To America and Back

by Mordechai Landsberg

Hollywood actress Simona Richland, Ramona’s friend, travelled from Beverly Hills CA. – to Manhatten NY. She was said to take part on Broadway stage in a new Musical, that would be produced within a year; hopefully as a celluloid film.

  We have to remember that Oklahoma and Annie O’akley and Seven Brides to Seven Brothers- had been already produced and shown on cinema theatres, and Simone had been one of the small stars in one of them; and maybe also mentioned in the long long list of characters and actors at the end of the film. So, her wish to take part in Broadway Musical cannot be judged as a caprice…

  Add to this the fact that in New York was waiting for her an ardent lover: He Insurance Agent Nikolas Collar; so, you have an argument for her quick affirmative response to the Musical director’s proposal.

  But all these facts were not so interesting for Ramona, who heard about her friend’s flight to the Eastern Coast. She had an interest in that journey- mainly to ask Simone do her a favour.

  “Please find where and how my son is. He hasn’t phoned nor written about three weeks. Here is his address, but I’m not sure it’s now the correct one. Maybe he had changed his living place. See what happens and report to me, dear.”

  Simone’s sweetheart was forty years old, a kind of a guy having a thick velvet black hair like the legendary Gregory Peck in his adult days. Nikolas was wearing a black suit since his youth, and had many types of invesments in stocks and debentures, in gold and silver, in oil and maybe in airflight companies. Two days before Simone had arrived in NY, Mr. Nikolas heard from a friend about the Peepshow house. He was a son of a Mormon family, but had neglected his home tradition and belief, and refused to have eight children. He was happy to be a joyful bachelor jolting from Simona to Fiona to Nancy to Betty etcetera.

  Simone was happy to hear that Nikolas would like to visit the PeepCellar( After the year 1980 it became a PopCellar, but we’re not interested in history). So, the two were walkng there together, for reasons well understood …Humik did not tell Ramona he had been there, but Simone had not come for meeing him, surely.

  The guard at the gate, named Effy – guessed that she was a new dirty maid, and when she was standing beside Nikolas among the the dense crowd, some beagn mumuring: ‘Why is this lady pushing us? Why does she come in the evening, if she wants to work? The bosses have to interview her at noon, where no one would be here’.

  “And everybody knows”- said another speaker, “that a woman should not mix here with men: that is thought by the Law to be a seduction … ” and so on.

  Soon the manager arrived before the waiting lines of the men, and Simone explained him something. Having understood what she had wanted, he sent her and Nikolas – straight to the Peepshow room’s holes. He appeared to the clients, and asked all to avoid remarks and pushings and maybe also ass pinching.

  As soon as Simone and Nikolas peeped into the showroom by two different holes, Simone uttered a shriek!

  ‘I thought that I’m getting a heart attack’- she told Ramona afterward on the phone. ‘My niece, the daughter of my own sister, who I have grabbed as a naked baby in my hands for bathing her – was now naked, in different circumstances.’

  Simone had heard something about her niece before; but she thought Raphaella was photo-phornographing in NY, with well disguised face. But at this moment – in such a place and such a work? A Jewish girl? My niece? Hossid Rabbi’s daughter? Yes, it’s her reaction against the supressive atmosphere she had at home… Once I have studied about some pleads against the Authorities, ‘Order nisi’, and ‘Hebeas Corpus’: The corpse is before you. Now, it’s Raphaella’s naked living corpse before me.

  “Raphaella!” shouted Simone through the peeping hole, “This is your aunt, Simone. I will be waiting for you in the entrance. Please don’t let me wait too much, and come to see me, darling.”

  Raphaella was astound. Her family member gets into the lion’s mouth. She has never dreamt it could happen. Exactly now. Time Out has come for the couple, and Raphaella and Humik quickly dressed themselves. They walked to the entrance, but through a side way, so that Simone and her sweetheart Nikolas saw them coming from another side to the Cellar front door.

  They shook hands warmfully, and Humik was introduced to them. Simone remarked:

  “Oh, we know already each other. It’s a good message for your Mom, Humik- that I’ve found you alive.” (I’ve caught two pigeons at once, she told herself).

