Red Stilettos

by Ruth Joseph

Genres: Family Life; Jewish Fiction; Short Stories

Synopsis

This sensational collection of quality short stories is perfect for the mainstream fiction market. The writing style is deft and stylish but accessible on many levels making it attractive to those buying for book groups and readers who enjoy quality short fiction.



Ruth Joseph lives in Cardiff, Wales where she is part of the strong Jewish community. She has a strong, evovative voice which speaks directly to the reader about guilt, love and food. Her work has previously been published by Honno, Parthian and Loki.

Release date: June 15, 2005

Publisher: Accent Pr

Print pages: 239

Sample

TAPESTRY

I’ve twisted the night in hostile sheets. Is it only four a.m… then five? ‘Don’t worry… He’ll be alright… It’ll all be fine… ’

The insistent cry of a bird shrieks through the curtained silk, stabbing the layers of darkness. Others begin to call. A flood of sound pours into the shadowy bedroom. No peace for me now. I look over at Joseph – one arm flung above his head, his mouth soft in sleep, eyes closed, edged with long black lashes. He’s a good man. He would never let our child suffer… our baby… my son… first son. Eight days old.

I slide out of bed, the pain of stitches slicing my body, and shuffle my feet into sleeping slippers. Then walk stiffly like a King Penguin skirting an icy crevasse. Joseph stirs in the warmth of our bed. ‘You OK?’

‘Yes love… I’m fine… go back to sleep… It’s gonna be a long day.’

I wrap my dressing-gown, hospital new, around my body. I’m grateful for its softness, comforting my shivers, and lean over the Moses basket at the end of the bed. Remember the arguments over who was going to buy it. Grandparents, aunties and uncles, all needing to share in such a pretty temporary arrangement. Within this organza’d wrapping of wicker and blue bows lies the object of my anxiety – a minute arrangement of diminutive limbs and organs contained in an overlarge baby-gro. In the early shadows I see a tiny face, new but already familiar: a part of Joseph, a part of me. Joseph’s nose, my hands outstretched in unaccustomed freedom, like small pink stars with miniscule fingers, each perfect nail a miracle of creation. A thread in the fabric of our combined lives, a wholeness of mutual genes.

My breasts ache. In under an hour, Nathan will be crying and I will have to sit trying to be patient while he attempts to suck and I’ll think of all the work to be done today – there’s so much to do.

‘Give it time,’ said the visiting midwife. Silver watch hanging from efficient bosom. ‘Give the milk time to come through. You’re tired in the beginning and stressed.’

I shuffle my way downstairs. The clock welcomes with a familiar tick. My mind runs on numerous levels simultaneously, like Joseph’s train set, now folded away in the loft and replaced by multi-packs of nappies, the cot, and a twirling mobile of pink and blue stuffed felt bunnies. The freezer mutters, protecting my anxious preparations – hours of labour waiting to be defrosted. Two hundred cocktail-sized fried gefilte fish balls, the same of salmon rissoles, and falafels, plus two hundred mini pizzas. Two hundred filo vegetable wraps… and chopped herring, hummus…

‘You should have had a caterer,’ said well-meaning friends. ‘How can you possibly make the function and look after the baby and… ’

‘But I want it to be the best… I want to give my baby the best… the best I can do.’

I light a lamp near the bookcase and make a camomile tea, fighting off the urge for coffee – no good for the baby – and set my favourite mug on a table in the corner of the sitting room next to my tapestry. Pulled tight on the fancy stretcher he bought me for my birthday, hangs my own design etched on canvas. I was afraid to commemorate today, before it happened.

‘G-d forbid!’ they’d say. ’You’ll give the baby an eyen horreh… the evil eye… ’

‘But I’m not superstitious!’ I protest.

In the last few days I tried to finish it, feeling the low dull pains of pre-labour contractions, low in the belly and the back, wondering all the time, is this it? Is this what labour feels like? No rush, no rush to hospital. They all say to stay home on the first, until the pain gets too bad. I sat with cramped legs akimbo working frenetically with coloured silks and chunky cottons, to convey a sliver of time. Just a few stitches needed to finish. It’s a kind of family tree with all our past generations surrounded by the flowers I grow in the garden and Joseph’s new fruit seedlings.

