The Midwife by Gay Courter

Author:Gay Courter [Courter, Gay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Midwives
Publisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin
Published: 1981-04-14T22:00:00+00:00

11

The flag above the octagonal dome of the Castle Garden Aquarium flapped its welcome from shore, while the torch of the Statue of Liberty glinted in the distance. When they landed at the dock in front of the red-tiled fireboat building, the costumed revelers became the object more of curiosity than of fear.

As soon as the deck hand uncoiled a thick snake of a rope and wrapped it around the first black bollard on the dock, Lazar jumped ashore and reached out to lift Hannah to the wharf. Instead of finding solid earth, Hannah felt the land shift beneath her. She leaned against Lazar for support. A silver-haired lady in a coat trimmed with curly lambskin, a representative of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, walked up to Uncle Leyb, who seemed from his tailored coat and grey beard to be the head of the group, and asked politely, "Are you being met by friends or relatives? Do you have a place to live? A job?"

Uncle Leyb responded in the negative to each of these questions.

"Don't worry," soothed the woman. "Where are you from?"

"Odessa," Leyb answered.

"We were from Vitebsk. You know it?" she said pleasantly to dispel their suspicions. "We help our landsleit, because we know what it is like to come to these shores without family or friends. There is no charge for our service. Our organization is open day and night. We can help you find some rooms, a job, and warn about those who would take advantage of your ignorance."

As Mama Blau stepped forward to listen, not fully trusting the woman's words, they were interrupted by a voice calling "Mrs. So-kolovsky!" Nahum Belinsky came running toward the group. "I sent Shifre and the baby ahead, but I could not leave until I had a proper chance to thank you." He brushed the hair from his fore-

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.