And they went, with a good heart, Lee weeping a, little, but glowing with joy of having Adam beside her. Hannah watched them walk through the departure gate at Healthrow Airport and turned away and went home to Florrie, now almost arthritic as Hannah herself, alone, but not lonely. Lee might not be with her, but she was there in her world, and always a part of it. She had given Hannah a reason to live and the reason was still there wherever Lee happened to be. So Hannah told herself as her taxi drew up outside the house in Paultons Square, and she went in tranquilly to make some supper for Florrie.
EPILOGUE
Returning
March 1980. A cold blustery London morning with last year’s leaves blowing along the gutters in little flurries and cars spraying up water as they swished past, their windscreen wipers working frantically. One of them, a big red one, splattered the small girl in the raincoat with muddy water and she squealed. her mother looked at her and shushed her gently.
‘You have to be quiet and polite this morning, honey,’ she whispered and pulled the rainhat more closely over her ears. The child wriggled and made a face.
Cars arriving, more cars, and people collecting in little groups, talking quietly. People in heavy black coats and ladies in neat hats and furs, all smiling small smiles, the sort that you smile when you want to but mustn’t, or don’t want to but must, the small girl decided. She tried not to yawn. If squealing was not polite, yawning must be worse.
People talked to her, were introduced and she smiled and nodded, not understanding who they all were but knowing she must be polite as Daddy pushed her gently forwards to shake hands. ‘I'm ten years old,’ she told them. ‘Ten years old,’ as they went on and on asking her, one after the other and smiling the way they did, small and tight.
And then there was praying and talking and she stopped listening, looking out at the sky that she could see through the high windows of the tall building they had all gone into and thinking how it would be tomorrow, going on a plane again. Three planes in three days. No one else in her grade at school at home had ever gone in three planes in three days, she was sure of that.
Walking again along muddy paths, all the people walking together, so close together that the could see much more than the legs of the people in front. Anyway she didn’t want to see. She knew what they were doing, for Daddy had told her, and it wasn’t all that interesting. Or nice.
At last, they came back along the muddy paths, and the people were smiling more widely now, their shoulders less stiff, even laughing a little, as the men washed their hands at a little fountain and nodded at each other.
And then it was over an they were going back to their own car, the one Daddy had hired for today, and there was someone calling after them.
‘Lee? Adam? I knew it was you! I haven’t seen you for, oh, years. How are you both? It’s good to see you. I just wish it had been on a happier occasion.
‘Yes,’ Mommy said, and the child looked up at her mother, a little surprised because she wasn’t one who cried much and she was crying now. ‘Yes.’
‘You were close, I know,’ the man, said and patted Mommy’s hand. ‘You'll misst her, but she had a good life, a good life. How old was she? Eighty-seven? And died peacefully in her sleep, just like old Uncle Alex, alava ha-sholom, you remember him? I tell you, we got good genes in this family, we live long, if we live in peace. And who is this? You haven’t told me who this is.’
The child looked up at the man in his thick black overcoat and he smiled at her and she thought, I like his face, and she smiled too. He took off his hat and bent towards her, and wanting to be as polite as he was, she did the same, glad to pull the thing off anyway, for it made her ears itch. Her red hair came tumbling out and was blown about her face by the wind and she smiled at the man and said, ‘Hi! I'm ten yeas old.’
He laughed. ‘I was about to ask. And what do they call you?’
‘Sukey,’ she said. ‘It’s short though, Short, for all my name.’
‘And what is your name?’
Mommy and Daddy were smiling now. She could feel them standing there smiling at her, and she looked up at them and they nodded. It was all right to talk, chatter on. The sad bits were over, now.
‘Susannah Tamar,’ she said. My name is Susannah Tamar Lazar, and I'm going to live in Jerusalem with my Mommy and Daddy, because he’s going to work in a hospital there. Isn’t that exciting?’
‘Very exciting,’ the man said, and Sukey pulled away from her Mommy’s hand and went skipping along the path towards the car, leaving them to follow. Another airplane tomorrow, to go to Jerusalem, Very exciting. She began to sing.
GLOSSARY
Alav ha sholom: Literally, ‘Peace to him or her.’ Used whenever speaking of someone who is dead.
Ashkenazi: Jews of the Central and Eastern parts of Europe, most especially those of the Pale Settlement, and Germany. (See also Sephardi).
