Almonds and Raisins by Maisie Mosco

Author:Maisie Mosco [Mosco, Maisie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Classica Libris
Published: 2018-11-23T23:00:00+00:00

Esther Sandberg did not make her presence felt in the family until she was seventeen. As the only girl, she had helped with the housework from the time she was old enough to wield a broom and had always been amenable, if not exactly docile. It came as a shock to Sarah when her daughter emerged as a purposeful young woman with a mind of her own.

“I’ve had enough of working in a factory,” Esther told her parents one evening. “I want to be a shop assistant, where there’s a bit of life.”

“Like Miriam Moritz, selling millinery to stuck-up ladies all day and bringing home next to nothing at the end of the week,” Sarah said dismissively.

“But she works in Cheetham Hill, doesn’t she? All I ever see is Strangeways!”

“All of a sudden it isn’t good enough for you?”

“Well you couldn’t call it paradise, could you, Mother? And I’m fed up with spending my days machining caps.”

“When you find a husband you won’t have to,” Abraham said placatingly.

“Maybe I won’t find one.”

“P-p-p!” Sarah spat three times, which Jewish folklore guaranteed would ward off catastrophe. Her daughter having no boyfriend sometimes gave her sleepless nights.

“Since your mother’s getting older, she’s starting to behave like the old grannies did in Russia,” Abraham chuckled to Esther.

Esther laughed, too, though she was secretly as anxious about her lack of a suitor as her mother was. The childhood attachments which led other girls to the marriage canopy had somehow eluded her. Until recently, her friend Sophie Plotkin had been in the same position, but she and her elder sister had just got engaged to the Rosenthal brothers. Sophie had spent the entire day talking about how much Otto loved her, whilst she and Esther treadled their machines side by side, and Esther felt more of an outsider than ever and was determined to venture into fresh fields.

No more was said that evening and Sarah thought it had just been idle talk. She did not know her daughter. By the end of the week Esther had found a job at a gown shop in town and was to start work there on Monday.

Sarah had a chat with David as she often did about family problems. “Such a trouble your sister’s turned out to be.”

“So let her try, Mother,” he advised remembering his own hopes which had come to nothing. “I don’t blame her for wanting a taste of something better.”

“She’ll only earn buttons there. Can we afford it?”

“Nobody’s earning that much anywhere these days. The war’s over!” David reminded her bitterly.

“But even when things get better, what could she earn?”

“They pay commission in those gown shops, on top of the wages.”

Sarah had not known this. “Hm,” she said thoughtfully. “So maybe we’ll see.”

Esther did not earn buttons, she proved to be an excellent saleswoman. Unlike the working class, for whom the end of the war meant a return to poverty, the smart women who patronised the gown shop still had money to spend and the sum Esther brought home at the end of the first week astounded the family.

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