“No-o! God forbid!” she exclaimed with mock vehemence. “How fares a Jew?”
“How fares it with all Jews? A bare living. Can you spare me a thousand guilders?”
“Ha! Ha! What a jester! The only green-rinds I ever see are what I peel from cucumbers.” And turning to David. “Go in, sweet one! Tell them I’ll sacrifice them for the sake of heathens if they don’t get up! That’s my sister’s only one,” she explained.
“Comely,” admitted the other.
David hesitated, “You want me to go in?”
“Yes! Yes! Perhaps you’ll shame the sows into rising.”
“Your fledgelings are still in the nest?”
“And what else?” disgustedly. “Lazy as cats. Go right in, my bright.”
Reluctantly, David squeezed past her, and casting a last vain glance at the jumbled shelves, pushed the spring door forward and went in. Beyond the narrow passageway, cramped even closer by the stumpy mottled columns on pasteboard boxes carelessly piled, the kitchen opened up with a stale reek of unwashed frying pans. The wooden table in the center was bare except for a half-filled bottle of ketchup with a rakish cap. Pots, one in another, still squatted on the gas-stove. From a corner of the stove-tray under the burners, coffee dripped to a puddle on the floor. The sink was stacked with dishes, and beside it on the washtub a bagful of rolls lay spilled all over. Splayed newspapers, crumpled garments, shoes, stockings, hung from the chairs or littered the floor. There were three doors, all closed, one on either side and one with a broom against it opening on the yard.
— Gee! Dirty.… Which one?
A giggle at his left. He approached cautiously.
“Is she commin’?” A guarded voice inside.
“Sh!”
“Hey,” he called out in a non-committal voice, “Yuh momma wants you sh’d ged op!”
“Who’re you?” Challengingly from the other side.
“It’s me, Davy.”
“Davy who?”
“Davy Schearl, Tanta Boita’s nephew.”
“Oh! So open de daw.”
He pushed it back — The clinging stench of dried urine. Lit by a small window that gave upon the squalid grey bricks of an airshaft, the room was gloomy. Only after a few seconds had passed did the features of the two heads that pronged the grey, mussed coverlets separate from the murk.
“It’s him!” A voice from the pillow.
“So wodda yuh wan’?” He finally distinguished the voice as Esther’s.
“I tol’ yuh,” he repeated. “Yuh momma wants yuh sh’d get op. She tol’ me I shul tell yuh.” The message delivered, he began to retreat.
“Comm beck!” Imperiously. “Dope! Wodda yuh wan’ in duh staw I asked.”
“N-nott’n.”
“So waddaye comm hea fuh?” Polly demanded suspiciously. “Kendy?”
“No, I didn’. I jost comm to see Tanta Boita.”
“Aaa, he’s full of hoss-cops — C’mon, Polly!” Esther was the one nearest the wall. “Ged out!” She sat up.
Polly clung to the covers. “Ged oud yuhself foist.”
“Yuh bedder! Yuh hoid w’ad mama said.”
“So led ’er say.” Peevishly.
“I ain’ gonna clean de kitchen by myself,” Esther stood up on the bed. “You’ll ged!”
“Don’ cross over me. Id’s hard luck.”
“I will if yuh don’ ged out!”
“You jus’ try — go over by my feet—”
But even as she spoke, Esther jumped over her.
“Lousy bestia!” Polly screeched. And as her sister jounced with unsure footing on the bed, she clutched at the hem of her nightgown and yanked her back. Esther tumbled heavily against the wall.
“Ow! Rotten louse!” Esther screamed in return. “Yuh hoit my head.” And swooping down on the coverlets, flung them back. “Yeee!” she squawled as Polly, taken by surprise lay for an instant with nightgown above naked navel, “Yeee! Free show! Free show!”
