The Predators Read Online Free Page B

work the counter, and you’re a smart boy, you’ll catch on fast. I’ll make you a manager before you get out of school.”
    “Okay, Uncle Harry,” I said. “How much do I get a week?”
    “You’re family.” Uncle Harry smiled. “I’ll start you at twelve dollars a week. That’s a lot more than I pay the Puerto Ricans that work for me. And I’ll give you a raise when you get more knowledge and experience.”
    “Is that the store where you have your office?” I asked. “Where my father used to check in his slips every evening?”
    Uncle Harry flushed. He didn’t like for other people to know that he was really a bookmaker. “Yes,” he answered.
    “Why couldn’t I just take over my dad’s job?” I asked. “I know how it all works and I’m a real genius when it comes to doing numbers in my head.”
    Aunt Lila gave me the answer sternly. “One, you’re too young. Two, you have to finish school, so you can’t start working at seven in the morning until three in the afternoon. Three, there are a lot of tough men in that work. Your parents wanted a better life for you.”
    I didn’t say anything for a moment. I looked at them. “I’m not ungrateful for all the help that you are giving me. But I feel I should be doing more to take care of myself.”
    “Grow up, Jerry,” my uncle said gently. “You still have time. First, you serve two cents plain before you make up the egg creams,” Uncle Harry said prophetically.
    “It’s not that bad,” said Kitty. “You will still be here in the same house where everybody knows you. Plus you don’t have to change schools. It’ll all be fine, Jerry.”
    I turned to her. She was sitting next to me. She nodded, smiling. Then I felt her hand hidden under the tablecloth slipping inside the buttons of my fly.
    I jumped up quickly. I didn’t need to come in front of all of them. I looked down at Kitty. “I’m going to wash the dishes.”
    She rose up and smiled again. “I’ll help you.”

5
    Sitting shivah for the week was impossible for me. I didn’t have time to mourn. Even Aunt Lila agreed that I couldn’t stay in my apartment for a week and not go out into public. I had to move into my new apartment.
    The studio apartment on the second floor had not been rented for a long time. It was unfurnished and everything needed to be painted, the walls, ceiling, trim, and windows. The ancient wooden floors had dried and splintered. Aunt Lila suggested that we cover the floor with the new linoleum that looked like real wood. She said it was easy to take care of and it was also not expensive. Mr. Benson said he would give me the paint for the apartment, but I would have to paint it myself. He said he couldn’t afford to pay two Schwartzes ten dollars to do the painting. Kitty volunteered to help me.
    Aunt Lila picked out pieces of furniture that I already had that might fit into my new room. It wasn’t easy because the studio room was only twenty by twenty-four and most of the furniture that my parents had was for bigger rooms. But it was Mr. Benson who finally helped me out. He said he knew an honest secondhand furniture dealer who would buy the extra furniture from the old apartment and would also give me a good price on a small Castro convertible sofa that I could turn into a bed at night. It had only been used for three months, but I could still get a good deal.
    Meanwhile Aunt Lila asked two ladies from the Hadassah to take out my parents’ clothing. When I asked Aunt Lila how much I would get for their clothes, she got very upset and said that the old clothing would be sent to the poor Jewish people in Europe and that it should be a mitzvah for me to give it to them. It didn’t make good sense to me because I wasn’t especially well-off myself. But I said it was fine anyway.
    Aunt Lila cleaned the small kitchenette. She scoured everything. She said before she started cleaning it was so dirty even pigs wouldn’t live there. But she finally was satisfied