“I’m proud…but how much does she need to know to be a good wife? She already knows ten times as much Torah as me and I’ve been studying Torah all my life.” He shook his head. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been sitting with the Rabbi discussing a Torah portion and I relate an idea He looks at me with that knowing smile and says, ‘A brilliant thought, Ismael.’ But I can see it in his eyes. He thinks it came from Sophie.”
“If we’d been discussing a son, you’d be walking around bragging about him.”
“Please Eva, help me. You know I’ve already talked to Yaakov the butcher. He thinks it’s a good match as well.”
Eva turned to her daughter and pleaded. “Please Sophie, listen to us. We only want the best for you and Matis is a nice boy!”
“Fortunately for the people in this town,” Sophie said in a voice dripping with sarcasm, “Matis is smart enough to know which end of a steer to butcher but he wouldn’t know the difference between Rabbi Akiva and the Pharaoh of Egypt if they stood in front of him. I want better than that for myself.”
Ismael put one hand on his hip and wagged a finger in her face. “Parents have been arranging good marriages for their children for centuries and we are doing the same for you.”
“Rabbi Akiva’s father-in-law,” Sophie said with a smirk, “wouldn’t allow him to marry his daughter until Rabbi Akiva became an educated man. Go tell Matis the same thing!”
“How dare you talk to me like that!” A slap echoed across the room.
Sophie put a hand to her cheek and the other in front of her face thinking she’d have to ward off a second blow.
Her father turned to his wife and threw up his hands. “Now she wants Rabbi Akiva? Your daughter is crazy.” He slowly turned toward Sophie with fury in his eyes and threatened her, shaking a fist in her face. “You do as I say or else.”
“Sophie,” Eva said, “we’ll talk about this later. I need you to deliver a cake and two dozen bagels to the Warshawsky family. They’re having a Simcha (blessed event) tonight. Put their order together and go.”
* * *
Sophie walked along Puget Sound on the way to the delivery. It was a pleasant day with puffy clouds scattered in the deep blue sky. She stopped for a moment to admire the view of the Olympic Mountains. Is it because I’m plain looking? She peered at the sky and, with a heavy heart, pleaded with God. She thought, “All my life, I’ve prayed for an intelligent man to spend my life with.”
The eighteen-year-old took in a deep breath of the cool late fall air and shook her head. Tears formed while she contemplated spending the rest of her life with someone she didn’t love and who could barely discuss the ideas that mattered to her.
A thin man, about her age and height, with sand-colored hair, penetrating blue eyes, and a warm smile was walking past her when he stopped, eyed her slim figure, and said, “Careful miss, you need to stop crying or you’ll get tears on the items you’re carrying.”
“I’m not crying. I have something in my eye.”
“It must be a big something to affect both eye’s at the same time. I have a clean handkerchief. Let me take a look and maybe I can help you.”
“I don’t need help and besides I don’t talk to strange men.”
He nodded. “Certainly! I understand; always a good idea. You shouldn’t talk to me. Instead, just listen and I’ll talk about a broad, fast moving, and powerful river. The Columbia River starts in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and in Eastern Washington it is joined by a mighty river called the Snake. I hear the Snake River starts from three tiny headstreams in Wyoming, and courses its way through southern Idaho.”
Sophie eyed him suspiciously.
“The river’s name changes to the Columbia and finally passes Portland on its way to the sea. Both rivers start as melted snow from tall steep sided mountains. Can you imagine how many billions upon billions of snowflakes would be needed to fill a huge river like this?”
“And how do you happen to know all this?”
“I learned stories from a French trapper who told me about the mountains where the river starts. He canoed down the Snake River and into a valley east of a broad range of mountains which are known as the Grand Tetons. He said you could hear a popping sound in the shallow water. Small birds could be seen which nested in the banks of the river plus white pelicans flew overhead.”
Sophie warmed to his descriptions and the enthusiasm in his voice. She was further entranced by the sparkle in his eyes.
“North of there, the trapper saw a place where hot-bubbling-mud came out of the ground, as well as blue ponds of hot water. They remained hot all year long, and were rimmed by gold-colored-rock where the hot water spilled over the edge of the ponds.”
“That sounds far-fetched.”
“He also told me of a place near there where a column of steaming water would shoot high in the sky every hour.”
“If a place like that existed, I’d love to see it.”
“Maybe I’ll take you one day.”
“I doubt that,” she said, laughing. Sophie found it difficult to look away from his ebullient expression. That and the way he smiled at her when he talked made her heart beat faster.
He added, “I find the natural world endlessly fascinating.”
A sharp cry, almost a scream, grabbed their attention. It came from a bird circling high above them.
“A bald eagle,” Sophie said. “I love their distinctive white heads and unique call. They glide so gracefully in large circles then dive down to the water to grasp a fish.”
“So you love the natural world as well,” he said.
“The Torah teaches us to appreciate the Lord’s creation.”
“The Torah?” the man said with a questioning expression.
