Henry Roth - Call It Sleep

“Iz zat so?”

“Mmm! Quiet as a mouse!”

“Well, ’at makes it different. D’ye like chawklit cake? W’at’s ’is name?”

“David. David — er— David himself.”

“D’ye like chawklit cake, I ast ye?”

“N-no,” fearfully.

“W-a-a-t?” He growled, his eyes narrowing incredulously. “Yuh — don’—like chawklit — cake? Owoo! We gotta keep ye hea den! Dere’s no two ways about it!” He uttered a series of terrifying hissing noises by pinching his air-puffed nostrils.

David cringed.

“He don’ like chawk—”

“Whisht!” The helmeted one kicked the other’s heel. “Sure he does! It’s nothin’ but a bit o’ shoiness that’s kaipin’ him from—”

“I wan’ my mama!” David had begun to whimper. “I wan’ my mama! Mama!”

“Arrh!” The helmeted one exploded. “Now look what yev started, ye divil of a flat-foot! Torturin’ ’im for nothin’ at all. Froitinin’ him out of his wits the way he’ll never know his own mother when he see’s ’er!”

“Who me?” Faint amusement puffed his lip out. “W’y I hardly looked at ’im cock-eyed. Wat’re yuh talkin’ about!”

“It’s yer ugly mug that does it! Go on with ye! None o’ yer guff!” He pushed the other man out of the room. “Don’t mind him me lad! He’s nothin but a harmless bull bellowin’ t’ hear himself bellow! God mend ’im! We’ll get ye yer mother an’ yer chawklit cake too! Never fear! Now you be quiet like a good lad!” He grinned, followed the other man out.

“Mama!” He moaned. “Mama! Mama!”

It was true! All that he feared was true. They would keep him there — Keep him there always! They would never call his mother! And now that he knew, it was too late. He had learned never to trust too late. He lowered his head and sobbed.

We-e-e-e-e-e!

From somewhere a whistle began blowing — a remote, thin blast that suddenly opened into a swooping screech and as suddenly died away.

Whistles? He raised his head. Factory whistles! The others? None! Too far! So far she was. So far away! — But she heard them — she heard the other whistles that he couldn’t hear. The whistles he heard in the summer time. She heard them now. Maybe she looked out of the window — now — this moment! Looked down into the street, up and down the street, searched, called. There he was — outside — on the curb. Be two Davids, be two! One here, one outside on the curb. Now watch! Wait till she looks out! Now watch! See? There she is behind the curtain. Yes, that thick lace curtain — only in the winter it was there. Now she parts them — two hands like that — stoops. See? Her face close to the pane. Cold. And, wrrrr! Up! Bet a shawl is on her. David! David! Come up! Why do you wait? Because! Why? She would have forgotten. That — that door, mama. Oh, she’d laugh. Silly one! Come up! I’ll wait! And then he’d stand on the stoop. One-two-three. Till she crossed the frontroom. One. Two. Three and the kitchen. And then go in. Mama? Yes, I’m here, she’d call down, Yes, come on! Run past the door. Bing! No. Not run if she’s there. Be there too quick. One step and one step. Two steps and two steps. Three steps and—

“Hurhmm!”

Chuckling the helmeted one butted through the mist of dreaming. “Is it the mounted pollies y’are with that leg up?”

David gaped at him without answering. About him vision tumbled into chaos.

“Or a fly-cop on his wheel?” He continued, manipulating imaginary handle-bars. “What were ye chasin’? One o’ thim noo Stootzes? But look what oiv got fer ye.” He uncurled beefy red paws — a square of brown chocolate cake in one and a red apple in the other. “How does that suit ye?”

He began crying again.

“Hey—! Arrrh, yer a quair one! Here I’ve gone an’ got ye chawklit cake — in a beer saloon of all the damn places — an’ gotten ye apples, and there y’are cryin’ all over the precinct! What’s the matter?”

“W-w-w’istles!” he wailed. “W-wistles!”

“Whistles?

“Yeaa-a-aow!”

“Is it a whistle yer after?” He made a motion toward his pocket.

“N-n-o-o-o! B-blowin’!”

“Me?”

“No-o-o! My — my mama! Ow!”

“Orrch! Fergit it. Here’s a foin bit o’ cake fer ye. C’mon! Take it! And the apple. That’s the way! Forst ye eat one and then the other! Anhann! And I’ll git ye a sup o’ wawther and ye’ll be as snug as — No!” He bawled.

David had dropped both the cake and the apple. A voice! A voice he never hoped to hear again. A voice! He stared at the doorway rigid with hope.

“Now look what yev—” He stopped, turned round.

A light tread hurried toward them. Out of the slow blur of a myriad meaningless faces, one condensed into all meaning.

“David! David!”

“Mama!” He screamed leaping toward her. “Mama! Mama! Mama!”

She caught him up in her arms, moaning, pressed his cheek against her cold one. “David, beloved! David!”

“Mama! Mama!” The screaming of her name was itself sheer, stark ecstasy, but all bliss was outplumbed in the clasping of her neck.

“Well yer safe now be the looks of it,” came the voice at his back.

Still pressing him to her, she carried him into the outer room where the bareheaded one leaned against the rail watching them.

“Hmm, I see he knows his mama.”

“T-tanks so — so viel!” she stammered.

“Oh, that’s all right, lady. Glad to have a visitor once in a while. It’s pretty quiet here.”

“And lady,” the helmeted one came up, “I’m thinkin’ ye’d best put a tag on him, fer he sure had us up a tree with his Pother an’ Body an’ Powther! Now ye spell it bee — ay—”

“T’anks so viel!” she repeated.

“Oh!” He smiled crookedly, nodded. “Yer acquainted with it.”

The other man rested the corner of a grin on his finger nail.

“Now oi’ll tell ye an odd thing, Lieutenant,” said the helmeted one. “He’s after plaguin’ me about a whistle. Now it’s an odd thing I tell ye — would make a man be thinkin’. He said to me, he said. I’m after hearin’ me own mother’s whistle. Now would ye believe it? And she still a good ways off!”

“Did he?” The bareheaded man snorted with amusement. “The only whistle I heard was the four-ten over at Chandler crossing, and that was about—”

“Er—” his mother began timidly. “Herr — Mister. Ve — er — ve go?”

“Oh certainly, lady! Just walk right out any time.” He opened his arms in a flowing gesture. “He’s all yours.”

“T-tanks.” She said gratefully and turned to go.

“Hey, hold on a minute!” The helmeted one pursued them. “Would ye be leavin’ us without yer cake?” He pried it into David’s hand. “And yer apple? No? Too much? Well, I’ll kaip it fer ye till ye drop around again. Good-bye! And don’t ye go runnin’ after telegraph poles!”

XIV

THE doorway out! Freedom! The cold air of the street. The sky tightening with dusk. And she, carrying him, her face close to his! Things he never hoped to see again, bliss he never hoped to feel! Deliverance too enormous even to grasp!

“How did you—?” She stopped. “Do you want me to carry you, darling?”

“No, I can walk, Mama! I can walk, Mama! Mama! Mama!” The magic in the word seemed inexhaustible, gave him new strength. He laughed at the sheer joy of the sound.

She set him down. And hand in hand they walked as rapidly as his pace permitted.

“We’re not very far,” she informed him, “though far enough for a weary child. Now tell me, how did you ever stray into that place? How did you get there?”

“Somebody was chasing me, Mama, and I ran and I ran and I ran.” Claws of sudden fear grazed him. “Is he still?”