Minsha's Night on Ellis Island

by Pam Berkman

  Minsha paced impatiently on the deck. Finally, the ship pulled into New York Harbor.

  Minsha’s heart sped up in her chest. The city ahead of her looked huge. The buildings were so tall they almost reached the sky. And there were so many of them she couldn’t see where they ended. It was as if giants lived there.

  She would have to hurry to find Leila. Such a big city would be full of people and Leila’s scent might be hard to find.

  The ship pulled into the dock. The first- and second-class passengers, who had more money, got off the ship and went straight to New York City. The third-class passengers like Yusef and his family would have to go through inspection.

  A sailor opened a gate. The passengers streamed off the ship and onto the dock. Minsha hurried behind Yusef, Teta, Mama, and the children. But when they followed the rest of the third-class passengers toward a smaller boat, Minsha stopped where she was on the dock. She let Yusef and his family get ahead of her.

  She watched as they were pushed and pulled along with the rest of the crowd up a ramp to the boat. Yusef held Soussou’s hand, and Soussou held Mansour’s. Mansour held Bibi’s hand. Bibi held Chadi’s. Teta held Chadi’s other hand. Mama carried their suitcases. They probably thought Minsha was right behind them. But she stayed on the dock and watched them until they were all safe onboard.

  Goodbye, she woofed softly to their backs. She started toward the city. It was time to find Leila.

  Then something caught her eye.

  Teta’s handkerchief. It lay on the dock. Teta must have dropped it when she was being pushed this way and that by the crowd. It was dancing in the wind, closer and closer to the water. Teta was already on the ferry. She must be so worried, Minsha thought.

  Minsha looked toward the towering city. Leila was there. But Yusef and Teta and their family had hidden Minsha and kept her safe on the journey. She couldn’t let Teta be sent back.

  I can get the handkerchief to Teta and then hop off and find Leila, she thought.

  She darted to the handkerchief. She caught it in her mouth just as it was about to blow into the harbor. Then she jumped onto the small boat.

  A man in uniform moved toward her. Minsha knew by now that people in uniform didn’t like dogs.

  She saw Mr. Khoury’s big carpetbag. It was open. She jumped inside.

  When the man in uniform passed by, she stuck her nose out of the bag. Oh no! she thought. The boat had pushed off. It was moving away from shore. Fast. She had missed her chance!

  She didn’t dare jump out. The man in uniform might still be nearby. She couldn’t see Teta or Yusef anywhere.

  A plump sparrow landed on the railing near her.

  “Hey! Hey, bird!” barked Minsha. She almost lost the handkerchief, but grabbed it up again before it fell. The bird turned one eye on her.

  “Dog?” the sparrow twittered. He hopped along the railing to get farther away from Minsha. “Big-eared dog!”

  “Where are we?” Minsha asked.

  “The Hudson River,” answered the sparrow. “This boat is the ferry from New York City. All the big ships tie up at the piers here. Then the people get onto these ferryboats. They come back again later.”

  The sparrow spread her wings and took flight.

  “But where are we going?” Minsha barked.

  The sparrow’s answer was a faint call on the wind. “Ellis Island!”

  5 Esmeralda Delilah the Third

  Minsha pushed her nose out of the carpetbag, then the rest of her head. She was in a big, dark room.

  There was no one else in the room, but all around her were bundles and bags and suitcases and trunks. Her nose twitched. It was as if every smell of every person who had been on the ship was crammed into this one room.

  She wriggled her front legs free of the bag and heaved herself out. For the first time in weeks, the floor wasn’t moving beneath her paws. She felt dizzy.

  Her stomach growled. Along with the smells of clothes and people, she smelled food. Cheese. She followed the scent to a lumpy bundle next to a big trunk.

  She had just begun to paw open the bundle when something landed on her back. She leaped straight up into the air. Sharp claws dug into her fur.

  “Get away from that!” squeaked a voice just behind Minsha’s ear. A large rat clung to her back. Its tail swished in anger. “That’s mine! Back away! And don’t try any of that rat-catching terrier business with me! I’ll chew your big ear off!”

