Henry Roth - Call It Sleep

While Yussie babbled on excitedly, David stared about him. He had never been in Yussie’s front room before; Annie had barred the way as if it were inviolable ground. Now he saw a room which was illuminated by a gas lamp overhead and crowded with dark and portly furniture. In the middle of the floor stood a round glass-topped table and about it chairs of the same dark stain. A china closet hugged one wall, a bureau another, a dressing table a third, cabinets clogged the corners. All were bulky, all rested on the same kind of scrolled and finical paw. On the wall space above the furniture hung two pairs of yellowed portraits, two busts of wrinkled women with unnatural masses of black hair, and two busts of old men who wore ringlets under their skull caps and beards on their chins. With an expression of bleak hostility in their flat faces, they looked down at David. Barring the way to the window squatted a swollen purple plush chair, embroidered with agitated parrots of various hues. A large vapid doll with gold curls and a violet dress sat on the glass top of a cabinet. After his own roomy frontroom with its few sticks of furniture, David not only felt bewildered, he felt oddly warm.

“It’s inna closet in my modder’s bedroom.” Yussie continued. “Jost wait, I’ll show yuh.”

He disappeared into the darkness of the adjoining bedroom. David heard him open a door, rummage about for a minute. When he returned, he bore in his hand a curious steel cage.

“Yuh know wat dis’s fuh?” he held it up to David’s eyes.

David examined it more closely, “No. Wot d’yuh do wit’ it?”

“It c’n catch rats, dot’s wot yuh do wit’ it. See dis little door? De rat gizz in like dot.” He opened a thin metal door at the front of the cage. “Foist yuh put sompin ove’ hea, and on ’iz liddle hook. An’ nen nuh rat gizzin. Dey uz zuh big rat inna house, yuh could hear him at night, so my fodder bought dis, an’ my mudder put in schmaltz f’om de meat, and nuh rat comes in, an’ inna mawningk, I look unner by de woshtob, an’ooh — he wuz dere, runnin’ dis way like dot.” Yussie waved the cage about excitedly, “An I calls my fodder an’ he gets op f’om de bed an’ he fills op de woshtob and eeh! duh rat giz all aroun’ in it, in nuh watuh giz all aroun’. An’ nen he stops. An nen my fodder takes it out and he put it in nuh bag and trew it out f’om de winner. Boof! he fell inna guttah. Ooh wotta rat he wuz. My mudder wuz runnin’ aroun’, an aroun’ an after, my fodder kept on spittin’ in nuh sink. Kcha!”

David backed away in disgust.

“See, I tol’ yuh I had sumtin tuh show yuh. See, like dot it closes.” He snapped the little, metal door. “We didn’t hea’ it, cause ev’ybody wuz sleepin’. Rats on’y come out innuh da’k, w’en yuh can’t see ’em, and yuh know w’ea dey comin’ f’om, dey comin’ f’om de cellah. Dot’s w’ea dey live innuh cellah — all rats.”

The cellar! That explained it. That moment of fear when he turned the bottom landing before he went out into the street. He would be doubly terrified now.

“Wotta yuh doin?” They started at the intruding voice. It was Annie coming in. Her face was writhed back in disgust.

“Eee! Yuh stoopid lummox! Put it away. I’ll call mama!”

“Aaa, lemme alone.”

“Yuh gonna put it away?” she squealed.

“Aa, shit on you,” muttered Yussie sullenly. “Can’t do nuttin’.” Nevertheless, he carried the cage back to the bedroom.

“W’y d’yuh let ’im show it tuh yuh fuh?” she demanded angrily of David. “Such a dope!”

“I didn’ know wot it wuz,” he stammered.

“Yuh didn’ know wot it wuz? Yurra lummox too!”

“Now g’wan.” Yussie returned from the bedroom. “Leave us alone.”

“I will not,” she snapped. “Dis is my frontroom.”

“He don’ wanna play witchoo. He’s my frien!”

“So who wants him!”

“So don’ butt in.”

“Pooh!” She plumped herself in a chair. The steel brace clicked disagreeably against the wood.

David wished she could wear long pants like a man.

“Comm on ove’ by de winder,” Yussie guided him through a defile in the furniture. “We mus’ be a fireman. We c’n put out de fire inna house.” He indicated the bureau. “Yuh wanna?”

“Awrigh’.”

“An’ we c’n slide down duh pipe an’ we c’n have a fiuh-ingine, an’ nen I’ll be duh drivuh. Yuh wanna?”

“Yea.”

“Den let’s make fiuh hats. Waid, I’ll get some paper inna kitchen.” He ran off.

Annie slid off the chair and came over. “Wot class yuh in?”

“1A.”

“I’m in 4A,” she said loftily. “I skipped a’reddy. An’ now I’m duh sma’test one in my class.”

David was impressed.

“My teacher’s name is Miss McCardy. She’s duh bes’ teacher inna whole school. She gave me A. A. A.”

By this time Yussie had returned bearing several sheets of newspaper.

“Wotta ya gonna do?” she demanded.

“Wotta you care!” he defied her. “We’ gonna be fiuhmen.”

“Yuh can’t!”

“No?” Yussie inquired angrily, “Why can’ we?”

“Cause yuh can’t, dat’s w’y! Cause yu’ll scratch op all de foinichuh.”

“We won’ scratch nuttin’!” stormed Yussie whirling the newspaper about in frustration. “We gonna play.”

“Yuh can’t!”

“We will!”

“I’ll give yuh in a minute,” she advanced threateningly.

“Aa! Wodda yuh wan’ us tuh play?”

“Yuh c’n play lottos.”

“I don’ wanna play lottos,” he whined.

“Den play school den.”

“I don’ wanna play school.”

“Den don’ play nuttin!” she said with finality.

A large bubble of saliva swelled from Yussie’s lips as he squeezed his face down to blubber. “I’ll tell mama on you!”

“Tell! She’ll give yuh a smack!” She whirled threateningly on David. “Wadda you wanna play?”

“I don’ know,” he drew back.

“Doncha know no games?” she fumed.

“I–I know tag an’ I know, I know hide an’ gussee’.”

Yussie revived. “Let’s play hide an’ gussee’.”

“No!”

“You too!” he coaxed desperately. “C’mon, you too.”

Annie thought it over.

“C’mon I’ll be it!” And immediately, he leaned his face against the edge of a bureau and began counting. “G’wan hide!” he broke off.

“Wait!” shrilled Annie, hopping off. “Count twenny!”

David scurried behind the arm chair.

He was found last and accordingly was “it” next. In a little while the game grew very exciting. Since David was somewhat unfamiliar with the arrangement of the house, it chanced that several times he hid with Yussie when Annie was it and with Annie when Yussie was it. They had crouched together in barricaded corners and behind the bedroom door.

However, just as the game was reaching its greatest pitch, Mrs. Mink’s voice suddenly called out from the kitchen.

“Yussele! Yussele, my treasure, come here!”

“Aa!” from somewhere came Yussie’s exasperated bleat.

David, who was “it” at the time, stopped counting and turned around.

“Yussie!” Mrs. Mink cried again, but this time shriller.

“Can’t do nuttin’,” complained Yussie, crawling out from under the bureau. “Waddayuh want?” he bellowed.

“Come here. I want you to go down stairs for a minute.”

Annie, evidently aware that the game was over for the time being, came out of the adjoining bedroom. “He has to go down?”

“Yea,” diffidently. “Fuh bread.”

“Den we can’t play.”

“No. I’m gonna go back tuh my modder.”

“Stay hea,” she commanded, “We gonna play. Waid’ll Yussie comes back.”