As the pains grew I stayed with the threads, making a picture of our lives – the golden colours of bread, of wheat and grasses. The red deep claret of wine and grapes and Kiddush embellished with silver thread for candlesticks and menorah.

I need the therapy of my plants now to dispel nagging terrors. The kitchen door-lock clicks open easily and I venture outside into the coolness of leaves. It is late summer. The early morning drones heavy with the scent of honeysuckle and bees bumble busily, filling their pockets with nectar before the next rains. I walk down the small path Joseph and I laid together, down to the bottom where he fixed the seat under the gazebo. We laughed – it was such hard work. As I raise my head, the new dawn offers a watercolour sky, blush pinks and the fires of yellow gold. I sit surrounded by the stain of poppies, roses and geraniums – the colour of blood, and wine. Clashing purple foxgloves and wild rosebay willow herb, too pretty a weed to pull, spear the back of the border with their spires.

I carried the red of the poppies into my tapestry, but now, in the early morning – at a time of fears – the colours of the poppies and roses become the blood of my child, and the wine is not for the Sabbath and festivals but prescribed by the mohel to pacify his injured cries.

My gentile friends have argued with me, and their rubber-gloved operating theatre logic is strong in my mind.

‘It’s barbaric this way. At least get him done in a hospital, with an anaesthetic and doctors and nurses on hand. With respect, you must be crazy.’

Am I crazy? Am I mad? Why do I follow the traditions of my religion?

I leave my garden with its layers of sound and colour unfolding in the growing light, and pass the sleeping tapestry, back to our bedroom. Nathan is just stirring. He begins with a soft whimpering sound, which if left develops into high-pitched crying. But I try not to let that happen. I take this small infant out of his warm covers, change his nappy and, when he is clean, clutch his minuteness to my nakedness, enjoying the sweet scent of milky new skin. The down of his head nuzzles for my breast and makes loud slurping sounds which give me hope that I will feed him sufficiently.

Now I am physically contained but my thoughts run on like a hungry lioness tracking fresh scent of its quarry, urgent, relentless. What’s the time? Half past five… and the mohel will be here at eleven. I tidied up last night and put away all the dishes. The glasses and the wine are out already… and I’ve taken the food out of the freezer and I want to put out some fruit, nuts, dill pickles. I busy myself with trivial domestic worries knowing these are not the focus of my fears. A surface diversion to avoid concentrating on the real terror of the day. My poor Nathan… my new baby… will he be… I stop myself. They call today a simcha – a reason to celebrate.

I remember I was only five when my cousin Chaim was done. The whole family was invited, my Mummy and Daddy and my two big brothers. I knew it was a special occasion because Mummy said I must wear my best Shabbat dress, the navy velvet with the white collar and my new black patent shoes with white tights. All the men gathered in the large front room. Many men with big black hats, singing and chanting like in shool. There was much talk about who was going to hold Chaim and which pillow to use and I’d heard that my Aunty Gloria had spent hours making something special. Then she showed us the pillow. It was so beautiful, new, white and soft like the feathers of a swan, edged with lace and decorated with scrolls of dark and light blue ribbon. The singing got louder and louder and I was bored with the ladies so I slipped away from Mummy. Nobody noticed. They were too busy putting cups on saucers and arranging doilies on plates to see that I had gone. They had left the door open because there were a lot of people and the room was hot. I’d always sat with Daddy. He let me stay with him in shool if I was really quiet. I wanted to see the pillow. Why was it so important and what were they going to do to Chaim? Thick coats, black thick coats, navy coats, many many legs in trousers and navy shoes, black shoes and where was Daddy? Then I saw the pillow – saw Chaim laid on the pillow without his nappy and the man using a metal cutting thing on Chaim’s…

Daddy was cross. Said I spoilt the occasion for everyone being sick like that. I should have stayed with Mummy. It was the blood on Aunty Gloria’s pillow. Why were people so happy?