  Minsha had to fight the impulse to throw the rat off and bite her. That was what she would have done at home. But this was such a strange new place. She had no idea how things worked here.

  “I’m sorry,” she woofed. “I didn’t know. I was just hungry.”

  The rat considered Minsha for a moment. Then she jumped to the floor. She landed with a soft plop.

  “No harm done,” the rat said. “No way for you to know. This is my section of the baggage room. Any food that gets left in here belongs to me.”

  The rat was using her tiny hands to open the bag. She tried to pull a big lump of cheese out of it. The cheese got stuck. Minsha batted at it with her paw and it fell onto the floor.

  The rat gave an impressed little squeak.

  “Thanks,” she said. She pushed a piece of cheese toward Minsha. Minsha gobbled it down. The rat peered up at her.

  “I’m Esmeralda Delilah the Third, at your service,” the rat said. “I’m named after my grandmother’s grandmother, who once stole an entire string of sausages from a butcher. What do they call you?”

  “Minsha,” Minsha said. “Where are we, exactly?”

  “We’re on Ellis Island,” the rat said. “Otherwise known as the Island of Hope and Tears. New York is across the water on one side. New Jersey is on the other side. You can get to either one from here.”

  Minsha was relieved to hear that.

  “Where do you want to go?” Esmeralda asked.

  “New York City. That’s where my family is,” Minsha answered. “But first I have to find some people here.” The sooner she returned Teta’s handkerchief, the sooner she could find Leila. “Where do people go when they first get off the ferry?”

  “The Registry Room,” Esmeralda said. “You go out that door there, turn left, and across the lobby. You’ll see a set of stairs. Head up those. Are those people your family too?”

  Minsha hadn’t thought about that. “Er… no.”

  “Then do it quick and get off the island,” Esmeralda said. “If any of the officials or inspectors here see you, they’ll lock you up in the pound. That’s a jail for animals. Does your family know you’re here?”

  “No,” Minsha said slowly.

  “Then you’d better be careful,” said Esmeralda. “If you end up in the pound, and your family doesn’t come for you, you’ll never get out again.”

  Minsha shivered.

  “Thanks!” she said. “Umm… how would you find a family in New York? If you didn’t know where to start.”

  “Where are your people from?” Esmeralda asked. “That might help.”

  Minsha thought hard for the human name for what she called home. “Syria,” she woofed.

  “That’s easy!” said Esmeralda. “You want Little Syria. That’s where almost everyone from there goes. It’s in Manhattan. On Washington Street, between Battery Park and Liberty Street.”

  Minsha liked Esmeralda. And the rat certainly knew a lot. She was glad she hadn’t bitten her.

  “How do I get there from here?” Minsha asked.

  Esmeralda licked cheese dust off her paws.

  “When you’re done in the Registry Room, you’ll see tall desks with men at them. Behind those are three doors. Behind those are three sets of stairs. Go down any one of them, turn left, and you’ll see a ferry. Get on that. It’ll take you to New York. But you’d better hurry—it’s late, and the ferries don’t run all night. When you get there, ask any mouse, rat, or pigeon where Washington Street is. Tell them Esmeralda sent you.”

  “They a
ll know you?” asked Minsha. She didn’t know that many animals back home!

  “Of course. They’re all family to me. You know how it is—family is everywhere.”

  Family is where Leila is, thought Minsha. She’d better hurry and get the handkerchief to Teta. And sneak onto that ferry.

  “Thank you,” she said to the rat. Minsha ran back to the bag for Teta’s handkerchief.

  “See you around,” said Esmeralda. She bit into a piece of cheese.

  Suddenly Esmeralda chittered, high and sharp. Her ears twitched back and forth. “Look out, terrier!”

  She scuttled between a suitcase and a bundle and disappeared.

  6 Cats

  Two cats strode into the room.

  Minsha snorted. She knew how to handle cats. She trotted toward them. She was careful to keep the embroidery in her jaws.

