Solly almost choked on the strudel, and small morsels spewed from his mouth as he shook his head in disbelief. Catching his breath he said, “You mean you would?”
“Maybe, just once, Solly, just one time. Let’s get that straight, no strings attached.”
“Oh my God, Dave, I can’t believe this!” He almost screamed, he wanted to kiss David. “Yes, yes and how!”
“O.K., then, I’ll take her out, but not alone.”
“You’d do this after what I told you about her? God, Dave, how can I ever thank you?”
“Forget it. What night do you want to go?”
“Sunday night I don’t have to work, if that’s O.K. with you?”
“That’s fine with me. What do you want to do?”
“The best thing is go to the movies, but I’m going to pay,” he insisted.
“Forget that. You just make all the plans and let me know.”
Solly looked up at the clock on the wall and saw that it was almost six-thirty. He shook David’s hand and thanked him profusely, wondering what had changed David so.
After he’d left, David sat at the small round table, feeling a little uneasy that he had allowed Solly to get under his skin.
Solly couldn’t wait to tell Birdie about his victory. When his little brother came to the theater at eight o’clock to bring a hot corned beef sandwich, which his mother sent to him every night in fear that the big breadwinner might die of malnutrition between the hours of five and eleven, he said, “Hymie, go to Birdie’s house on the way home and tell her to meet me here after the show.”
Birdie was standing in front of the theater when the marquee was turned off. Solly came out whistling and said smugly, “O.K., baby,” trying to imitate Humphrey Bogart, “what’s there in it for me if I tell you I got the job done, baby?”
“Solly! You mean Katie’s got a date with David Rezinetsky?”
“That’s right … baby.”
“Oh, Solly, how did you do it? Tell me quick.”
“Wait a minute, not so fast, what’s there in it for me?”
“Stop all this foolishness, for God’s sake, and tell me what happened.”
But Solly was going to savor this for a while. Let Birdie get a little excited, this was his moment “Let’s go and get ice cream and sit down and I’ll tell you all about it.” This moment was too sweet, like honey in the mouth, to be wasted on the street. He needed a relaxed atmosphere to confide his saga of conquest. No hurry, let her wait …
Solly was now deliberately licking the cone, very slowly, but Birdie couldn’t wait, not another minute. “All right, Solly, what happened?”
He took a bite of ice cream and let it melt slowly in his mouth. Then, eyes smiling, he began to tell her how difficult it had been to get David to go out with Katie. Without telling her any of the real facts he made it seem that now David was eating out of his hand; he had sold him so completely on Katie’s charms he could hardly stand waiting to meet her, wanting to do it that very same night. He sounded so convincing that even he began to believe his story, then laughed to himself as he decided the movies might be make-believe but they sure set you up to deal with the big problems of the world.
She listened to him with elbows on the table, face clipped between her hands. When he finished she said, “Solly, I love you. That’s terrific, I honestly didn’t think you could do it.”
He felt ten feet tall. “Why not? It really wasn’t that tough.”
Birdie spoke to him with new respect. “Did you make any arrangements?”
“No, only that we have a date on Sunday night to go to the movies, the four of us.”
“Oh, Solly, I can’t believe this, I’m so thrilled! And mama will be too.”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute, slow down.” He put his hand up. “He didn’t ask her to marry him yet, so don’t get that excited.”
“I know, Solly, but it’s a beginning for Katie.” Then her expression changed, she looked at Solly and said, “You know, we got another problem?”
“Oh, for God’s sake, now what? You and your problems—”
“Don’t get mad, not a real problem. I mean we have to figure out a way to get them together, because if I tell Katie we’ve cooked up this whole thing behind her back, it would embarrass her so much that maybe she wouldn’t go. So how do we do it?”
“Well,” said Solly confidently, as though he suddenly knew all the answers, “that is absolutely no problem. What we’ll do is this. You tell Katie you want her to go with you to buy a new dress.”
“Where would I look for a new dress, Solly?”