I brush away an angry tear and put my child over my shoulder to wind him. He’s a good little boy. Taken his feed and is sleeping again. I leave him with Joseph in our bedroom and make my way downstairs to my domestic trivia. And I reason with myself. It’s a long time ago, girl, since you were a child. You know these men are so well qualified. Joseph comes down with our sleeping child in his arms. ‘He can sleep downstairs now in the pram. Later, I’ll go and get the Moses basket… take a few minutes break. Go on, have some tea and toast… watch the television for a while. There’s ages before they all come.’ He lays little Joseph in his pram and I hear the rattle of the kettle lid and the click of the toaster.

Just a few more stitches. I would love to finish the tapestry before Aunty Gloria comes. I wouldn’t let her see it until it was finished. She’ll walk in with Uncle Harry, in a dress adorned with vast shocking pink overblown roses, or yellow spots on green. She loves her colours and I love her spirit. It doesn’t matter that her taste is loud – her heart is as large as her decorative spirit. She will appreciate the tapestry. I could finish… only a few stitches. I move over to the needlework that spans the waiting hours of my pregnancy and concentrate. I am the spider that spins the web of ideas and forms them into a design. I thread a silver thread, and weave a decoration on the Kiddush becher – the silver beaker they will drink from at the ceremony. The same silver is woven into the tops of the candlesticks. I am the weaver that sees the glint of moonbeams on water and turns them into diamonds. But I am also weaving a tapestry of souls. My past and my future, together with my family’s. I weave in their names, those of the past, and soon my child, and then he will become part of what we are. I am a follower of tradition.

I won’t put in Nathan’s name yet. But after today… a few days to recover… please God when all is well, I will include his name.

‘It’s time, love… ’ Joseph says. Did I drop off for a minute? Can that be possible with so much happening today? I slip past the pram, carefully allowing little Nathan his last quiet minutes, and change quickly into a simple dress which will be deemed respectful in the eyes of the clergy. It is grey, modestly cut with sleeves to the elbow, and flows loosely about my legs. Then return for Nathan to change him.

I can hear voices downstairs. Uncle Josh’s booming tones, Aunty Cissie’s high pitched squeak and groups of nosy ladies checking the kitchen to view the catering arrangements and whether I’ve managed. Joseph runs up the stairs. ‘Stay up here, there’s no need for you to come down until it’s over.’ Then he whisks away my baby.

I am cold. I wipe clammy hands against my skirt. Feel the knock of my heart banging in the cavern of my chest. I can hear the chanting and the singing and my stomach squeezes with the pain that Jewish mothers have felt since time began. Why did I let them? Why should it be so? Can that tiny child, only eight days old, bear the agony of such an operation? Joseph returns, it seems, hours later. My face is flooded with tears. The front of my dress is wet with milk leaked for my child. My tiny son lies on a pillow. On his miniature face is one small tear, but he is quiet, almost sleeping.

‘Is he alright? Why isn’t he crying?’

‘He had a good swig of wine just at that moment. The mohel was very good. Very quick and efficient. When you’ve fed Nathan, wash your face, change and meet your family and your friends. You wanted to show Aunty Gloria the tapestry. You were going to show her today.’

My child feeds from my breast. Large slurping sounds as before. I stroke the soft down on his head with one finger and press my mouth in silent kisses all over his body. Then I change him. He has a large bandage and plaster over the wound. But he does not seem distressed. I put on an ordinary skirt and blouse, the milk-stained party outfit discarded for the wash. Then, after checking the baby monitor, I descend to meet the noise that swells up the stairs.

‘Mazaltov, my dear… a very special occasion. Now your son is one of us. He has been given his Jewish identity,’ says Mr Samuels with his mouth full of chopped fried gefilte fish. ‘You must have worked so hard,’ they chorus. ‘How did you manage to make all that food?’

‘I hedged my bets… I’d make a party anyway, boy or girl. It’s easy with a freezer… ’ I make my excuses. My mind is upstairs in that cot. Aunty Gloria clacks over, the mass of her large body balanced on four-inch stilettos. She’s dabbing her eyes. ‘Such a wonderful occasion, I know, darling, it’s always a bad day for the mother. But that’s the way it is with us’

I don’t want to talk. I am too full of emotion. ‘Would you like to see the tapestry?’