  “Out of my way,” she woofed.

  The cats didn’t move. That had never happened to Minsha before. The cats back home always got out of her way. Then there was a third cat in the room, and a fourth. The next thing she knew she was surrounded by them.

  “Meeeeeeeeeeowwwwwwwww,” a gray cat said. “What are you doing here, terrier?”

  “This is our island,” said a tabby. “Nothing gets done without our say-so. And we didn’t say a dog could be here.” He licked his lips. “We also catch all the rats.”

  Minsha looked to make sure Esmeralda was hidden. The rat was nowhere to be seen.

  A fluffy white cat unsheathed her claws. “Hey, what’s that pretty thing?” she sneered. She stretched her claws toward the cloth in Minsha’s mouth. Minsha ducked.

  “Leave that alone!” she barked. The handkerchief fell to the floor. She snatched it back up. She couldn’t snap at the cats without losing the handkerchief again. So she growled her fiercest growl.

  The fluffy cat jerked her head back. Then she pretended that she hadn’t. The tabby hissed and stepped toward Minsha. The other cats followed. They closed in on her.

  “What’s going on here?” came a meow from near the door.

  A large, sleek calico cat sat there. She was still except for a flick of her tail.

  The other cats froze.

  “It’s Henrietta Henry,” hissed the fluffy white cat.

  Minsha could smell that the other cats were afraid of Henrietta.

  “We found this dog, ma’am,” the tabby said.

  “And you didn’t come get me immediately?” Henrietta meowed. She stalked over to the other cats. “You know better than that, Tiger.”

  Tiger the tabby flinched.

  Henrietta looked Minsha over.

  “I am the personal cat of the commissioner of Ellis Island,” she said. “We have rules here, and I make sure those rules are followed. No one who is sick is allowed in. No one is allowed to steal. And no dogs are allowed.”

  “I was questioning the dog for you—” Tiger said. “And there’s a rat…”

  Henrietta Henry raised the tone of her meow. “I make sure the rules are followed,” she said. “I will question the dog.”

  No thanks! Minsha thought. The cats were so busy arguing, they’d stopped watching her. She jumped over the two cats nearest her and ran out the door toward the Registry Room.

  7 The Registry Room

  Minsha scurried up the staircase to the Registry Room. It was packed with people. She hoped no one would tromp on her paws.

  The stairs turned one sharp corner, and then another, and then one more. At the top of the stairs, women in dark skirts and men in blue uniforms watched people climb. They pointed to the people who had trouble walking up. They pulled them aside when they got to the top. Minsha made sure to stay hidden.

  Then she was in the biggest room she had ever seen.

  It was as wide and long as half a dozen barns from back home put together. More people in uniforms looked down from a balcony that ran around all four sides of it. Huge windows let in the last of the afternoon light. Two big pieces of cloth with stars and stripes on them hung from the ceiling. Far away, at the other end, were the tall desks with the inspectors standing behind them.

  People from the ship lined up while doctors examined them. The doctors looked in the people’s eyes and in their hair. They listened to their backs with strange gadgets made of a flat metal circle that was connected to two tubes that went into the doctors’ ears.

  The doctors sent most people on to talk to the inspectors. But they pulled some aside. They made marks with chalk on those people’s clothes. Then men in uniform led them away.

  Minsha crept forward past long, dark wooden benches that lined both sides of the huge room. There were so many people, she was afraid she’d never find Yusef and Teta. Then she heard a familiar voice.

  “Soussou! Stop climbing that!”

  It was Yusef!

  There! He was pulling Soussou off the back of one of the benches. Mansour and Chadi ran around him in circles. They were almost at the desks where the inspectors waited! Teta clasped her hands together tightly. Her mouth was a thin, worried line.

  Minsha dodged feet and bags and scrabbled under benches until she got to Yusef. She saw him look up at Teta. “Teta, I’m so, so sorry,” he said. “It’s all my fault! I was supposed to take care of you!”

  Teta shook her head. “No, Yusef,” she said. “I was the one who dropped the handkerchief.”

