The Girl With the Glass Heart: A Novel (3 page)

After a few moments Jerry detached himself from the group and strolled over to where she stood chatting to a girl friend, May Evans. “Beat it, May,” he said smilingly.

“What’s the idea?” May said in an injured tone.

“Beat it, May, please.”

“Well, that’s different.”

“Where you been all day, Elly? I was lookin’ for you.”

“Oh, we’ve been getting ready for the holidays. You know, I had to help my mother around the house.”

“Oh. We don’t go in for that stuff at home.”

“Are you Jewish, Jerry?”

“Sure. I thought you knew. Just that we don’t observe any of that stuff.”

“Oh.”

“What do you, get a kick out of that stuff? Synagogue and all that?”

“Yeah, kind of. It’s fun and the music’s nice. You like
music
don’t you? Come
on
, of course you do.”

“Well, some.” He lounged his tall, skinny boy’s body against the wall, closer to Elly. “You gonna be around later?”

“I don’t know—”

He grabbed her arm and squeezed it. “Look how strong I am,” he said, and squeezed it tighter.

“Leave me alone!” She laughed, feeling a twinge of anger.

“You gonna be around later?” he said threateningly, still holding onto her arm.

“All right, Jerry, I’ll be here,” she shouted. “Now will you let go my arm?” He dropped it and glanced over to see if Rocky and the boys had noticed the interplay. They had and were grinning at one another. Maybe Mom’s right, Elly thought: He’s a funny boy.

“Hey, here comes Eddie. Hey, Eddie, how’s the boy?”

“Hiya, character.”

Eddie Roth had appeared at the corner and Elly knew what would come now—the kidding, the tricks played on the poor half-wit. She couldn’t stay around to watch. “I’ll see you later, Jerry.”

“Hey, where you goin’? You’ll miss all the fun.”

“Some fun! Why don’t you pick on someone your size?”

“
My
size! Look at him. He’s twenty inches taller than me. What are you, kiddin’?”

“I’ll see you later, Jerry. Leave him alone, will you?”

“All right, boys. Lay off Eddie. Let’s all be nice to him. For Elly. Okay?”

They all laughed assent and one boy began to stroke Eddie’s black hair in mock tenderness. As Elly left, Jerry called out, “See you here at ten o’clock.” She did not reply but waved a hand in consent.

As soon as she left, the boys turned their attention to Eddie.

“Hey, character,” Jerry said, pointing in the direction in which Elly had walked, “how’d you like a little of that, eh? How’d you like it?”

Eddie smiled vacantly, crinkling his little eyes until they almost disappeared. “Aw, who’re you kidding?” he said softly.

“She likes you, Eddie.”

“She’s got a nice watch, she has. I saw it,” Eddie said.

“How’d you like to see more than a watch?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know. I’ll bet I could arrange a date for you.”

“With Elly?”

“Sure with Elly.”

“Would she want to?”

“You leave it to me, Eddie. I’ll fix it.”

When Elly entered the apartment the lights were off in every room except the kitchen. She threw her jacket and beret on the bed in her room and went into the kitchen.

“So!” Rose said. “It’s about time. I’m just going to light candles. Where were you?”

“Around.” Elly slipped into her place near the refrigerator.

“Around the corner, maybe? Tell your father where you were.”

“With the Wilson boy again, Elly?” Max smiled at her.

“Oh, my head!” Rose adjusted the moist handkerchief around her forehead. “It’s killing me.”

Max and Elly sat in silence while Rose lighted the candles in the large silver candelabrum, threw a dish towel over her head and, covering her eyes with her hands, began to rock to and fro a little while reciting in an unintelligible singsong the prayer for the lighting of the candles on the eve of the Sabbath. Then, as was her custom, when the prayer was done she stood there, while the candles threw flickering shadows across the hands which shielded her face, and sobbed quietly in a musical, high-pitched tone.

Elly glanced at her father. He had broken a piece of chalah in half and was holding it in his hand, waiting for the ritual to end. She was embarrassed for him, as always, feeling that her mother had no right to carry on as if everything was so terrible when it really wasn’t.

Rose uncovered her face.

“Nu … What did you pray for this time—the new factory?” Max grinned.

“Don’t be smart. Eat.”

They ate the chopped eggs and onions and the scalding-hot chicken soup. When Rose brought out the roast chicken and placed it in the center of the table Elly oohed and aahed. “Oh, Mom. That was sweet of you. I didn’t think you’d remember.”

