Read Online Among the Living by Jonathan Rabb - Free Book Online

depth was one Goldah understood only too well.
    Raymond returned with the boxes and Calvin set down his empty bottle and stood.
    “I’ll tell Jacob you here,” he said. “Then you can come on out.” Calvin took the boxes from Raymond. “And you gotta fix that door to the alley, son. It’s still sticking.”
    “The door?” said Raymond. “I just said I got to get them Kaybee crates over to Delaney by noon otherwise he ain’t going to take them.”
    “That’s fine with me, but that door ain’t going nowhere. It’d be here when you get back.”
    “Fine.” Raymond looked at Goldah. “Don’t you worry, Mr. Ike. I get you back in time for lunch even if I have to saw that door in half.”
    “Sounds about the usual kind of fixing you do,” Calvin said. He pulled back the curtain and stepped through to the store.
    Raymond waited until the curtain had swung back before reaching over to the cooler for another Coca-Cola. “I see you later, Mr. Ike.”
    Goldah sat and drank. He finished the bottle, set it down next to Calvin’s, and imagined this life as his own. It was a foolish thought, imagining what was clearly here: the frayed edge of the carpet, the carbonation in his throat, and the sound of footsteps approaching.
    “Ike?”
    Goldah stepped to the curtain and pulled it back. The store was empty save for Calvin and a white boy of perhaps fourteen. The boy was dressed in a perfect little suit, with a blue handkerchief folded at the breast pocket and his red hair slicked down to a razor-thin part.
    “Ike,” the boy said again, his hand held out. “Jacob Gersons. Good to meet you.”
    Goldah stepped through and took the hand. It was rough for a boy so young, and strong. “Hello.”
    “You look well, Ike. No wear on you.”
    Goldah imagined the boy had been practicing what to say.
    “Yes. Thank you.”
    Jacob did a quick inventory of the store with his eyes. “Pretty good, ain’t it? And you and me getting right in on it.”
    Goldah had trouble following the boy, not just for the words but for the accent. It was duller than the Jeslers’, heavier, and without the polish. Goldah nodded.
    “You were a newspaperman.” said Jacob. “That’s what I hear. Newspapers and writing. I been thinking about that, too.”
    Calvin said, “Jacob thinking about a lot a things, Mr. Ike. Why don’t you show him the store, son.”
    “In a minute, Calvin. In a minute. I’m getting to it. Men got to be able to make introductions, ain’t that right, Ike?”
    “ ‘Men,’ ” said Calvin dismissively. “Why don’t you show him the store, son.”
    “Yes, men. Like me and Ike. Ain’t I in a nice suit and handkerchief in my pocket?”
    “You is, son. You is. Jacob here lives down in Yamacraw, Mr. Ike, but he’s getting himself out a there real soon, ain’t that right, Jacob?”
    Jacob rolled his eyes. “Why you go and tell him that, Calvin? Got to go and tell him about Yamacraw and me here in my suit, and my hair pressed down. What you tell him that for?”
    “Well, you do live down in Yamacraw, and you is fetching to get yourself out.”
    “I’m making introductions here.”
    “I suppose you is, son.” He turned to Goldah. “Mr. Jesler have Jacob here on Saturdays when he doing his praying. He gives him the suit. Got a cot in the back so the boy can staysometimes the night before if we starting in early. Suit stays here the rest a the week hanging in the back. Don’t know where the boy gets his pomade.”
    “ ‘Where the boy …?’ ” said Jacob. “I pay for it with my own money, if that’s what you care to know.”
    Calvin laughed. “I know you do, son.” There was genuine caring in the way Calvin spoke to the boy. “It’s good what you doing. Mr. Jesler pick a good boy with you, and you get yourself out a Yamacraw real soon.”
    “That’s right, he did. Mr. Jesler come up from Yamacraw same as me. And one day I get some boy to do my working when I go to shul for my praying. And Calvin