He looked at her as though he was getting tired of her being so dumb. “At Saks Fifth Avenue,” he said, waving his hand. “Where would you go to buy a dress? To Bloom’s Emporium! Pick out a dress, tell them you’re bringing your girl friend in. You don’t have to buy it.” He stopped, looked at her and then, shaking his head, said, “What’s the matter with you, can’t you use your imagination, a smart girl like you? I’m surprised.”
She pursed her lips together and squinted her eyes, “O.K., smart ass, don’t get so fresh. I didn’t know if Katie would believe me. I don’t want her to catch on, that’s all.”
“All right, now let’s continue on with the plan, O.K.?”
“O.K.”
“Go to Bloom’s at four o’clock and look at the dress which should take you what, five, ten minutes? Then walk down toward the Bijou. Now Dave and me by coincidence will be walking up the street at four-fifteen, got it?”
She nodded in an unaccustomed show of deference.
“When you see us, you say hello to me and Dave; then like it wasn’t planned, you introduce Katie, and the four of us just walk along the street together. Then I’ll say, ‘How about us all going to the movies?’ How does that sound?”
Instead of jumping up and kissing him for his inventiveness, she just sat mulling it over in her mind, every detail. Did it seem too made-up, she wondered? Would Katie catch on? … Maybe not. She hoped not. “Do you think it’ll work?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Won’t she think it funny bumping into you and Dave and him joining us to go to the movies?”
“Of course not, why should she? You only think so because you know all about it.”
“O.K., I’ll take your word.” Her eyes were warm; to Solly she looked incredibly sweet sitting across from him, even in the harsh overhead light. There was softness in her voice as she said, “Solly, darling, I love you so much. I’ll just never forget what you’ve done.”
Slowly they walked through the night holding each other’s hand, and when they got to Birdie’s house they went up to the roof.
Sunday had finally come and not too soon for Birdie. For four days now she had endured the suspense of not letting on to Katie; the deception and the secrecy were driving her wild. For one thing she was afraid that either she or her mother might let a word slip and give the whole thing away, so she carried the burden of romance alone. Nervously she contemplated how she could get Katie to wear her beautiful French dress.
Hannah had seen it one day in the window of a small exclusive London shop and had made up her mind that Katie was going to have that dress, no matter how; and she saved and scrimped until she finally had accumulated the money. For Hannah it represented more than just a dress, much more. She knew that perhaps this would be her only legacy to her child. Not a dress, really, but a cherished memory, a memory to recall through the years so that out of Katie’s lonely, sequestered childhood she would remember that one precious moment. Everyone needed an important memory in a lifetime. It made no difference that Katie would wear it only once. Once was enough for Hannah, the day she saw her child graduate from school. She had wept tears of pride and gratitude that God had allowed her to live to see that day….
Saturday night accidentally on purpose Birdie washed the only other dress that Katie could have worn out on the street on a Sunday afternoon. The dress had shrunk so that Katie would never be
able to wear it again. For this Birdie was sorry, but she knew God would forgive her for being so devious. How else could she have gotten Katie to wear her best dress just to go to Bloom’s? Now she would have no alternative. When Katie objected Birdie said, “So what if you do wear it? It’s such a beautiful day.” To make it appear that she too would make a sacrifice Birdie said, “Tell you what, as long as you’re going to wear yours, I’ll get dressed up too and we’ll go to the Jewish Center dance. It’ll be fun.”
But as she dressed, Katie thought this was not the time or the place to wear her most treasured possession. This dress had been meant to wear only on the most important occasions of her life. To wear it to Bloom’s was almost an affront to her mother’s memory. Gently taking it from its resting place, she held it up to herself and looked at her reflection in the mirror, remembering the day her mother had given it to her, and in spite of herself she began to cry. “Oh, Mama, I miss you so.” And then suddenly as she stood looking at herself, she did want to wear the dress. By some magic, for this brief moment it seemed she and her mother were terribly close, as though her mother were here now and that they were once more, miraculously, together.
