Chapter 3:
Sorry this took so long! RL got in the way.
Samuel dreamed of Lilly's family. In his dreams they were searching for her and her parents were crying. He tried to tell them that he was there but all he could do was wave his baby arms uselessly. He woke up crying. His mother tried to comfort him but it just made him sad for the mother he had lost. He tried to stop wailing though, he felt bad for waking his family up. And eventually he fell back asleep.
The next day went much like the first, the family woke up early, Sarah made breakfast for everyone and packed lunches for Henry to take to work and the kids to take to school. They were all out of the house before the sun had fully risen. She got some water from outside and put it on the fire. She spent most of the day cleaning the house and washing laundry. Then she again began to sew. At one point a small girl came by, maybe about 5 and took a basket of finished work. Sarah chatted with her for a bit and Samuel learned that her name was Mara and she also lived in the building and her mom sewed clothes for the same contractor as Sarah. Mara took the pieces that they sewed over to another tenement down the street where they would be assembled into clothes in a sweatshop in one of the apartments. The women got a few cents for each piece completed and Mara also made a little money as a "runner" Mara said that her mam was feeling tired and Sarah promised to bring over some tea that afternoon.
The days quickly turned into weeks and Samuel fell into a rhythm. He got used to living with the family. Every day they would get up early and go off to school and work. Then there were the quiet hours with Sarah. Sometimes they would join Mara's family in their home and sew and talk with them. Samuel didn't like that so much. Their apartment seemed smaller and darker than theirs, probably because they had more people crammed into the three rooms. Her mom, Sonya, had given birth to twelve children and nine were still living. The youngest had been born only months before and it had been a rough delivery. Sonya was still recovering and couldn't go to work so for now she was doing piecework from home. Mara's older sister Beety had dropped out of school to care for her and the new baby until she felt better so when Sarah joined them the four of them sat around the window angling their work to catch the light. Samuel was left in the cradle with the baby, and Mara often stopped by in between running other women's finished pieces.
In the afternoon the children would come home from school and have a bite to eat before being shoed back outside to play. Ruth adored him and would always play with him for a bit before going outside. When it started to get dark everyone would come home and they would have supper before retiring for bed. It was only at night that Samuel would think of the life he had left behind, and as time went on his memories began to fade, He could not remember exactly what his mother had looked like, or how the streets had looked crowded with cars. It began to feel more like a dream than a memory, like a bedtime story he had been told about someone else. And gradually he was able to forget for long stretches at a time that he had ever been anyone else or known a family other than this one, unless something happened that sparked his memory.
As papa had predicted he was soon crawling and then taking his first tottering steps. As all babies do, he began to babble and then to talk. His first and favorite word was 'no' as he continued to grow into a lovable, if very stubborn, toddler. He had inherited his mothers snub nose but took after his father in every other way with dark curly hair and bright blue eyes. It was generally agreed that Samuel was an exceptionally beautiful child. But when he wanted to do something there was no stopping him and he would throw a fit to get his way. The only one who could even sometimes reason with him when he got stubborn like that was Ruth who continued to dote on him. Their relationship was something special and it always made their parents proud to see the way they cared for another.
When Samuel was about two Sarah became pregnant again and Henry lost his job at the store. Papa had to go work in a sweatshop over on Stanton Street pressing clothes. Springtime was high season for the garment industry since everyone needed new clothes for the warm weather. That meant that papa was leaving even earlier and coming home even later than when he worked at the shop. When he got home he would be so exhausted he sometimes fell asleep at then table. Even still, the money wasn't as good as at the store and when the season ended he'd need to find new work so they took on two boarders to make some money as well. Two young men who worked in the city who were looking for a place to stay came and moved into the front room. They slept on mattresses on the floor while Lev slept on the day bed. Samuel didn't see them much but he liked looking at their things; they had shaving kits and dime novels which he'd never seen before. Although they probably weren't much younger than his papa they seemed so exciting and American.
The summer was hot and sticky. Mo and Ruth passed the long days playing outside but Lev started selling papers. Some nights the boarders would go up to the roof and sleep up there. Lev begged to be allowed to go with them but mama and papa said he wasn't old enough yet. And so time passed. In the fall the children went back to school, although Lev kept selling papers in the afternoons. Papa found a new job working at a candy store where he was happier and the money was better. He came home smelling like cooked sugar and sometimes brought treats home for the kids from the leftover bits. Just after the first snowfall of the year mama gave birth, it was a girl this time and they named her Alice. Alice took over the crib and Samuel moved into the cot with Ruth. Mo moved to sleep in the front room with the rest of the boys.
In the spring Samuel turned three, the age when one stops being a baby and becomes a boy. He was looking forward to his birthday for weeks. Finally he would be old enough to wear the pants and shirts of boyhood, and join his siblings at school and playing outside. He could not wait to leave the house, to go explore the world. The night of his birthday mamma baked him an apple cake. Papa gave him his first kippah, now that he was no longer a baby he would always keep his head covered. It was the first thing he'd had that was all his. His clothes were all handed down from his siblings, and were now being used by Alice, but he would not have to share his kippah with anyone, it was his. He was so proud and excited as papa blessed him and put it on his head, he was a big boy, and tomorrow he would start learning. He went to bed with a grin on his face ready to take on the world.
Alright, next chapter the fun begins. Thanks for sticking with me!
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