Read Online Portraits by Cynthia Freeman - Free Book Online Page A

my heart and I look at it every day.
    So much has happened since I arrived I don’t know where to begin. I suppose I’ll tell you first about my family. It is like we have been together all our lives, I just can’t get over it. You’ll love my mother, and I know she will treat you as she does my sister Gittel. My little brother Shlomo, who is ten, speaks of you as though he knew you. My sister had a baby boy last week. He is so beautiful.
    America is a good country, and I can hardly wait for you to come and share it with me. I know that will not be too far away because I got a good job. I am going to save most of my money because I am living with my mother, who owns a restaurant. Everyone is so happy about us. I am the happiest person on earth to have found so many that love me, especially you. Please write as soon as you get this letter. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, my nephew’s name is Avrum, after my father. On Sunday he’s going to have his bris , and the party will be at my mother’s. My only regret is you will not be here.
    Please give my deep affection to your grandparents. I miss them very much and will never forget how good they were to me. My regards to your mother and father and I hope they know how much I care for you. Please assure them they do not have to worry about your future.
    Well, Lotte dear, I will close now, but before I do, again I want you to know how much I care for you.
    With deep respect,
    Jacob
    Before putting it into the envelope, he reread the letter. It didn’t really say what he felt. But those were feelings no decent man expressed to the woman he was going to marry. And besides, he could never put them into words. For some feelings, there were no words.
    Quickly, Jacob folded the letter and sealed it.
    The snows of winter had come and gone, and the heat of summer settled on them with a fury.
    Jacob had become accustomed to the scenes of the East Side, the familiar daily sights of humanity locked together in a common fight for survival. It was not the poverty that bothered him so much, since he’d known nothing else. But his burning desire to bring Lotte over became more difficult to bear with the passing days.
    He had been painstakingly frugal with his money, but at the end of six months he had saved very little. It was quite simple; he had to earn more money. But how?
    At noon, when the whistle blew, Jacob walked to the shaded side of the warehouse, wiped the sweat from his forehead, then sat on the concrete and braced himself against the wall. It was so hot that he didn’t feel like eating. Instead, he took the small English primer from his back pocket and began to study.
    The burly Irishman sitting beside him asked, “So, you’re going to be a professor, arrre ya?”
    Jacob smiled, “I wouldn’t mind.” Jacob had been going to night school three times a week to study English. Between the lessons and his eagerness to learn he now had little difficulty in speaking or understanding the language.
    “Well, professors ain’t no better than the likes of you and me. We work hard for what we get, and that ain’t nothin’ to be ashamed of.”
    “Ashamed, I’m not, but a little more money I wouldn’t mind making,” Jacob said, shrugging.
    “I ain’t gonna be faultin’ you for that. It’s a struggle, and hard raising a family. But I’ll take this to the potato famine we had when I was a young one back in the old sod.”
    Jacob nodded. He understood about famines and hunger, but still, in this land of opportunity he wasn’t making much progress, and his need for Lotte was becoming more and more acute. At the rate he was going, it would take a long time and that he couldn’t accept.
    “Still,” the Irishman said, looking at Jacob’s strong shoulders and arms, “it shouldn’t be so hard for a big buck the likes of you to be earnin’ a little extra.”
    “What does my size have to do with it? I don’t get paid more because of that.”
    “Take a look at those fists.