“Prima donna! If boiled chicken isn’t good enough for you, then eat roast chicken.”

The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it Mom,” Elly said, slipping swiftly out from behind the table and running to the door at the end of the long hall.

A tall, skinny man, a big grin on his long face, stood there holding out his arms to her.

“Uncle Alec!” she squealed and flung herself on him so that he nearly tripped backward over his suitcase. “Uncle Alec.”

“Elly, baby. Look at you, look at you. You’re a woman! Come on, take me my suitcase. Where’s your father and mother? Is it too heavy? Give me another kiss. There you are, Max. Hello, Rose. You look wonderful. What’s the matter with your head? The headaches again? How’s your pressure?” He tapped his chest to indicate the area in which Rose had complained of a feeling of pressure the year before.

“Alec,” Rose said, kissing him, “you have a wonderful memory. You never forget a thing. A regular elephant.”

“Only not so much meat on him as an elephant.” Max grinned, throwing, with some difficulty, an arm around his taller brother’s shoulders. “Why didn’t you write, or wire?”

“I didn’t decide till the last minute, and you know Rose would have fainted if I sent a telegram.”

“Alec, you look tired.”

“I’m not, I’m not. I flew. I have a friend with the air lines in L.A. and he got me a free flight to Chicago, then I caught a train to Indianapolis.”

Elly took his topcoat and said breathlessly, “How was it? To fly, I mean.”

Alec took Elly’s perfectly oval face in his hands and said, “Why, darling, it’s wonderful, but it wasn’t the first time.”

Rose set another place at the small table and Alec was served the earlier courses while they bombarded him with questions.

“Have you been working?” was the first thing Rose asked.

“I’ve had a few calls from Republic as an extra and I’m with a little-theater group that’s terrific experience. Rose, this soup!”

“Are you getting married?” Elly asked.

“Elly,” Max said, “don’t be foolish.”

“I’m waiting for
you
, darling.” Alec grinned at her across the table.

“So how does it look in general?” Max inquired.

Alec pushed the empty plate away and leaned back, stretching his long legs under the table. He sighed. “It’s slow going. I’m a better actor now, though, than I ever thought I’d be.”

“So let’s see you act in a movie, already.” Rose laughed.

“Mother!” Elly reprimanded.

“As a matter of fact, I’m on my way to seeing about that now.” With one hand he caressed a few pockmarks on his bony cheek. “There’s an outfit in New York that’s doing independent producing and they’re not using big names for the leads. My agent wants me to audition for them in New York…. Thanks, Rose, but that’s too much chicken for me.”

“Eat.”

“All right. Don’t hit me…. So, you see, it looks like a good thing.”

“You spend three years on the West Coast trying to get into movies and then you have to go to New York for it?”

“Yeah, isn’t it crazy, Max? There’s something to do with that I want to talk to you about later.”

“Believe me, Alec,” Rose said, “a cent he hasn’t got.”

Elly flushed deeply and felt the cords of her neck go stiff in a terror of embarrassment for Alec. She turned her head away from the table. Why? she thought.
Why?

“How do you know what he means? Answer me that,” Max said to Rose.

“How do I know? I guess. So if I’m wrong, I’m wrong.”

“I’ll talk to you later about it, Max,” Alec said, attacking the roast chicken. Averting his face from Rose, he found Elly staring at him as if her eyes had found a bottomless well. God, how beautiful she is! he thought. Has she ever been a child, he wondered, or has she always been this womanly, sitting there so poised with that deep stare? He waved a fork at her. “Hey,” he said, “and how’s Pasquale?”

She rose to it with an effort. “Fine,” she said. “How’s Tony?”

“Couldn’t be better. What’s new with you?”

“Nothing much, Uncle Alec. I’m in high school now, and I’m going to start piano lessons soon.”

“Then business must be good, eh, Max?”

“To quote an old joke, don’t ask!”

“It’s too good,” Rose interpolated. “He has to build, build, build.”

“I see,” Alec said, “and he doesn’t want to, want to, want to. Well, I can’t say I blame you, Max. These are dangerous times to expand business.”

“Oh, no—” Rose raised her voice—“don’t you start with him, too. He has to. He can’t meet the orders.”

“We’ll see, we’ll see.” Max waved a hand impatiently.

“What does Harry think?” Alec asked.

“Harry thinks I should. Harry thinks I should risk my shirt to expand now.”

“As long as it’s not Harry’s shirt.” Rose laughed.