“Free show, yuhself!” Furiously, Polly clawed at the other’s nightgown. “Yuh stinkin’ fraid cat! Shame! Shame! Free show!” Immediately four bare thighs kicked, squirmed and locked, and the two sisters rolled about in bed, slapping each other and shrieking. After a minute of this, the disheveled Esther, with a last vicious slap, at the other, broke loose, leapt from the bed and squealing rushed past David into the kitchen.
“I’ll moider you — yuh rotten stinker!” Polly screamed after her. “I’ll break yuh head!” she rolled out of bed as well.
“Yea, I double dare you!” Quivering with spite, Esther bent fingers into claws.
“I’ll tell mama on you! I’ll tell ’er watchuh done!”
“I ain’ gonna go down witchoo.” Her sister spat. “Just fer dat, you go yuhself.”
“So don’t. I’ll tell him too!”
“I’ll kill yuh!”
“Yea! Yuh know w’ot Polly does?” Esther wheeled on him. “She pees in bed every night! Dat’s w’at she does! My fodder has to give her a pee-pot twelve a’clock every night—”
“I don’t!”
“Yuh do! Dere!”
“Now I’ll never take yuh down, yuh lousy fraid-cat. Never! Never!”
“So don’t!”
“An’ I hope de biggest moider boogey man tears yuh ass out.”
“Piss-in-bed!” Esther taunted stubbornly. “Piss in bed!”
“An he’ll comm, Booh!” Polly pawed the air, eyes bulging in mimic fright. “Booh! Like de Mask-man in de serial! Wooh!”
“Aaa, shoddop!” Esther flinched. “Mama’ll take me down.”
“Yea!” her sister gloated. “Stinkin’ fraid-cat! Who’ll stay in de staw?”
“You!”
“Yuh should live so!”
“So I’ll pee in de sink.” Esther threatened.
“Wid de dishes in id! G’wan, I dare yuh! An’ yuh know w’ot Mama’ll give yuh w’en I tell ’er.”
“So I’ll waid! Aaa! He’ll go down!” she shrilled in sudden triumph. “Mbaa!” her tongue flicked out. “Mbaa! Davy’ll go down wit’ me!”
“Yea? Waid’ll I tell Sophie Seigel an’ Yeddie Katz you took a boy down in de toilet and let ’im look. Waid’ll I tell!”
“Sticks and stones c’n break my bones, but woids can nevuh hoit me-e!” Esther sang malevolently. “I ain’gonna led ’im look. C’mon, Davy! Waid’ll I ged my shoes on.”
“Don’ go!” Polly turned on him fiercely. “Or I’ll give yuh!”
“An’ I’ll give you!” Esther viciously hooked feet into shoes. “Such a bust, yuh’ll go flyin’! C’mon, Davey!”
“Waddayuh wan’?” He looked from one to the other with a stunned, incredulous stare.
“I’ll give yuh kendy,” Esther wheedled.
“Yuh will not!” Polly interposed.
“Who’s askin’ you, Piss-in-bed?” She seized David’s arm. “C’mon, I’ll show yuh w’ea tuh take me.”
“W’ea yuh goin’?” He held back.
“Downstairs inna terlit, dope! Only number one. Srooo!” She sucked in her breath sharply. “Hurry op! I’ll give yuh anyt’ing inna store.”
“Don’tcha do it!” Polly exhorted him. “She won’t give yuh nott’n! I’ll give yuh!”
“I will so!” Esther was already dragging him after her.
“Leggo!” He resisted her tug. “I don’t want—” But she had said anything! A vision of bright-wheeled skates rose before his eyes. “Awri’.” He followed her.
“Shame! Shame!” Polly yapped at their heels. “Ev’ybody knows yuh name. He’s goin’ in yuh terlit!”
Cringing with embarrassment, he hurried across the threshold to Esther’s side.
“Shoddop! Piss-in-bed! Mind yuh own beeswax!” She slammed the door in her sister’s face. “Over dis way.”
A short flight of wooden steps led down into the muggy yard, and a little to the side of them, another flight of stone dropped into the cellar. At the sight of the nether gloom, his heart began a dull, labored pounding.