“You wouldn’t know about that,” Sophie said.
“Look!” he exclaimed.
They watched an Osprey fly low over the water, reach into the dark surface of the Sound, and trap a salmon in its talons. As it flew up to tree height, the bald eagle dived on it, causing the Osprey to panic and lose its grip on its prize. Before the salmon fell to the water the eagle swooped down and retrieved the Osprey’s catch.
“A fish thief on our Sound! How scandalous!” he yelled, putting one hand on his hip while shaking a fist at the eagle and displaying mock anger.
When Sophie finished laughing, she said, “I need to complete my delivery.”
“Thank you for spending time with me,” he said with a huge smile. “I’m going to be here next Sunday morning about seven o’clock to go for a buckboard ride along the north edge of the Sound if you’d like to join me. We’d see many more birds and I saw quite a few deer up there a few weeks ago.”
“That’s impossible. A woman doesn’t go for rides with strange men.”
“Certainly! I understand. Always a good idea…But if you were willing to break your rule about talking to strangers, I was thinking maybe you’d break the rule about not going for rides with strangers.”
“And why would I do that?”
“So we can continue to share our enjoyment of nature. Personally, I think sharing this kind of beauty is good for the soul. Thank you for that.”
She replied slowly, “You’re welcome. I’ve enjoyed…our…sharing.” Sophie sighed. “No, I can’t come with you.” She shook her head. “It’s impossible. My parents would never allow it. Good day, Sir.”
* * *
“What took you so long?” Ishmael asked.
“I…I walked along the Sound.”
“Alone?”
“I met a friend.”
“Who?”
“I’m eighteen. I don’t need my parents keeping track of my friends.”
He slapped her, snapping her head sideways. “You’ll do exactly as I say or I’ll throw you out.” She put a hand up to her cheek and turned away. He punched her in the lower back. “The floor of the bakery needs scrubbing. Get busy.”
Chapter Thirty-Two: Nathan Aaron
All wee
k long, Sophie couldn’t get the stranger out of her mind. She smiled each time she reviewed their brief encounter.
“I would look forward to doing that again,” she whispered as she sliced and boxed an apple strudel.
“You’re talking to someone?” her mother inquired.
“Just myself.”
Her memory kept replaying his bright expression, their shared enjoyment of the natural world, and particularly, their shared laughter. At one point she tried to imagine what it would be like to have his arms around her but quickly pushed the idea from her mind. Sophie thought, “Impossible relationship. He’s not even Jewish… but he warms me when I think of him.”
* * *
Sophie awoke at daybreak the following Sunday. The slim man was waiting for her standing next to a freshly washed buckboard which was hitched to a fine looking chestnut horse.
“Good morning,” he said with the same warm smile below the sparkling eyes she remembered so vividly. “We’ve been blessed with a clear sky and comfortable temperatures.”
“If we’re going to ride together perhaps you should tell me your name.”
He hesitated then said, “Nathan Aaron.”
“I’m Sophie Gershom.”
He held out his hand to assist her as she climbed on the buckboard.
“Have you eaten breakfast yet?” Sophie asked as the chestnut began a gentle trot.
“Only ate a piece of bread as I was busy getting the buckboard ready.”
“I have a few things,” she said. “Why don’t we travel for an hour or so and then find a shady place to stop.”
They passed a grove of white barked trees. Sophie sighed at the beauty surrounding them. She glanced skyward and viewed seagulls wheeling overhead and calling to each other.
“Sophie asked, “What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a helper at a warehouse.”
She laughed. “You’ll never earn enough money to support a family doing that.”
He smiled. “You’re probably right.”
They stopped at a grass covered area surrounded by wildflowers at the edge of a cliff above the Sound. Nathan secured the horse and watered him while Sophie gathered firewood. Across the water, gentle foothills could be seen that lead into the snow-covered peaks of the Olympic Mountain Range.
Nathan opened a blanket. Sophie unpacked her basket, and put out poppy-seed bialys with sweet onion-garlic spread, tea, and a cherry tart.
“Everything was delicious,” Nathan said as he helped her repack her picnic basket. “I have an activity for us,” he said with an impish grin. “I have play-books for Macbeth. Let’s act out the scene from Macbeth where she goes mad.”
Sophie began reading without any emotion.
“No, No, No,” he said. “Lady Macbeth is going mad. Twist your face into a mad person’s expression like this.” He looked at her with one eyebrow raised and the other lowered while twisting his lips and flaring his nostrils. He began reading the lines, alternating between normalcy and madness.
Sophie laughed hysterically. “Nathan stop. I have the idea. Let me try.”
She leaned forward from her waist and rubbed her hands. “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?”— Sophie changed her expression to one of fear and she cowered. “Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.”
Nathan, a blank expression on his face, stood without moving.
“How was that?” she asked.
He grinned then shouted, “That was marvelous. You nailed Lady Macbeth! Fantastic!”
Sophie beamed.
In their excitement they embraced.
Sophie moaned.