  “Well,” he said, “You just tell her not to panic.”

  “Let’s get to the Avenue Café, and have coffee and cakes.” said Simone. All nodded and got out of the notorious Cellar.

  “Your Mom would know now, that there are miracles in this world,” Simone told Humik, “I knew by her talk, that you were studying here something. Well, d’you continue with that?”

  “Of course,” he said, “and Raphaella is studying there too. Same course, same studies: Dealing with how to promote and advertise actors like you- or artists…Or Fine Arts’ creations, or entertainment productions, like movies and stage dramas.”

  “It’s a broad subject, and I think that it’s quite interesting,” said Raphaella.

  “That’s fine,” said Simone, “Humik, you had really travelled far away – to study that, and to meet my niece. Well well.”

  After that meeting, Ramona received a phone call from her friend Simone:

  “Your son has not drawned in the ocean,” she told her, “in my opinion he just needs more money for more entertainment and girls. You know, in his age. While meeting me- at first his face became sallow, but he recovered very soon. We were having a very intelligent talk, with the presence of my niece.”

  “What niece?” asked Ramona, having forgotten that once she had been told something about Raphaella.

  “Maybe we’ll be one day family relatives,” Simone laughed loudly, “Humik has a girl friend, who is a great ‘Tsatske’, so

  we’d call that in our Yiddish language. She is a kosher girl, a daughter of my flesh and blood sister Zelda.”

  “How old is she?” asked Ramona, and Simone told her.

  “I don’t like that,” said Ramona. But then she thought that better this girl than the Israeli one, that would have pushed him – by her talks and by her innocent behavior, to dream more and more about his childhhood’s land, in pros without cons.

  “O’key, my dear friend,” said Ramona. “I’ll talk to Solomon. He will persuade Humik – not to take your niece too seriously.”

  “I think the knows that by himself… she is similar to me in her pretiness; and she, my niece- likes him very much. Not just fond of him, d’you understand?”

  “Did he tell you if he was working – in a better job than a carrier? It is not a work for his weak body.”

  “In that – I have great news for you. He’s working with my niece in a peeepshow Cellar. Ha Ha, Ho Ho.”

  “Oh, God is not so merciful to me,” said Ramona, and disliked the kind of comical sounds that Simone had demonstrated on the phone, while telling her all about her son’s job.

  Simone gave Ramona the phone number of that Cellar, but she didn’t know if Humik could be found there.

  “It’s better if you and your husband don’t mix yourself in the guy’s business; listen to me,” finalized Simone her phone talk.

  Meanwhile the couple was satisfied from the Ads & Promotion Course, and one day Raphaella told Humik:

  “I have a dream, that after we’ll have finished our studies here- I’ll open with somebody I know – an Ads Office. I’ll become slowly but surely – a famous artists’ and actors’ agent or manager or advertiser. There are so many theaters here, that I can’t miss having a prosperous business, or find a good job as an employee. And remember: Many of the producers here are Jewish, and they would help me to advance, by hook or by crook. Then I will compete with them; maybe you also will compete with me – but so is life…”

  The length of their relationship and common work has already reached more than a month. But one nice
day Humik became suspicious: Raphaella was trying to avoid looking at him in class. As they were having the Peepshow sex only four days a week, that day was ‘free’ for both. He had suggested to go out with her to a movie. She said her Mom had fallen in the street and broken her chin, so she, Raphaella, would have no mood for a movie. She should go to see her mother, who’s at home in the Bronx. Humik went out with Mike that evening, but the day after Raphaelle did not come to the Course studies. He thought she would meet him in the afternoon in the Peepshow Cellar, and asked the Guard Effy if he had seen her already arriving.

  ‘No,” said the guy.

  At that time Raphaella was in a restaurant near her hired room in the Bronx. She was on the phone, telling somebody:

  “Well, Naitty, as you say.”

  She remembered that once she had mentioned to Humik that name, Naitty. She had told him that the man was her ex guyfriend. She added, that the guy would try to contact her from time to time. He had parted from her, ‘having big problems with himself’- so she had said.

  Now Humik recollected about that, and about her telling, that the man had once visited her room. It had happened while she was already in relationship with Humik.

  “But we haven’t had sex, of course,” so she said.

