Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 13 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week. Click here for previous chapters.
Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications.
To Naomi Schvirtz.
Due to complaints about a violation of the status quo with regard to the education of the children in the kindergarten, you are invited to the camp committee office tomorrow at ten in the morning to discuss the division of jobs in the preschool.
Respectfully,
Leo Sherer, Work Manager
“Binyamin will come with you,” Rechel said as she studied the official paper with the Samson Lager logo on it. “You won’t go alone.”
“Okay.” There was a small crease between Naomi’s eyes. “But I’m not sure that I understand what it says here. Who complained about a violation in the status quo? Me, regarding the future assistant, or Mila? Maybe she tattled to them that I announced that, ‘Anyone who wants to bentch should come’?”
“What do you mean? What did Bilhah do?”
“She would say, ‘Rabbi Schwartzbrod’s group, come and bentch.’”
“And do the children from the other group come to bentch when you invite them all?”
“Quite a few of them do.”
Rechel smiled. “I love you, Naomi,” she said, and opened the door to the house. “Well, if that will be grounds to fire you, I’ll certainly be happy.” She paused at the entrance. “The question is really what will be with the preschool. You know that Babbe tried to persuade some families to send their girls to work there, and the Herzlichs promised to seriously consider sending their Shaindy there, as long as she would be replaced in a couple of years with other girls as they grow older.”
She nodded to herself and entered the house. “In any case, whether they want to scold you or if they want to talk about your disagreement with Mila regarding the new assistant, for you it is good.” She took a container of butter out of the cooler cabinet and looked at Naomi. “And really, the main chinuch happens at home. The influence that the preschool has on the child’s soul is minor, so you don’t need to battle to stay there and destroy your life.”
“Destroy?” Naomi echoed.
“Yes.” Rechel stood for a moment with closed eyes, and then she turned around suddenly, as if she’d swallowed something very bitter. “Chaya Kush has two excellent sons. But she told me clearly, explicitly, that she won’t do any shidduch that will subject her children to a life of hard labor in order to support their family.”
***
“Young Herr Schvirtz,” Leo Sherer said tightly, “your sister does not keep to the criteria that were set between the two communities here. In the past it was decided that in the preschool, the two groups would be managed separately, to the extent possible, and she is forcing them to mingle. This cannot continue.”
He didn’t finish the sentence with a question mark, and Naomi did not know if she was expected to respond. So she remained silent.
“On the other hand, there is the problem of the assistant,” the man continued. “As has been accepted through the years, one of the assistants is meant to be yours, and one is ours. But for some reason…” A smile turned the corners of his lips upward as he pulled a sheet of paper from a drawer in his desk. “Here is the list of candidates. Miss Schvirtz may look at it, and she may have the right to choose.”
Naomi glanced at Binyamin for a moment. Why had Sherer changed the subject before he’d finished scolding her, and before demanding a promise that this would not happen again?
She approached the table hesitantly, feeling like the defendant with the verdict hanging over here being presented in writing. Binyamin approached and also looked at the four names on the paper. None of them meant anything to him. But Naomi felt like it was hard for her to breathe. “Excuse me, sir,” she said loudly, unable to remain silent, “but there isn’t a single name here from the Orthodox group!”
“Herzlich, who is thirteen, actually submitted a candidacy, but we took her off the list.” Sherer’s eyebrows knitted in anger. “If you are trampling the status quo this way, then you should not complain about the character of the future assistant!”
So that was why he was not demanding a promise that she should change the way she was managing the preschool; he was simply going to assign her two constant supervisors.
Naomi glanced for a moment at Binyamin and then at the paper.
Rivku, Mila’s cousin.
Elsie Sherer.
Mashi Hertz.
Katy Gross.
Lots of words flew through her mind, but none of them crossed her lips. Mamme was hoping she’d be fired, but that wasn’t happening. She was staying, one against two.
She looked at the last name on the list, and thought about the older girl who had come to visit the classroom earlier in the week, and her loud laughter.
There was silence in the room.
“I want Katy,” Naomi said finally, confidently.
Her eyes sought out something to fix themselves onto, and finally she found the collar of Leo’s jacket, hanging on a hook near the door. Leo was one of only two people who were allowed to wear fur here. He, and Max, his older brother, who had passed away seven years earlier. The two of them had brought the secret of the fur production from their home in Hungary, light years ago.
The collar had long brown hairs in an ombré pattern going from light to dark. On the bottom right edge was a golden, metallic elliptical shape, with a large W stamped into it. Their symbol.
***
Vienna.