“Are you alright?” Nathan said.
“My ribs are sore.”
He dropped his arms. “What happened?”
“I…fell against a table yesterday.”
Nathan suggested, “Let’s continue, but seated on the blanket.”
“Yes, but please lean against me while we continue our reading.”
Back to back, they continued their dramatic readings of Macbeth.
Sophie took a deep breath. “A few friends and I are gathering for a meal where the water from Union Bay enters the Sound, just before sunset this Thursday. Would you like to join us?”
“I’ll have to talk to my boss to see if I can get the time off but I’ll see what I can do.”
They gathered their belongings and headed back to town.
“I enjoyed spending time with you,” she said, as their horse trotted on the trail next to the Columbia River.
“I as well,” he said giving Sophie a warm smile.
She stared at the sound for a while as they began their ride back to town.
“I love the view of the Olympic Mountains,” she said. “Each peak is beautiful but the combination of peaks is so majestic compared to any peak on its own.”
Sophie smiled and took in the mountain’s majesty like a thirsty man drinking water.
Nathan said, “That’s how families can be when two people get together; if it’s the right two people, of course. They become more than the sum of two people. The combination of their thoughts, emotions, and ideas come together to build a strong home where children can be nurtured and educated in a safe and loving environment. My parents demonstrated that as we grew.”
Sophie’s smile broadened and she leaned against his shoulder. “Nathan Aaron you think like I do. You see much of life like I do.” She straightened, her expression saddened. Sophie folded her arms across her chest. “It’s not fair.”
“What’s not fair?”
“I’m promised to someone. It’s like a contract which my parents made for me. I can’t get out of it so I really shouldn’t see you again. I’m being a terrible person by spending time with you.”
He was quiet for a moment. “Sophie, do you want to see me again?”
She twisted on the seat of the buckboard and stared at her lap. “Yes.”
“Do you still want me to meet with you and your friends on Thursday? If not, we can meet on Sunday morning again.”
“I’ll see you Thursday. I…I shouldn’t say this but I’m drawn to you like rivers are drawn to the ocean.”
“Thank you. A beautiful metaphor.”
Without looking at him she continued, “Since the day we met I rarely have a thought that doesn’t include you.”
Nathan stopped the horse and put his arms around her.
She pushed him away. “NO! We can’t do this. It’s wrong.”
He held up his hands and leaned away from her. “I’m sorry.”
Sophie stared at the water for a few seconds then turned back to him and threw her arms around him as tight as she could. He slowly put his arms around her. He slid one of his hands up to the back of her neck and began caressing it.
“This is nice…I wish you were…”
“Wish I was what?” he asked.
“Nothing. It’s something selfish.”
“So next Thursday?”
“Yes,” she said.
“I still have to get permission to take time off from my job.”
“I understand,” she said. They ended their embrace and continued the ride back to town.
* * *
When she arrived home, Sophie’s parents were waiting in the parlor for her.
Ismael inquired, “Where did you go and who were you with?”
“A friend.”
“Who?”
“A friend. That’s all.”
The sound of a slap echoed across the room. Sophie saw stars and put a hand out to steady herself.
“This will not happen again. You will inform your mother or me before you leave the house. Is that clear?”
“I’m meeting friends from synagogue near the river this Thursday.”
Her father inquired, “Will Matis be there?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. You can go. Sneak out again and I’ll throw you in the street…after I knock the hell out of you.”
* * *
Late Thursday afternoon, Sophie and her girlfriends arrived at the edge of the wide shallow river which connected Union Bay with Puget Sound. They and a few of the boys were the first to arrive. She’d known most of the group since her family arrived in Seattle three years earlier and became part of the Jewish community. She considered them extended family. While they laid out blankets, Sophie kept glancing towards town.
A young man arrived carrying a fish net. The others didn’t know him, but Sophie’s expression brightened as soon as she saw him. She walked around with Nathan introducing him to the group.
“Look at Sophie.” Rose Goodman leaned towards her longtime neighbor Lazar Katz. “She invited a stranger. That was a lot of nerve, her being promised to Matis.”
“He looks familiar but what in the world is she thinking inviting a stranger?” he said.
By stranger, they meant someone who was non-Jewish.
* * *
Nathan showed Sophie the net he intended to use for fishing.
“The wife of a trapper showed me how to use this. C’mon, let’s try it.”
He walked to the stream’s edge, removed his shoes, rolled his pants above his knees, and waded into the stream.
To her friends’ horror, Sophie removed her shoes, pulled off her stockings, tucked her skirt up above her knees, and followed the stranger into the water. She stumbled and screamed. He steadied her with one arm around her waist. The both laughed.
She tried to net a fish tail first.
“Not like that,” Nathan said. “Scoop from the head end. You touch their tail and they dart away.”
When she finally caught one, they embraced in celebration. The others looked on in horror.
Laser whispered to Rose, “A public display of affection is entirely unacceptable behavior.”
The Pioneer: A Journey to the Pacific Page 18