  ‘Maybe now she needs a vacation from me,’ guessed the teenager Humik. He himself had been absolutely unexperienced in such relationships, that break and renew and then cut and again ‘unite’- as you may say. It was clear to him, that at the end they will separate; but he had thought it would take a much longer time in the future, at least after they would have both jointly prepared themselves for the final examinations.

  ‘But maybe she doesn’t bluff, and her Mom was really very badly injured,’ said Humik to himself. ‘I should wait. I never asked Raphaella the address of her parents, maybe I should have visited her there… ’

  Raphaella’s ex-guy was named Naitty – Nathan Freulich. Ten months before he had been demobilized from the U.S. Army, after a service in Korea. He had very few relatives, except the

  family of his uncle, David Freulich from Brooklyn, and there Naitty was living at the first month after his army service. The uncle had the Parkinson disease, and his old wife was holding a grocery store. At first she had tried to put her son there as her assitant, but the guy had shown no interest nor capability in business and trading. On the other hand, his cousine Naitty, who had left the army after having a small ‘brain quiver’(without getting for that any compensation or special pay from the Ministry of Defence)- had known how to be liked and sympathized by his aunt: He was standing in the shop for hours, his tongue busy in talking about doing business: But not business in general terms, but specifically- about debits and credits and loans and payments and suppliers and customers, on goods and services, on taxes- and about tricks that would avoid you from being the government’s servant all your life, and so on.

  In contrast to the ‘Assistant’ novel of Bernard Malmud, in which the store owner had only one daughter, the Freulichs had a son, Effy. The new assistant, Naitty, had driven Effy’s feet out from the store. It seemd that Effy hadn’t complained about that. As we already know – Effy found a job as a guard in the famous Peepshow Cellar. His ‘cheap deals’ with its women, and his physical power and aggressive character- had made him an ideal gate guard, ready to defend the respectable institute that had hired him, and clash with anyone who would try to break order...

  At first Naitty suspected that Effy would be a real trouble. Why?-

  Because Naitty had found that some particular products were missing from the lists he had prepared. But in a second thought he said to himself, that even if Effy had been the thief- let him steal. These were mainly brandy bottles and soft wines for Kiddush (Sabbath Blessing). Effy was ‘rounding in the store’ while he was noted on the Cellar’s duty, and Naitty was ‘wise enough not to quarrel with him,’ so he had told Raphaella- before they separated first time. He should keep friendship with his family, he said, as they had relied on him to continue their business and get is survive…

  But though Naitty was a serious businessman and very prompt in calculations, and thought to be very a reliable by his suppliers, it had come about – that the creditors and Tax Authoritie s began pressuring him for his debts. The National Bank forced him, at last, to shut the Grocery: A plumb with a big lock was imposed on the store- after all its goods had been taken out by Naitty’s numerous creditors, represented by one Lawyer, Mr. Buryhim.

  In one of those gloomy days for Naitty, Effy offered him a job in the Cellar, but he rejected it by two hands. He had known what kind of women had been there, and it was not enjoyable, nor acceptable nor respectable- regarding his strong religious belief. And maybe more important: He, Naitty Freulich- would never be a hired employee again: The dangerous army service had been enough for him as a hired soldier, and he received nothing as a compensation. Now he knows well prtactical business, and he would show everyone that he’s going to ‘survive and revive’.

  Tricky Naitty paid attention to one important thing, so he told his ex-girlfriend: After the grocery’s goods confiscation by the creditors – no one was coming to inspect if there was a new business in the store’s location. So, Naitty contacted new suppliers, who had not known about his old debts (that most of them, according to Naitty – had really been the old Freulich debts from the past), and they helped him to renew the business. All that would take place under a new name, with a new plateboard above the entry door: Ministore ‘Groise’,( a name which resembles Grocery, but in Jewish Yiddish it means: Great!). The main problem was now the lock, that had been installed on the entry door of the store- as said above. So, Naitty hired a lockbreaker who had done the job, and let him re-enter.