When she finished dressing, Katie took one last look at herself. How she loved this dress. She felt again the excitement she had felt that first time she had taken it out of the box. Never had there been such a dress, never! She touched the exquisite white embroidered silk organza with a tiny bunch of French violets attached to the black velvet ribbon around her waist, feeling as she stood here the same as she did that other day, like a fairy princess, and one loved so very much.
After Birdie had rushed Katie through Bloom’s, the two girls walked through the multitudes of screaming people—women trying to buy a bunch of carrots for a penny cheaper than they had been that morning; the push-cart peddlers haggling over a pound of potatoes; the ragged children playing in the street which was their playground, their park; old men in skull caps discussing the Testaments, each one arguing the fine points of the Talmud and each one thinking that the others were idiots. The garbage cans overflowed. But for Katie there was nothing squalid, nothing ugly, nothing sordid in all of this, feeling as she did that she belonged to all of them and they to her, all bound together by a heritage that had survived so much. She didn’t feel at all out of place in her lovely dress as they now walked toward the Bijou Theater.
From a distance Birdie saw David and Solly approaching them. She had butterflies in her stomach by the time Solly said in feigned surprise, “Hi, Birdie, where are you going?”
She swallowed hard, and when the words came out she was so nervous she stuttered a little. “We’re coming from Bloom’s,” and pointed in its direction. Then she heard herself asking, “How are you, Dave?” For a second her mind was blank; she was so rattled by the strain of deception that she forgot to introduce Katie. Then, finally, “Dave, I want you to meet my very best girl friend, Katie Kovitz, and Katie, I want …”
David didn’t hear the rest of the introduction, he was so shocked that this was Birdie’s friend. Where did she come from? How long had she been here? Why had he never seen her on the street or in the neighborhood? Solly’s measure of beauty would be the movie queens he spent so much vicarious time with, but how, David asked himself, could Solly not have seen how exquisite this girl was? My God, couldn’t Solly see for himself how she stood out from the rest? He looked at the delicate face with the porcelain-like skin; her long hair, tied back simply with a narrow velvet ribbon, gently falling like heavy strands of silk to her shoulders. He had visualized her looking like another Birdie, with an overly red mouth that made her look like a kewpie, painted nails, short hair permanent-waved to match.
But Birdie was thinking, I should have insisted she use some lipstick, she looks so plain.
Katie stood back and just listened to the rapid conversation; she heard Solly saying, “How would you like for all of us to go to the movies?” Then Birdie was saying, “Gee, that sounds swell. We’d love it.” Then Solly was saying, “How about you, Dave, if we all go to the movies?” with Birdie interrupting, “Sure, why not?” and Solly echoing, “Sure, why not?” While David looked at Katie and said, “How would you like to take a boat ride, Miss Kovitz?”
Unprepared, Katie didn’t know what to say and looked to Birdie, who quickly said, “That’s a great idea, we’d love to go.”
But David gave Solly a quick look he understood, and taking the hint he said, “No, Birdie, I want to go to the movies tonight. I don’t want to go no place else.”
Birdie understood and looked at Katie. “You’ll have a swell time, but I’m going to go to the movies with the big shot general here, O.K.?”
Katie simply nodded. She was bewildered, all this had happened so fast.
As Birdie and Solly sat in their seats at the Bijou, Birdie thought, if that David touches Katie, I’ll kill Solly, so help me, I’ll kill him with my bare hands.
CHAPTER THREE
IN AWKWARD SILENCE KATIE stood at the boat rail and listened to the gentle sound of the waves as the boat seemed to glide along without effort. In the distance Manhattan looked majestic, the lights just beginning to go on.
“What are you thinking of?” David asked.
“How magnificent the different colors are between dusk and evening, and how beautiful New York looks from here.”
So far as he was concerned it looked beautiful neither from here nor from anywhere. “Really? Do you like it here?”
He expected her to say no, not really. “I adore it; I’ve never been so happy in all my life.”
“Happy?”
