Hester Street Page #2

I don't know where you get it though.

A married man

with a darling little wife.

I must remember to ask your wife

how she likes the furniture.

The furniture you bought

with my money.

I'll pay you every penny, Mamie.

Just don't say nothing to her, please.

What do I care?

I want my money!

I worked hard enough for it!

I'll say what I like to your wife.

Oh, don't you like it?

Lump it!

Don't talk English.

She will think something.

What do I care what she thinks?

I want she should know.

It's lucky I still remember a word

or two of the old language.

I'll tell her what's what.

Never mind! I don't

wanna stay here anyhow.

Good-bye, Mrs. Podkovnik.

I hope you will enjoy America.

Mamie!

Mamie. Where can I see you?

Well, you can't come by

the dancing academy no more, huh?

Wait a minute. If I want,

I can go there more than I used to.

Mamie.

Mmm.

You know where I live, don't you?

Or did you forget?

I don't forget.

What a short mind you got.

I won't forget nothing.

I'll come.

Huh. You're bluffing.

I'll come. I should live so.

All right.

But bring my $25.

Or you'll see.

Come, come.

Come.

You think you're still in Russia?

Love potions!

Look at you. Like a bubbe

with a patch on the head!

Why should he love you?

Fifty times I am telling you,

"Fix yourself. Look like a woman

that lives in America."

I won't be a goyah,

even for Yankel.

What's the use?

I'm talking to the wall.

Why should I bother myself?

What about at night in the bed?

Don't tell me.

I know the answer already. Nothing.

Look at me. Am I a goyah?

I'm as pious as you anyhow.

And I go with my own hair, don't I?

Plenty time for the patch

when I get old.

While I'm young, I'm young.

And that's all.

It can't be helped!

We live in an educated country,

so we dress like educated people.

As they say, Ladies first."

Hold in. Hold.

It hurts.

It hurts?

That means it's working.

Hold, hold now. Hold. Good.

Oh, yeah!

That right?

Yeah, it's all right.

It's sure tight.

You wanna be an American,

you gotta hurt.

My best!

I don't buy from a pushcart.

I buy inside, by the way. Huh?

How do you like, huh?

Yeah? Yeah?

Maybe you got one with feathers?

You want a hat with feathers?

Feathers, you'll get!

Here.

Oh! Ah, ah, beautiful!

Oh, look. Give a look. Huh?

A regular uptown lady.

Here, like that.

Hmm? You like it?

Evening, missus.

He must work late again.

It's the busy season. The boss

keeps him. And Jake is the best worker.

Yossele.

Base.

Base.

Mamie! Oh, Mamie.

You bring my money?

I gotta speak to you now.

Get away from me!

Please, I come all the way from work!

Is it my fault you got a short mind?

Today is Wednesday.

You was by dancing.

And why not? I'm a single girl.

I can go where I want.

You think I can't?

A married man at a dancing academy

with his little wife draggin' after.

You give me a regular pain!

Shut up out there!

I don't have nothing to do

with a married man, Jake Podkovnik!

You got my money. You give it!

Otherwise you go to hell!

You go to hell!

You ain't worth my wife's

little finger!

You either!

Oh, you! Don't tell me.

Jake.

Jake.

I'm so busy tonight.

What you waitin' for?

Mr. Bernstein,

why you come to America?

You could've been teacher.

Rabbi even.

I wasn't worthy.

What? I should live so!

I could not take my mind

from profanities.

Here I was studying the Talmud

which teaches

"He who even looks at

the little finger of a woman

is as guilty as though he looked

at a woman totally naked."

So I bought a ship's ticket

and I came to America.

So?

I'm tasting! That's all!

I want a treat,

and you're insulting me.

Who wants your treat?

All right! So don't come

to my wedding neither.

I'll be goddamn!

Jake, was from you

I got the nerve to ask her.

To have a wife,

that's a good thing, huh, Jake?

What you talking, Joe?

A single man is a bum, a gornisht!

One thing, a man gives up something

when he gets married, by the way.

What? Give up what?

Dancing school?

A big mitzeah.

Joe, what is?

When I finish work, and I come home,

all I wanna do is eat my dinner,

enjoy my little wife

and play with my boychick.

Of course, Mamie and me,

we gonna run the academy together.

Be good for business, huh?

Mamie?

Which Mamie?

Mamie Fein.

You asked Mamie Fein, huh?

What she say?

"Maybe."

Maybe, huh? And already

you standing under the canopy.

Upon my word.

It's a good thing she didn't say

more than maybe. You can get away yet.

Get away? I don't wanna get away.

Jake, why should I wanna get away?

Never mind.

American ladies,

for a good time, yes.

For a wife, no.

Get yourself a girl

from the old country.

She don't ask all the time

for a new dress, a new hat.

She don't run around

with other mens.

She keeps the place like a fiddle,

and she knows how to save from a nickel.

Mamie saved more than $300

from out her wages.

Furthermore, I don't want

no greenhorn wife.

Then you go to hell!

You and Mamie ain't worth

my wife's little finger!

So.

If your wife is such a wonder,

how is it you're sittin' here?

Never mind you business!

You say one more word about my wife

and I'll give you this!

You ain't got a cigar?

Sure I got. Help yourself.

Take a couple.

Thanks.

Eat. Make your teeth strong.

Look what a place is America,

nu, Bernstein?

At home we had forests.

Right outside the door,

remember, Yankel?

Here one must take a train for an hour

just to be near a tree.

So go back to Russia.

Here a Jew is a mensch.

In Russia we was afraid to walk

within ten feet of a Gentile.

Yankel, where in America

is the Gentiles, huh?

I go with Mrs. Kavarsky,

Rivington Street, Delancey Street,

everywhere Jews.

The Gentiles keep

in another place, huh?

Yossele, don't get dirty the knee pants

Ta'teh make for you.

Let him enjoy!

What a boy, with regular knee pants.

You know what the trouble is

with you, Gitl?

Look on me.

Give a look on me!

Am I a Jew or a Gentile?

Forget that you know me.

Just by what you see, what do you say?

A Jew is a Jew.

What do you know!

Mr. Bernstein knows many things.

He going give lessons

in how to talk English.

I looking for students all the time.

Twenty-five cents an hour.

I'll be goddamn!

Who'd wanna take lessons

from such a greeny? Look at him!

Bernstein,

you want my advice?

Go to the shadchen,

say, Ill take what you got:

deaf, hunchback,

long as she got money."

Then you buy yourself a little store.

Let the hunchback run the place.

And you can sit all day

and read the books, huh?

What do you say?

Joey!

Joey, come here!

Don't bother, Mr. Bernstein.

Oh, here he comes, Yossele.

The slack season already?

Mister, wait one minute.

Yossele, stay by me.

Go. I'll send him up in a minute.

Slack season.

No work three, maybe four months.

Take off.

Take off!

Yankel!

What happened here?

She looks like a wet cat!

Mama!

Take him to my house.

Have a little water.

Another man would thank God

for such a wife.

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