  ‘I just fullfil my big commitment to God’ Naitty was telling old Jews and blacks who revisited his store. ‘to prosper my business, sell excellent products and in cheap-honest prices. Of course Sabbath or a Jewish Holiday are not workdays; neither for me nor for any Jew. But on all other days and nights along the year, I will make my clients be satisfied by best products. My suppliers believe now in my ability to repay any cent I owe them.’

  Two weeks after opening of his renwed business, Naitty called back Raphaella Steinhorn. He knew that she had a long and very provocative behavior, which was in contrast to the orthodox Jewish religion. But Naitty had an argument justifying all that, as he told his cousin Effy:

  “There is a sentence in Yom Kippur Prayers: ‘You, God, are ready to receive the repentents,’ and also: ‘we’re allowing you to pray with the criminals.’ So, to pray together yes- and lie together not?’ And something else: Good Raphaella is a very beautiful doll, as you know. She left me – with my consent – because I had become bankrupt. She is a young woman who could not help me, despite she had tried, giving me two thousands, roundabout, while I had already been broke.”

  Deeply his heart and soul, Naitty was meditating about that special relationship with his girlfriend: ‘After our disconnection from each other – it had come about, that she must have loved somebody else, I understand that. Because in her young age it’s very natural for her to be -for a week- very desparate, but then to feel a need for somebody who would cheer her up… The Good God had created young human beings to be ready for intense love and affection. He had ordered a man and woman to get together and have the pleasures of flesh, which is mainly food and sex. All that- in order to enable human kind’s perpetual growth… Well, maybe I repeat my arguments. However, it was quite reasonable for Raphaella to lie with some other guy. It had not been me – because of the circumstances; so, I can’t -and I don’t- blame her for that. But now I think, that as my feet are re-stabilized, why shouldn’t I enjoy again her pretiness and love? I feel also much love to her, and I am so sex attracted by her smooth brown skin and good smell; and I’m so fascinated by her wise talk and enjoyable voice – that I can’t understand how I had passed the two recent months without her body trembling with mine… I’ll also
tell her, that for her – I’ll slow the tempo of re-building the store, so that at night I’ll be with her. I will convince her to understand, that all the problems are over- and we’ll get married one day, even quite soon …’

  Humiky was standing opposite to Effy at the Cellar’s entrance, and heard from him a just and bad message:

  “In fact, you have robbed my cousine, Naitty.” Effy said.

  “What are you talking about?” asked Humik.

  “You won’t enter here any more,” said Effy, and grabbed Humik’s shirt, at his chest.

  “You – turn aside!” shouted Humik, “or your life is in danger”.

  He wanted to pull out from his pocket the ‘lead-made-fist’, that in his childhood was owned by Elkano. Kaplansky had given it to Humik as a memory gift; it had been one of the few remaining personal belongings of his son, Elkano. But now Humik felt that he had forgotten it in his room, in the other trousers he had. He was bewildered since the morning, feeling bad about Raphaella.

  “If you want quarrelling,” said Effy, pulling back his hand from Humik, “you should know- I have a licensed Pistol. I am not afraid of your threatening.”

  “O’key,” Humik was quite whispering, “We’ll see.”

  Now he discerned a small open knife in Effy’s fist. It was flashing in the lamp’s red light of the running electric letters on the ‘PeepCellar’ ads’ plateboard.

  Humik retreated, and Effy indicated him to halt.

  “Wait a moment,” he said, “you know that Raphaella is Jewish.”

  “Yes, of course,” said Humik “I’m Jewish too. I’m even an Israeli.”

  “Oh, that’s good,” said Effy, “if so- you will be able to help me while I’ll come to Israel. Maybe with my cousine, Naitty.”

  “Wait, I’m not yet going to return there,” said Humik.

  “Well, I don’t hurry there either; but one day, you know… Naitty delays me. He refuses to emigrate, having a business here. But now- as Raphaella returns to him, I’ll try to convince them both. I tell you,” he said with a smile, “that I was jealous of you, having such a girl as Raphaella. For one hour with her in the Peepshow room, I would have paid a hundred or more. What d’you say about that ? Is it worth?”

  “You’ll dream about it,” shouted Humik, “You, disgusting pig!”

  “O’key. Naitty himself would let me have an hour with her… So, if you return to Israel – remember me. I’ll meet you there one day. I just want you to know that I am not your enemy.”

