watchfully on the other side of the room, sprang down from the chair and padded over. The saloonkeeper, hearing Abram's voice, came in from the other room.

"Nothing to worry about," Abram shouted at him. "These are my children. Give me the bill. I'll pay."

He took a silver ruble out of his purse and threw it onto the table.

The saloonkeeper rubbed his forehead. That's the way it always was. Let one Jew into the place and they'd draw a thousand others, like flies, and the place gets to be a madhouse. The plate of soup was standing untouched. The cat was gnawing at the sausages. A pack of devils, these Jews, with their stylish clothes.

The newspapers were right; that gang would eat up Po-land like a flock of locusts, worse than the Muscovites and the Swabians. He felt like making some insulting remark, but decided to say nothing. That big man with the blazing eyes, the fur hat on his head, and the black beard looked like someone who wouldn't stand for anyone spitting in his porridge.

He gave Abram his change--eighty kopeks. Abram picked out a ten-kopek piece and flung it on the table. "Buy yourself a drink,"

he boomed. "Good luck!"

7

When Abram heard that Asa Heshel was going to go to Switzerland and that Hadassah wanted to go too, he stared at her in wonder. "That was my plan for them," he thought in surprise.

"How did they know it? I don't remember mentioning it to either of them. It must be telepathy," he decided. Aloud he said: "That's not so simple."

" Asa Heshel says that it will cost only fifty rubles and that you don't need a pass."

-151-"And what'll

you do there? Even in Switzerland you've got to eat."

"I'll earn something. And Papa'll send me money."

"And suppose he doesn't, what'll you do? Call him a bad boy?"

"He'll send it."

"Well, do what you like. You're not a school child. At your age my mother had three children."

He walked with Hadassah back and forth on the sidewalk near the restaurant. Asa Heshel had gone to buy a tie; Abram had insisted that the Chassidic string tie was ridiculous now that he was wearing city clothes. He puffed furiously at his cigar.

"So that's the way it is," he growled. "Without my advice. I'm telling you, look before you leap. Don't do things in a rush. He has nothing to lose. But you! Suppose you get sick, God forbid.

You'll be all alone. Although, come to think of it, the air in Switzerland is supposed to be good for people with weak lungs.

They go there from everywhere."

"You see, Uncle."

"But just the same, think it over. A girl of your age, a respectable girl, from a decent family, to pick up and go off like that! Your grandfather'll tear the roof down. Your mother will go out of her mind. The whole neighborhood will buzz. I'll just ask you one favor; don't tell me anything about it. I haven't heard a word, and I want to know nothing. If you'll excuse me, I'm deaf in my left ear. Besides, I'm leaving the country myself. If we happen to run into each other, then we can celebrate."

Hadassah's face lighted up. "When are you going? Where?" she exclaimed. "You're only joking."

"What's so wonderful about it? Even a horse can go abroad. I told you about the new journal, didn't I? Hertz Yanovar is the editor; I'm the manager. We have to raise fifty thousand rubles.

I'm going all over. To Switzerland, too."

"Is it really true?" Hadassah jumped for joy. "It would be wonderful! You could live with me."

"Thank you very much. I'm already provided with lodgings.

Look at her; carrying on a love affair and springing around like a calf! What do you think Switzerland is? Sky, earth, and water, like everywhere else."

"I just can't stand it here any more. It's disgusting. Day and night, Fishel, Fishel. It sticks in my throat. Besides, I want to study. A girl has a chance to become a doctor there."

-152-"And what do

you think you'll do if you get to be a doctor? Give an enema to some old Jew? Marvelous. But anyway, what's it got to do with me? If you want to go, go. And what about Asa Heshel? What'll you do with each other there? Get married?"

"Why do we have to do anything? We'll both study. What'll happen later--well, we'll, see."

"What d'you mean, later? It takes seven years to become a doctor."

"What'about it? We're not so old."

"Idiots! May I drop dead if I understand you. Either you're a drooling baby or I'm a doddering ancient. My God, what a generation! I don't know any more where in the world I am."

"Uncle darling, I love you! If I miss anyone at all, it'll be you and Mamma."

'You'll miss us all right. I miss you already. The whole thing's too much for me. To pick up and go all of a sudden! To leave Warsaw! It doesn't make sense to me. I can understand going to the warm baths for a couple of months, or God knows where else.

But to leave your home, your family, everything--"

"I tell you I can't stand it here any more."

"All right, then go. Bon voyage, drop me a postcard once in a while. Still waters, that Asa Heshel. I tell you I'm sorry I ever started with him."