  They both looked so miserable.

  There was a gap between Yusef’s pants leg and his sock. Minsha pressed her cold nose against his bare skin.

  “Eeep!” Yusef said. He coughed. He looked around anxiously to see if anyone heard. It was so noisy no one seemed to. He looked down.

  His mouth opened in surprise. “Minsha!” he whispered. “We didn’t know where you’d gone!” When he knelt to talk to her, Minsha noticed that he had a tag pinned to his coat. A little round hole was punched through it. Everyone else had tags pinned on their clothes too. She’d seen dogs wearing tags but she’d never seen people wearing them. America must be a very strange place! She had better stay out of sight, she thought. What if someone pinned a tag right through her fur!

  Minsha held the handkerchief in her mouth up to Yusef.

  “Oh, Minsha!” Yusef said. “You found it!” He took the bit of cloth from her. “Teta, look!”

  Teta smiled in wonder. “I can’t believe it!” she said.

  Then it was their turn to be questioned by the inspectors. Teta walked up to the desk with Yusef’s mother. Minsha stayed low, waiting for the perfect time to slip away without being seen. Teta had her handkerchief. Now Minsha could go to New York and find Leila!

  The inspector spoke in a different language from Yusef’s family. It must be the English Mr. Khoury had talked about. Yusef’s family couldn’t understand it, but another man stood next to the inspector and translated what he said.

  Teta held out the handkerchief to the inspector.

  “That’s very nice,” he said to the interpreter. “Tell her she does beautiful work. Guess she can earn her keep all right.”

  Teta nodded and nodded as the interpreter spoke.

  The inspector asked Yusef’s mother, “Is your husband waiting for you?”

  “Yes,” answered Mama. She was holding Mansour’s hand on one side and Chadi’s on the other. “He has an apartment in Little Syria.”

  The inspector looked at a list in front of him. He asked her more questions.

  Then he said, “Do you have money with you? You have to show us that you have enough to get started in America.”

  Yusef’s mother opened one of her bags. Inside it was a packet wrapped in paper. She unwrapped it carefully. It had another kind of paper in it.

  The man nodded.

  “You can all go through,” the man said. “Welcome to America.”

  Yusef’s mother and Teta both smiled. They had made it!

  Minsha saw the three doors Esmeralda had told her about. She was about to run for them. Then she heard a man gasp, one desk over.

  It
was Mr. Khoury.

  “That’s not right!” she heard him say, like he couldn’t believe what was happening. He was standing in front of an inspector.

  And he was in trouble.

  8 Thieves

  Mr. Khoury was holding his big necklace made of coins. Minsha caught the glint of silver. He must have been showing that he had something to sell to get started in America.

  “You can give me that necklace, or I can send you back to where you came from,” the inspector said very quietly. None of the people around heard him. But Minsha could, with her sharp ears. “Hand it over, nice and low. Under this desk. Think of it as a fee for getting into America.”

  He can’t do that! Minsha thought. Mr. Khoury needs that necklace! But she knew that Mr. Khoury would do anything to be able stay in America. The inspector was stealing from someone who wouldn’t dare do anything about it!

  Mr. Khoury glared at the inspector. Unlike Yusef’s family, he could understand him without an interpreter.

  The inspector from the next desk stepped over. “Is this immigrant giving you trouble, Tom?” he said to the first inspector. Mr. Khoury held his coin necklace tight against his chest.

  “He might be, Mac,” Tom said. “We might need to send him back on the next ship.”

  Mr. Khoury gritted his teeth. But he held out the necklace to Tom. Tom looked around to make sure no one was watching. No one except Minsha!

  Tom took the necklace. Mac went back to his desk. It had all happened quicker than quick.

  Mr. Khoury went through to the staircases, shaking his head. Tears of rage filled his eyes.

  It was so unfair! Minsha couldn’t stop herself. She growled.

  Yusef heard her. He looked down and then followed her gaze. He locked eyes with Tom. It was the exact moment that Tom put the necklace into his jacket pocket.