  Humik understood he should leave the place. He rushed to the bus station, then took the subway- to Raphaella’s flat. She was not at home, and he knew that Effy hadn’t lied to him. All is over with Raphaella. She is now in Naitty’s store. Her heart is full of enthusiastic impression from what she sees there, listening to her old boyfriend’s talk about his plan and vision regarding his business and regarding her, his beloved maiden (‘meidl’ – so he was used to call her in Yiddish, his mother’s tongue) who will forever blossom in his heart…

  All that tackle of Humik with Effy – was Naitty’s tricky plot. One evening he also investigated Effy – if Raphaella had been always with the same guy on the carpet of the Cellar. Effy approved, that he had not seen any other guy with her. “So I’ve thought,” said Nathan. “She’s that kind of a good girl, who stick to a certain guy only. Like me – she is also very afraid from veneral diseases, you know?…And regarding you, Effy, I recommend you to wear the preservative always, because you can’t imagine what is a gonorrhea or syphilis. I had seen such sick guys in the Army. Don’t be frightened, but as your cousine I beg you, for the sake of our family’s purity- please get a medical blood check. And immediately stop fucking whores with your own penis’ skin touching them. I know it’s difficult, but don’t shame yourself and our God.”

  Naitty was an experienced and mature man. Raphaella’s internal radio brodcasted the following facts to her mind and heart, since the day that Naitty had brought her back to him: She would not be able to live respectfully neither from her work in the Cellar nor from her Course, which is only theoretic.

  ‘Naitty will do what is necessary, and will base his new business very smartly.’ she said to herself. ‘He promised, even sworn, that he would be ready to marry me – as soon as his debts are over, (now only twenty thousands, he said, not a big deal). He is mad about my amazing body and my ‘super witty’ mind, and the way I talk about daily events and express my ideas. He says I have a potential to be also “a phenomenom for the business.’…

  The conspiracy had taken place behind Humik’s back. At the first moment of recognizing that, he blamed himself. He, the super-suspicious guy, had been trapped. He wanted just to finish the course with Raphaella and then separate, and where will he now find such an attractive woman? But that’s not the real problem. ‘I’m having an unsolved riddle with the hiding God. He makes me suffer, even not physically. Yes, He ‘has made me a microbic existance, I can’t agree with that... But I should not pity my soul. I have to be patient as an iron closed gate, waiting for one who will open it. Or like an ancient precoius stone – waiting for some pretty woman to wear it. Nice images I do have. Or are they just hollowed metaphors?

  His lips began buzzing an Isreali poem that became quite musical song, well known at these days.Maybe somebody had translated it, and brought it to America. Or vice versa: perhaps some Israeli had copied it from America:

  I ‘m just a modest simple man,

  I’m a turtle, travelling on a van.

  I have killed nobody with an ax,

  I just want to live an’ pay my tax.

  I was strolling all along the land,

  nobody stretched me his hand,

  Please, show my way on the map,

  otherwise I’ll fall in a deep trap.

  Because my head, oh my head,

  from nervous tension turns red,

  my blood is boiling in my vein,

  my brain is dizzy; all looks like in vain.

  ‘But I have not lived in vain till now’ – said Humik to himself. ‘I miss my homeland, that’s the problem with me. I am not from here. I am pitiful about myself, because I pity the suffering in my country, which is not America. Kaplansky and my mother have known Europe in their childhood. They hate to recall the past, they had just run out of it. I was born in a country that was on fire, and its people had succeeded to survive; its society rendered me a feeling of homeliness. I must release my soul from that feeling of deserting the people whom I had loved. I can’t bear the idea that I had let them struggle without me. My power is only of a single human being, I know. But I feel deep in my heart that I am important there, and that my soul will not rest till I arrive back there and tailor my dress that had been cut by Solomon and his wife. . .

  I recall their bereavement, I understand it. I have much participated in their sorrow. But I am different from them, in that strange impetus pushing me backward and commanding me not to escape from my past. Maybe I’m a masochist, in the broad meaning of that definition.

  Humik then recollected many of the most enjoyble and most horrible chapters of his past:

  PART TWO

  CHAPTER 9