‘Not today, sweetheart. I’ll come again in a week or two when you are more settled.’

I’m grateful for her thoughtfulness and soon they all pick up coats fallen like abandoned bodies over the couch in my small sitting room and the house returns to two people plus one, a multitude of sticky dishes and glasses, and a smell of herring and wine.

We eat with our minds resting on that small child, upstairs, and after he cries and I feed him, I bring him down, freshly changed, smelling of milk.

‘Let’s go out in the garden,’ I say. ‘I’ll wrap him up well.’

Joseph walks ahead of me down the path we both constructed holding his son and singing quietly. He sits on our seat and beckons for me. Their two heads are close, my two Jewish men. They sit by the red of my poppies and roses and I smell the dusk perfumes of all my flowers. Liquid songs of blackbirds reverberate from the tips of the highest trees.

I think of how it is, of how the day progressed. Today this child who has no past was blessed by his ancestors. They watched him. They stood by him, holding hands, keeping him safe, as he was given his Jewish identity. Their ideals and dreams have been woven into the fabric of his life as I embroidered them in the tapestry of our lives. He walks with the famous. Maybe he could be as clever as Einstein, or as artistic as Claude Pissarro or Amadeo Modigliani. Possess the musical talents of Felix Mendelessohn or Max Bruch. He has had his debut. Now, he has a past, is our present, and has his singular future. He will tread in our footsteps – in our history.

Joseph raises the wrapped body of his little son to the golden light in some kind of private homage.

‘It’s getting cold, my little family. Let’s go in,’ he says. ‘It went well… didn’t it?’

Then walks me, slowly, back to the house.

DEVON CREAM

‘Barbara. You’ve got to promise, just promise you’ll come over tomorrow for lunch. You can...? Yes I know I sound… I had some dreadful news yesterday. Yes it will wait… but now there’s the teapot… Yes a drink would be good idea… in a while… after the children have left… I promise… I promise… I’ll… You will come… won’t you...? Yes, about one. Great ... OK love… I’ll see you tomorrow… ’

I put the receiver down and look at the dustpan filled with fragments of china teapot. Impossible to glue it back together. Remember what it looked like: large, elaborate Victorian. Like her, stiff-legged, reigning on its own stand. You daft thing, I chide myself. It’s just a bloody tea-pot. Hideous thing. I was only moving it off the top of the display cabinet so that when the children came for the party it would be safe. It’s just that after receiving the post yesterday morning – I must try to get things into proportion. It’s not a mirror that’s broken. It’s Gerald’s mother’s tea-pot. It belonged to her grandmother before her. He was terrified of that old woman. No, correction, he hated her, the witch. She lived in one of those old miners’ cottages at the top of the valley. She wore a black gown down to her ankles, even when the fashion changed to short, and a black knitted shawl hugged around thick shoulders. Before my time, but I’ve seen the photos often enough. Small woman but solid, with pit-prop thighs. Born with sobriety springing through her veins, and an intolerance of those who indulged in the slightest drop – even at Christmas. When he was a child and had to pass her house to get to school, he’d cross the road, or sneak right under her doorway, but she always saw him, and then she’d scream:

‘What have you done wrong that you’re trying to avoid me?’

Her own grandson, for goodness sake! That bony finger would poke his chest and he’d shake for hours after. He told me. And then when she died, it was as if his mother moved into her tight, black, lace-up shoes and smack into our lives. Like a dose of black poison, that’s what she was like – Satan’s pee.

I try to push vindictive sinful thoughts out of my mind and return to my preparations for the children’s Halloween party. I’ve promised them one for years. But the witch stopped it and then a myriad of problems prevented me. But this year is going to be different.

I remember, two years ago, the last time I tried to organize one of these parties, she screamed that it was a blasphemous occasion, a Witches’ Sabbath, and she hadn’t taken Gerald to church for all those years so he could play witchcraft game. . .