Yoske

Part of the first chapter of my fourth nevel: "Summer tempest".

Summer tempest

Chapter one

 

Yoseph Solan or ‘Yoske’ as he was known to his friends and acquaintances, since his days in the ‘Working Youth movement' was sprawled on an armchair opposite the TV set in his living room; watching the newsreel, in a tee-shirt and shorts. 

Nehama his wife was still at their pastry shop in Alenby Street at that time. She must have released their two waitresses, and she’s closing down their business or is about to close it no doubt �" thus he expected her to join him in at their apartment in about fifteen minutes more or less.

This certain arrangement in which he opens up in the morning and she closes down in the evening was put into effect just recently, after one of their employees dared to complain to his wife that he Yoske harasses her.

What have I done to her after all? He thought embittered, trying to visuelize in his mind’s eye how she must have rushed to his wife with tears running down her cheeks.

Yeah, what have I done to her for God sake?!?

He complimented her several times referring to her zealousness and to her good looks although she was not particularly pretty or attractive; but she was some twenty years younger than him. While he watches his wrinkled face in the mirror every morning, and knows to appreciate well enough the advantages of a young woman; a woman that has not reached yet forty years of life, and her skin is well stretched over her limbs; and her smile does not distort her face into infinite tiny furrows.

The tone of her voice has enchanted me, that’s it. That was the secret of her charm, since she was accepted to work at our pastry shop some twelve months earlier. It’s simply incredible how time flies by…He thought with wonder.

Nehama his wife interviewed her and decided to accept her, while he hardly took any particular notice of her. She was one more hand as far as he was concerned. She has a nice slim figure and she is not bad looking at all, and that slim and lovely figure of hers was what impressed him.

Nehama was the one to interview her and not him, and she decided without consulting him to accept her as one of their workers.

They had two more waitresses, who emigrated from Russia a few years earlier, Inna and Svetlana. Both of them were about his own age, mothers to grown up children, and they did not rouse any particular interest in them as far as he was concerned; thus he treated them in the same manner his wife treated them.

While this young woman Smadar is her name is single, born in Israel like him and his wife, about thirty five years of age. She is quite witty; an intelligent young woman for truth sake; and that might have been the ‘fault’ that deterred her admirers, her wisdom.

“Our asset” that is how Nehama called her after the very first week, in which Smadar was employed in their pastry shop. That is how Nehama defined her to him rather proudly, when they returned home on Friday evening that summed up Smadar’s first week in their pastry shop. Her presence improved considerably their income.

Smadar's relatively young age didn't urge Nehama to behave as she usually behaved in such cases'; for she used to reject young candidates, particularly when a good looking one appealed for a job in their pastry shop �" Nehama used to reject them with a short negative sentence.

Alenby street where their pastry shop was located lost its priority at the late fifties already; Iben Gvirol street inherited Disengof, and now the curse called shopping malls were cutting down the income of veteran business men like themselves.

Thus despite the rather few customers they used to have, those few that worked in their neighborhood. After years of ups and downs, a significant improvement took place, an improvement that allowed them to hire a baker, and Yoske was free to administer the business in all its possible aspects, including the dedication of much more time to implore Smadar's advantages.

© Haim Kadman 2007 �" all rights reserved.