Mitla Pass - Leon Uris [122]
Hannah sighed and contemplated for a moment to gather in her wisdoms. “In all conquered, beaten, subjugated people, the men behave the same way to their women and children. Look at the shvartzers, they are like animals to their women. And the Irishmen make ten babies and then flee the country.”
“But this is America, Momma.”
“It will take time, a generation, another generation, to shake off the shackles and mentality of the ghettos and the pogroms. It will take time before Jewish men, even in America, feel like full, real men. Meanwhile, Leah, my child, you must be extremely clever in the selection of a husband. That is why the proposition that came to me has some merit.”
“Who is it already, Momma?”
“Here, let me dry your feet,” Hannah said with obvious hesitation.
“Nu?” Leah asked after a time.
“A distant relative. You’ve seen him on numerous occasions, usually on holidays when they come to Baltimore to go to shul. In fact, he was in your very chair last Rosh Hashonah. You don’t remember?”
“No, I can’t think with you playing games. Is that why you went out of town last week like a spy on a secret mission? To look things over?”
“Yes,” Hannah admitted.
“So tell me already.”
“The one and only son of my second cousin ... who, incidentally, owns a huge general merchandising store in Salisbury—”
“You mean Richard Schneider!”
“Listen for one minute, Leah, listen.”
“Richard Schneider, oh my God!”
“Morris Schneider has one child, Richard, his only son. Richard will be twenty-five next year and Morris is not a well man. He longs to see his only son have a wife and children and take over the business. Entirely, take it over, lock, stock, and barrel, one hundred percent. Richard will be a wealthy man.”
Leah came to her feet, slipped in the pan, grabbed the table for support as water spilled out of the basin. “Oy vay iss mir. Richard with the pimples! A pale nothing. He’s as attractive as a boil about to be lanced.”
“That was a year ago. Today, believe me, I saw him, he’s taller, more sociable. His face is completely cleared up. He’s always had a special crush on you. Leah, this is a very gentle person. You can train him like an animal. And let me tell you, their home is a mansion—”
“But Salisbury is on the Eastern Shore. Momma, it’s worse than Havre de Grace.”
“You wouldn’t believe the size yard they have. As big as downtown Baltimore. And the silverware, and the carpets. Would you believe, an automobile, a Ford Model T. Who ever heard of such things?”
Leah clamped her hands over her ears.
“So what do you want!” Hannah cried. “We toil our fingers to the bone from birth to death, for what? You want a tailor? You want some hotsy-totsy street-corner agitator? Your cousin Morris is a generous man.”
Leah put her hands to her face and wept, stepping carefully out of the pan, while Hannah dried her feet. Leah continued weeping at the table as Hannah busied herself sweeping up crumbs from around the cookie plate and removing the teacups. “Sorry I mentioned it,” she said. “This is America. Nobody will force you.”
At that, Hannah dropped into a chair and stared at the patterns on the wallpaper. “I was to go with you to Salisbury this Sabbath,” Hannah mumbled after a time. “I’ll tell them we aren’t interested.”
Momma’s stone face told Leah that there was something else, more to it. They fenced in silence.
The mantel clock struck six. Hannah grunted about the room, cleaning away dust that wasn’t there.
“What is it you’re not telling me, Momma?”
“What possibly wouldn’t I tell you?”
“Maybe something about Morris Schneider’s generosity?” Leah suggested.
Hannah set down the feather duster and sighed, not once, but four times. “Morris offered me a settlement. One thousand dollars.”
Leah swooned across the room and gripped the lace curtains and stared down on the pushcarts and bustle of the intersection. Women were lined up to get into the bakery to get at the day-old counter. A thousand dollars! It was beyond a fortune, staggering to the mind, so much money. Momma could lease the finest wedding gown shop in all of Baltimore.