The Hired Girl(44)

“No,” I said regretfully, “my father didn’t want me to learn anything.”

“How heavenly!” breathed Mimi. “When Papa comes tonight, he’ll want me to show him my arithmetic and tell him about one of those books. He’ll be so disappointed in me! I can’t bear it. That’s why I pretended to be sick. He can’t be cross if I’m sick, and if I’m left alone, I can do some of these stupid sums.”

“Will he believe you’re really sick? Malka knew you weren’t.”

“Malka thinks I’m spoiled,” Mimi said, which is just what Malka does think. “She says each of us is more spoiled than the last. I’m the youngest, so I’m the worst. Anna and Solly are good, and me and David are bad. Though Solly might be in trouble with Papa, too.”

“Why?” I asked rashly. I shouldn’t have gossiped, but it seemed as though the little minx would tell me everything, and I did so want to know.

“Because Papa expects him to learn the business at the store, but all Solly wants to do is to study Talmud. Solly hasn’t told him. He doesn’t want to disappoint Papa. None of us do. That’s how Papa is. Papa’s very Reform, and it isn’t Reform to study Talmud. Papa says there’s wisdom in it, but there’s also a lot of medieval superstition —”

“What’s Talmud?”

“It’s writings about the Torah —” She looked at me with her head on one side. “You don’t know what the Torah is, do you?”

I admitted that I didn’t.

“It’s all right,” she said kindly. “Maisie Phillips didn’t know either, and she’s my second-best friend. She’s a Gentile, too. The Torah’s the five books of Moses.” She counted them on her fingers. “Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers. About a thousand rabbis decided to write everything they could think of about the Torah, and that’s Talmud. There are forty-two volumes of it. And Solly wants to study it. He loves it. And Nora Himmelrich — that’s the other thing he loves.”

I echoed, “Nora Himmelrich?” My mind was awhirl. I’d never thought of Mr. Solomon being in love.

“He’s dead stuck on her,” said Mimi. “She’s very pretty and very rich, but I don’t think she’ll have him. If he took over the store, that would be one thing. But I don’t think she’ll marry him if he’s nothing but a scholar.”

I thought that was sad. I’d never heard the phrase “dead stuck on” before, but I guessed what it meant, even though I didn’t think it was a very poetic way of putting things. “Doesn’t she love him?”

Mimi shrugged. “With her looks, she could marry anybody. Of course, Solly’s nice,” she added quickly, “though my other brother — David — has more go in him. I’m never getting married, myself.”

“Neither am I,” I said. I wasn’t thinking; it just came out.

She gazed at me with interest. “Won’t you, though? I’m the only girl I know who doesn’t want to get married. It’s not that I don’t like men — well, of course, they’re only boys now, because I’m twelve. Mama says I’m too young to think about boys. But if I were really too young, I wouldn’t think about them, would I? It’s interesting to see if I can make them notice me, and the funny thing is, I can. Lotty Lewisohn and Maisie Phillips are heaps better looking than I am, but the boys like me better. I think I’ll be a belle when I’m grown up. I’ll let the men take me to dances and send flowers and all that. But nothing else. I won’t marry them.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s dull,” she said, very firmly. “Like Anna. She was never very much fun, but now that she’s married, she’s too dull for words. Half the time, her husband’s away on business, and she has these awful babies. Oskar is my nephew — he’s really awful — and baby Irma does nothing but cry and spit up. I know it’s not nice to talk about spitting up, but both of Anna’s babies were born with something the matter with their stomachs, and all they do is spit up. And all Anna does is worry about them and change her clothes and wipe down the walls. That’s not how I want to spend my life.” She stopped for breath. “What about you? Why won’t you get married?”

I thought about Father and Ma. “Because I don’t like being bullied,” I answered. “And I want my own money. I want my own home and my own job. I guess I want my whole life for my own.”