Bagel: A circular roll with a hole in the centre made of white flour and yeast, the dough being pouched in hot water before baking, to make it particularly crisp.
Barmitzvah: Literally ‘son of the commandment’; the rite of passage through which Jewish boys pass at the age of thirteen to permit them to join the community of full members.
Bimah: The central dais in the synagogue.
Blinis: Stuffed pancakes, sweet or savoury. Also know as blintzes.
Bissel: A little. (A bissel, here, a bissel there - a little here, a little there).
Bobbelah: A term of endearment, generally feminine of use, but, on occasion, directed at men. drives from Russian Yiddish, as diminutive of buba - ‘doll’.
Boobameiser: A grandmother’s story (an old wives’ tale).
Boychick: A small boy. Used sometimes to define a man with boyish ways.
Briss: Ritual circumcision of a baby boy.
Broigus: Offended, angry.
Chanukah: The Feast of Light. An eight-day celebration observed in December and frequently coinciding with Christmas in the Christian calender. It commemorates the victory of Maccabees, Jewish warriors who defeated the Syrians 167 BC (See the Apocrypha, Book of the Maccabees 1 and 11).
Cheder: Schoolroom, where Hebrew is taught, only to boys in the old days but now girls too.
Choleria: Literally cholera, but usually meaning a curse of some kind or another. (‘A choleria on him’ means ‘May a plague fall on him and destroy him’).
Chuchum: Clever - a show-off sort of person.
Chumash: First five boos of the bible (Pentateuch).
Chutspah: (many different spellings) Impudence, outrageous effrontery. Best defined by telling a sort, e.g. ‘A man killed both his parents and at his trial for murder begged for clemency on the grounds that he was an orphan’.
Dreying your kopf: Literally, ‘banging your head’ - upsetting yourself.
Farbissen: Embittered, sullen, sour, can be used as a noun - e.g. farbissener, an embittered man (for an embittered woman farbissenah).
Ferstinkener: Smelly. Used as an epithet to describe a disliked person, as well as literally to describe a smelly object/place.
Gefarlich: Busyness - doing.
Gefillte fish: Literally stuffed fish. A mixture of chopped white fish, onions, eggs, sometimes ground almonds or chopped apples, and seasoning, originally used to stuff carp before it was poached, now often poached or fried in small portions. Usually eaten with beetroot-flavoured horseradish sauce (chrane) and considered a great delicacy.
Gelt: Literally gold. Money.
Giveh: Showing off - swank.
Goldeneh medina: Literally the golden country. Usually used to define the USA to which the majority of Jews of the Pale wished to emigrate.
Gonif (plural gonovim): Thief.
Gornicht mit gornicht: Literally ‘nothing with nothing.’
Gott se dank: Thank God.
Goy: A gentle, a non-Jew.
Gunser macher: ‘A big noise’ - a busy person, either in reality or his own opinion!
Guteneh
shumah: Literally, a good person.
Gy gesund: Literally ‘go in health’ and by implication ‘with a good heart and with a blessing’.
Haggadah: The collection of Jewish history, fables and folklore, assorted rabbinic l writings, prayers - a whole library of Jewish culture.
Heim: Literally home. Often used to describe the place from which immigrants came to london (see also shtetl). Hence heimish or heimisher - homelike or in the style of the old home.
Halevai (sometimes pronounced ‘aleavai’, with a dropped aitch): Literally ‘Please let it be so.’
Kaddish: A special prayer. The prayer at the end of the Sabbath service is a kaddish. Mourners say a kaddish for the dead. (Kiddush is another prayer used to sanctify the sabbath and Holy Days and said before meals).
Kopf: Head.
Kosher: Literally fit for use. Usually describes food prepared according to Jewish dietary laws.
Koyach: Strength
Ladino: A vernacular used by Sephardi Jews (q.v.) deriving from Spanish, Portuguese, French, just as Yiddish (q.v.) derives from German and Russian.
Lavoyah: A funeral.
Lobbus: Lovable rogue.
Lockshen: Thin noodles, vermicelli. Traditionally served in chicken soup. Lundsman (plural landsleit): Properly, land’s man - one who comes from your land. A fellow Jew from the same shtetl in the heim (q.v.).
Magen David: The Star of David. The symbol of Judaism.
Marrano: A converted Jew, from the Spanish work for pig.
Maven: Literally an expert. One who knows a great deal about a specific subject.