"You're the one that praised him so much."

"Come to think of it, your grandfather's had it coming to him.

Don't let him have the illusion that he and that Koppel of his can play God almighty. In principle you're absolutely right. You don't drag decent girls to the canopy. Just the same, I can't see how you can be so light-hearted about it. Even a bird returns to its nest."

"I'll come back--when I've finished studying."

"Go and wait seven years! Ah, youth, youth! You'll singe your wings. You'll both get scorched. But it's your affair. Just don't ask me for any advice, and don't tell me anything. They'll blame me anyway."

He took a last puff of his cigar, threw it in the gutter, and started to walk off. Near by, a blind man was playing an accordion.

Abram took a coin out of his pocket and threw it into the beggar's hat as he passed. Then he turned around, his overcoat unbuttoned, his hat askew, and strode back.

-153-"Well, if

you're going, go!" he shouted back at Hadassah. "Say good-by to me and on your way!"

"My God, I'm not going today. What are you so sarcastic about?"

"Where's Asa Heshel? Does it take a year to buy a tie? A fine business I started. I clothe him, I dress him, and he runs away with my niece. Like a play by Shakespeare. I'll tell you the truth, I wouldn't trust my Stepha to him."

"You're so inconsistent."

"He's an adventurer. I don't wish him any harm, but that's the way it is. Yesterday he runs away from his own town, today he runs away from Warsaw. Tomorrow he'll run away from you. I'll admit I'm no angel myself, but just the same, I don't want to see my own flesh and blood suffer."

"He won't need to run away from me. I'm independent."

"I've seen them proud like you before. But when there's a little brat kicking around inside, they don't feel so high and mighty."

"Don't worry about me. I'll never get married, anyway."

"What then? Free love?"

"Marriage is a mockery. The whole thing is false."

"What's the matter all of a sudden? Been reading Artzybashev?

Some of Asa Heshel's ideas?"

"What difference does it make?"

"Ah, me, a couple of lousy books and the things they've done!

I'll tell you the truth; it looks to me as though you don't begin to grasp how serious the whole thing is."

"That's not so."

"What are you, anyway? One of these socialists, nihilists?"

"I know; you think I'm still a child. But I have my own thoughts."

"What are they, good God? Tell them to me. Let me know them."

"You know very well. You're just being a hypocrite."

"What's that? Well, all right, I admit it. I'm afraid that I'm plain jealous."

"Oh, Uncle, stop talking like that. I'll always love you."

"Call me crazy, but, believe me, all my life I've yearned for real love. Your Aunt Hama isn't much of an Amanda. I've had plenty of affairs, all sorts, but here--here"--Abram thumped himself violently on the chest--"I'm an idealist. And suddenly a God--154-knows-what comes crawling out of some hole, and he gets the real thing. Well, I can't wait for him any more. I've got a thousand things to do. Here's the key to my apartment. Tell your hero that as long as Akiba's at Gina's he can stay at my place. I'm sorry I got excited. I suppose it's because of my bad heart."

"You ought to go to the doctor. You shouldn't run around so much."

"What's the good? I've been running around like this for the last thirty years; I can't stop in the middle. An express train. Call me tonight or early tomorrow morning."

"Yes, Uncle. I love you, you know that, but if I stay here I'll have to marry Fishel."

"You're right. Come here and let me kiss you. If your grandfather at least had the decency to close his eyes at last--"

"Oh, shame on you." Hadassah reached her arms up to him and kissed him on both cheeks. Tears came to his eyes. He had a strange feeling that the whole course of events was his own doing, although, God knew, his mixing into other people's business brought him nothing but trouble. "There must really be a devil in me," he thought. A droshky wheeled up. Abram tore himself away from Hadassah and climbed in. He waved his hand and gave Ida's address to the driver. "What's come over me today?" he wondered.

"I hope I don't get an attack." From his breast pocket he took out a small box of pills and swallowed two of them. He told the driver to stop at a florist's, went inside, and bought a bouquet of roses for Ida and a bunch of yellow blossoms for Zosia--after all, she had just loaned him fifty rubles. Ida hadn't been home when he was there earlier. Now he decided to spend the rest of the day there. "Whatever happens will happen," he thought. "A man can't die twice."

At Ida's house the janitor looked at him curiously as he went through the gate carrying both bunches of flowers. A beshawled gentile woman, a steaming tin of food in one hand, shook her head somberly. She, a decent Christian soul, had to plod on foot all the way to the factory to take her husband his lunch, while these Masons and Christ-killers rode around in droshkies and lugged flowers to their whores.