“How’s Sarah?” Alec asked mechanically.

“Fine.”

“And little Charlotte?”

It was quite apparent to Elly that he didn’t really care about his brother Harry or his family. Could it be, she wondered, because Harry didn’t send Alec a check every month, the way her father did, to help him until he “got started,” as Max put it?

“You’ll see them all at Shule tomorrow,” Max said. “We have a good cantor this year.”

“How would you know?” Rose asked. “You go twice a year—Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. My religious man, here.”

“You know I don’t believe. I don’t have to go to Shule. I go because I’m a Jew and Jews go on those days. I don’t believe.”

“Something to brag about. He doesn’t believe. So why brag?”

“I’m not—oh, never mind. You through, Alec? Come inside for a cigar. You’ll have to sleep on the couch tonight. Elly has her own room now.”

“I could sleep on the couch,” Elly offered eagerly.

“I’m used to sleeping anywhere, since the army.” Alec put his arm around her. “But thanks anyway, honey. Let’s you and me talk a little later, after I talk to your father. Okay?”

She nodded and kissed him on the cheek. She decided at that moment to eavesdrop on their conversation from the desk in the hall.

Pretending she was looking up a number in the telephone book, she heard their voices over the clatter her mother was making with the dishes in the sink.

“… and this could very well be the answer to everything,” she heard Alec saying.

“How much would you need for six months in New York?”

“Two thousand dollars, I figure.”

“That’s a lot of money now. A year ago, no. Now, yes.”

“I can only repeat, Max, that you have to think of it as an investment. All the money you’ve lent me so far will be lost if I haven’t got a chance to prove what I can do.”

Her father’s voice sounded tired to Elly as he said, “I’ve never lost confidence in what you can do in your chosen profession. I may be losing a little of my own self-confidence.”

“I think you ought to go slow, Max.” Alec spoke in a lowered tone. It wouldn’t do for Rose to hear this. “I think
big
business is not for a man like you. I can see it’s got you worried already. Go slow.”

“I appreciate your advice. But … I have to think it out. In any case, I’ll let you have the money. It does me good to see a man doing what he really wants to do. The rest of us—you know, tied down. Tell me, have you got a girl? Maybe you’ll get married soon. We would all like that for you.”

Elly listened so hard her heart was pounding and her cheeks were hot.

“How can I get married in my position? If this picture deal goes through, who knows? There’s a girl. We’ll see.”

Elly released suddenly the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She ran upstairs during the silence that surrounded the pouring of a drink. She was unaccountably relieved that Uncle Alec had a girl and might get married someday. But it was a sad relief colored with a feeling of loss. Well, she thought, I couldn’t have married him.

That night she dreamed that Jerry Wilson and Eddie Roth were speaking Jewish to each other in order to keep her from understanding what they were saying about her, as Max and Rose had done all through her childhood.

The next morning after a quick breakfast they all left for synagogue together. The men wore dark-blue suits, as did most of the other men at the temple. It was an orthodox service and the women sat upstairs and the men downstairs. The air was filled with a continuous murmur. Elly usually liked to sit with her father downstairs and nobody ever objected. Today, however, Rose asked her to stay upstairs with her. As her mother prayed Elly leaned over the railing and watched her father and Uncle Alec pray and talk. They were joined by Harry, who was draped in an expensive-looking, gold-embroidered prayer shawl.

Elly wiped her upper lip and forehead and squirmed uncomfortably, wishing Uncle Alec would look up so she could wave to him. “Mom,” she whispered, “can’t I go down?”

“I’m sorry, darling. I just want to give your father and Harry a chance to talk business. They always do while they pray. You can go down in about ten minutes.”

When Elly started to leave, Rose whispered, “Tell Daddy I said to buy this time.”

“Okay, Mom.”

Elly scurried downstairs. As she entered the auditorium the praying had ceased temporarily and an old man in black vestments, with a prayer book in his hand, was auctioning off one of the major honors of the service: the opening, by means of a long plaited cord, of the ark in which the scroll of the Ten Commandments was housed. The highest bidder (the money was used for the running of the temple) rose and, before the entire congregation, opened the curtain which shielded the ark. Later, various scrolls containing the Ten Commandments would be held by leading citizens of the community, who then carried them slowly around the circumference of the auditorium while the cantor chanted and people leaned out of their pews to touch the ends of their prayer shawls to the ark and then raise the thus sanctified cloth to their lips.