“Yes, very.”
They strolled around the deck. There was an Italian family en masse having a Sunday excursion.
“Hey, Tony, play Sorrento again,” the grandfather shouted. The young boy took up his concertina and the concert began.
“Oh, David, this is such fun, more than I’ve ever had.”
The more she spoke the more intrigued he became. Solly didn’t understand her, he thought she spoke with an accent? Never had he heard his name until she said it; she made it sound soft, and gentle. David, he repeated to himself slowly. Nobody called him David; his family called him by his Jewish name, Duvid, and his friends, Dave.
They found a bench and sat down.
“How do you happen to be living with the Greenbergs?”
“My mother and Mrs. Greenberg had known each other all their lives, and when my mother died I came here to live with them.”
“Tell me about yourself.” He was so curious about her—a rare thing for him.
“There’s nothing to tell, I’ve really had a very uninteresting life.”
“Tell me just the same.”
Uncertainly she said, “I was born in Poland but I lived in London all of my life until I came here.”
“How did you happen to be in London?”
“It’s really all so boring, David.”
“I don’t mind. If it gets too boring I’ll tell you all about mine, which is very exciting!” They both laughed.
“Are you sure you want to hear all this?”
“Yes.”
She thought for a while; where did he want her to begin? At the beginning.
Hannah’s oldest brother Max had escaped the Polish army by fleeing to England. In London there was a benevolent society that secured jobs for these men, and among them was Max. Naturally, none of them could speak English, so the problem was they had to wait until they could be employed, mostly by Jewish firms. One such firm that absorbed many of these men was the Felix Block Company, manufacturers of leather goods from fine luggage and ladies’ handbags to gloves, and this is where Max Iscoff found work. He was a man of many qualities. One of the qualities that endeared him to Felix Block was his giving more than just a day’s work. He worked long after the others left, he was the first one waiting for the factory to open in the morning, and Mr. Block watched with a canny eye. Large as the factory was, he knew the prowess of ever
y one of his workers. Within a year he promoted Max to superintendent and eventually to sales manager, while all the time Mr. Block had even bigger plans for Max. His English had become so good that after two years he spoke with only a slight trace of a Polish accent, having applied the same verve and tenacity to learning English that he did to his work. So the time had come for Mr. Felix Block to invite Max to dinner. The mistress of his home was his daughter, his wife having passed away four years ago. His life revolved around her; she was the reason for his whole existence, and it was her future which mainly concerned him now that Rosalind Block had just turned thirty-one with no prospects of marriage on the horizon.
Felix looked painfully at his one and only child and secretly had to admit that she looked just like him. On a man the large features didn’t seem too terribly out of place, but unfortunately she had inherited the worst of his looks as well as the worst that was in his nature, and none of her mother’s charm and beauty. Had it been the other way around, Felix would not now be unhappy over the fact that perhaps there might never be an heir to carry on the firm of Block, a firm whose lineage went back five generations. Felix Block wanted grandchildren. If fate had designed it differently there would be no need to have someone like Max to dinner, a mere peasant to sit at the table of Mr. Felix Block. But c’est la vie, and Mr. Felix Block, being a very practical man, began to evaluate the potential of Max, figuring that in him he just might be able to have his life-long ambition come true. This was not the man he would have chosen if the gods had been kinder to Rosalind; but Max had charm, and above all, obedience. He worked hard and diligently, and with him there would be no risk of the business falling out of Felix’ hands. After his demise it would still be Rosalind’s, because Felix realized that where Max was extremely bright, he was also soft and pliable. Felix knew that his daughter could never be married to a strong, dominating man such as, for example, himself. They were too much alike. So with all things considered, without his knowing it, Max had been chosen.
And they were married. Felix waited impatiently for that one year but there were no children. When Rosalind told her father there would likely be none because she had been unable to conceive, Felix laughed bitterly to himself at the games life played with him. He had accepted a man he felt was beneath him to live in his house, to sleep with his daughter and eat at his table—and all for nothing.
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