Mazel: Literally luck. Also part of the traditional greeting and congratulation, mazel tov.
Mechulah: Finished, without money. A person who goes bankrupt is a mechulah.
Megillah: A long rigmarole, a spun-out tale, a false story. Originally from the Book of Esther which is a very long megillah indeed.
Mensch (plural menschen): Literally man, or men. But now used to describe a person of character, of stature or obvious work. ‘A real mensch’ is a respect-worthy person.
Meshuggah: Literally mad. used also as a noun meshuggenah - a mad person. Also misheggass, a madness, a crazy act.
Mezzuzah: A small container carrying a tiny scroll with the verses Deuteronomy vi, 4-9, xi 13-21, and fastened to the doorstops of a house occupied by pious Jews.
Midrash: A collection of over a hundred book of biblical commentary.
Mishnah: One of the two parts of Talmud (the other is the Gemorrah). Contains the Law.
Mohel: A person who performs ritual circumcisions (see Bris).
Mumser (plural mumserim): Literally bastard. So a bad person.
Nachus: Pride - especially in the doings of one’s children.
Nebbish (also nebbach and other spellings): Pathetic. A pathetic person is a nebbish. When a person is ill, nebbish, he doesn’t feel well. Widely used in many contexts to define a sad situation or person, but also a helpless person (a mentally handicapped individual is nebbish).
Oy vey is mir: Litally ‘Oh woe is me!’ A traditional Jewish cry of distress.
Putz: The male generative organ - expressed as a diminutive. (More insulting with the same meaning as schmuck).
Rachmones: Pity. To show compassion.
Rosh Hashonah: The New Year festival, falling at the end of the growing and harvesting year i.e. September, October.
Sairchel: Common sense, wisdom.
Sephardi: Jews deriving from Spanish and Portuguese communities. Often French nowadays. The old ‘aristocracy’ of Jews in some peoples eyes. all, howe Ladino speaking (q.v.).
Shabbos: Sabbath. From sunset Friday to sunset Saturday.
Shachris: Evening prayers.
Sadchan: A matchmaker, active in the heim (q.v.).
Shaygets: A non-Jewish youth.
Shayne Mensch: Literally ‘pretty man’ - a handsome person.
Sheitel: Wig worn by pious Jewish women who shaved their heads when they married, since a woman’s hair is her ‘crowning glory’ and has erotic connotations which may no longer be allowed to be displayed once a girl marries.
Shidduch: A ‘match’, an engagement.
Shivah: The seven days of ritual mourning for the dead observed by the immediate members of the family.
Shlemeil: An idiot.
Shlep: Literally to drag, to carry a long journey, a heavy load. Anything which gives a lot of trouble and takes a lot of effort.
Shmaltz: Literally fat. Used to describe cooking fat, especially chicken fat but also for soft speech and cooing talk.
Shnorrer: A beggar.
Shoin fertig: ‘Make it,’ finished done.
Shprauncy: Fancy, showing off.
Shtetl: Literally, a sal town, a village. Used to describe the close-knit Jewish communities of the heim (q.v.) where the landsleit (q.v.) came from to enter their new homes in Britain and the USA, etc.
Shul: Synagogue.
Simcha: A happy occasion, for example a wedding.
Tallis: Prayer shawl, worn by men in synagogue.
Talmud: A collection of some sixty-three books encapsulating the Law, the customs, everything that matters to Judaism.
Tochus: Behind, bottom, arse, whichever you like.
Torah: The Five Books of Moses.
Tsitsis: Fringed garment worn at all times by orthodox Jews.
Was machst du: ‘What are you doing?’ How goes things? How are you?’ etc.
Yachner: A gossiping woman.
Yarmulkan: Skull cap worn by pious Jews, who keep heir heads covered at all times.
Yenta: A vulgar women. Often a yenta is also a yachner (q.v.).
Yeshivah: A Hebrew college, like a university when compared to a chedar (q.v.).
Yiddish: Diminutive terms for Judisch-Deutsch, the vernacular developed by Jews living and working in Germany in past centuries, now used in other parts of the world, as the Jews dispersed even more widely.
Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement. The most important Fast in the Jewish year, occurring early in each New Year (see Rosh Hashonah).
M P Publishing has e-published the entire back-catalogue of works fiction from Claire Rayner. This work has been completed with the generous assistance of Des, Adam, Jay and Amanda Rayner.
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The Running Years Page 70