“Do you see the symbol on that jacket, Dena?” Her mother-in-law’s eyes were gleaming like the glass they were facing. “That’s the trademark of Wangel. You’ve probably never heard of the company; in Israel you don’t have such things. But you know my brown coat? That’s from them. My mother, may she be well, also has a scarf from them. Look what a gorgeous jacket!”
“Really nice.” Dena nodded vigorously.
“You just wait and see what’ll happen when Bentzy remembers there is such a thing… I imagine that you’ll get something magnificent from their line. When he was a boy, he loved to play with my mother’s scarf. He spent hours stroking the smooth fur. You should have seen his eyes then!”
Oy, people’s eyes should be shining from talk about other things, Dena wanted to say. But she knew that she couldn’t change people, certainly not mothers-in-law. Instead, she said mechanically, “Furs really are special.”
“And expensive,” her mother-in-law added with a chuckle. “Such a jacket costs more than thirteen hundred dollars.” She looked at Dena, and a thin veneer of sadness in her eyes dulled the reflection of the garment in the shop window. “I’ll tell Bentzy that the minute we’ll be able to—I hope for your birthday—I want to contribute to such a gift for you.” The shvigger turned her eyes and looked further down the street, to the cars speeding past, and continued walking in that direction. “You deserve it—you’re such a good wife.”
Dena smiled as she followed her, but only one part of the smile was genuine; the bigger part of it was only trying to appear as such. “It’s fine, you shouldn’t get it for me. I’m not the type who needs these kinds of things.”
Her legs were hurting already, but apparently Ringstrasse, the ring-shaped boulevard, had no beginning or end. Well, circles never have a beginning or end.
“In Israel you might not need such things,” her mother-in-law said with firm motherliness, banishing the gleam of softness and vulnerability that had been in her eyes before. “I really admire the chinuch your parents gave you, but here, a good coat like that is not a luxury. How cold is it there? Here, in the winter, it’s freezing, below zero. People here need good, warm, quality clothes. You’ve come to Europe, Dena; you’re in Vienna. Don’t forget.”
As if I could forget it for a minute, Dena wanted to say. Instead she said, “Thank you for everything, really, but winter is still far away. And I don’t want to put you out… We really only came to help.”
Her mother-in-law nodded, speaking as she walked briskly. “We’ve been waiting for you to come. Abba has been speaking about it since the mess in the business began and everything became so complicated. We need extra hands there, a young mind, young energy… We felt that we needed him here, next to us. And it was really nice of your parents to be so understanding about it.”
Did they have a choice?
“But even before the coat and the winter clothes, let’s buy something for now, for you and the boys. Do they have enough pants?”
“Hmmm…I think so. Maybe it’s a good idea for us to go back, because Bentzy said that he would bring them home early today, so that the transfer to a new place should be gradual. I want to be home when they get there.”
“Oh, that’s a shame. We’ve hardly managed to buy anything, not for you or for them!” her doting mother-in-law said regretfully. “But at least you got to see some of Vienna, right? We can always go out again tomorrow.”
When they reached the entrance of the tall apartment building, she saw Bentzy’s father’s car approaching from a distance. It stopped and only her husband emerged from it.
“Looks like the boys are managing fine, so I left them until the end of the school day.” He was beaming from ear to ear. “The rebbeim welcomed them so nicely, and all the kids in their classes were very excited to have new friends from Eretz Yisruel. So everything’s great, baruch Hashem. You don’t need to worry about them.”
“You were there until now, from the morning?” Bentzy’s mother asked him as they got into the elevator.
“No, I went around the city a little bit, too,” he answered lightly. “It was nostalgic to be in my hometown again…”
“Just a nostalgic little tour?” The shvigger was not letting up.
“Well, I also went to see a couple of apartments. I think one of them might work out for us.”
“An apartment for you!” His mother looked like she was about to faint. “Won’t you let me enjoy you at least another week, Bentzy?”
“Two weeks, at least.” He chuckled as they walked out of the elevator. “It will only be available then.”
“We’ll pay your rent, of course, and bli neder, I hope that before the winter, I will be able to help you buy a fur coat for Dena, from Wangel.”
“What, like the kind of scarf Bubby has?”
His mother laughed as she pressed the code for the door. “Exactly. They are also the manufacturers of my coat, and they are excellent. To this day, Bubby’s scarf is like new. You hear what I’m saying, Dena?”
Dena nodded with a smile, but in her heart, she felt far from smiling. She’d felt like this often in recent days. In recent months. In the last year.
And her heart clenched when she thought about the gold crown of Yerushalayim, the city from which she was growing more and more distant. The maximum her in-laws were ready to promise her was a fur coat—that was all.
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