The dull thud of footsteps on the stone stairs startled her. No one ever walked up to the reading area at this hour. Then she heard a familiar voice calling her name. “Judith? Are you here?” It was Harry. Had her mother been so hysterical that she sent him over to the library to find her? The thought of it nauseated her and she wanted to hide behind the bookcases. Instead, she sank back into her chair and covered her face with her hands.
“Are you okay?” Harry asked. He was watching her from the top of the steps. Judith moved her hands away from her face and stood up. “I’m leaving right now,” she barked. “It’s not even five o’clock! My mother knows I don’t get home until five-thirty on school days! I can’t believe she sent you here to get me!”
Harry stared. “Whoa. Calm down. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but your mom didn’t send me.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because my mom sent me. To give you these.” He held up two thick envelopes.
“What? Where did she get those?”
“The postman gave her all the mail today when she was outside with Natalie. She was leaving the letters for your parents outside your door when she saw these.” Harry smiled at her. He seemed sympathetic. “They were addressed to you. I guess my mom thought they might be important. Thought you might want to open them alone. She knew you’d be here, so she sent me.” He handed her the letters. She looked at the return addresses. Barnard and Bryn Mawr. Judith was dumbfounded. She hadn’t thought they would ever write back.
“Oh.” Judith sat back down.
“What’s Bryn Mawr? I haven’t heard of that one. I haven’t heard of a lot of them, I guess. I don’t even want to go to college. I’d rather just start working with my dad, but he says I have to get a degree first so I’m going to City College. Where’s Bryn Mawr, anyway?”
“What?” Judith’s mouth was dry and her heart was pounding. “Oh. It’s in Pennsylvania.”
Harry whistled. “Getting out of town, huh? I guess I can’t blame you. Hey, why are these places sending you stuff, anyway? You’re just a junior.”
“Well…” Judith hesitated. How much should she say? What should she tell him? She looked at the clock again: 5:05. She had to leave now, right this minute, or she’d risk another frenzied evening of accusations and weeping.
“Let’s walk home, okay? I have to get back by five-thirty.”
“How come?”
“If I’m not home by five-thirty my mother will start to worry.”
Harry shrugged. “Fine by me, but don’t you want to open your letters? My mom thought they were really important.”
Judith stuffed the envelopes in the bottom of her bag, under her science textbook. “Nope—just brochures. You know. Information in case I want to apply next year. Nothing that can’t wait.”
“Oh.” Harry looked disappointed, and Judith felt guilty for lying. She touched his shoulder and smiled at him. “Listen, Harry, thanks for coming all the way over here to give them to me. That was very thoughtful. I mean, it was really, really nice of you.” Harry grinned back at her with big blue eyes and offered to carry her book bag home. They walked down the steps together, and Judith finally understood why all the girls at her school were so crazy over him. He really was handsome, and she had to admit he could be charming sometimes, like today. It would have been nice if she could have opened the letters with him there, at the library. And it would have been comforting to have someone she trusted to tell her secret to. Maybe one day that would happen. Maybe one day she and Harry would be real friends, not just cousins. But for now, she didn’t have time to think about that. It was almost five-fifteen, and her mother was at home, waiting for her. Waiting and worrying.
Chapter 28
ABE
Abe whistled as he made his way up the steps to the apartment. Before he could reach for the knob, Helen opened the door from the inside. The look on her face was expectant, excited. How does she know already? But when she saw it was him, her smile faded. “I thought you were going to be Harry,” she said, “or maybe Judith.”
“Well, nice to see you too,” he teased, and Helen tried to explain. “I gave Harry some letters to take to Judith at the library and I thought they were back. Why are you home so early?”
“Who’s writing letters to Judith?”
Helen groaned, annoyed with having to explain. “Colleges, Abe! And she’s not even graduating this year. I’ve told you, she’s a brilliant girl. Mort underestimates her. Remember that poetry award—”
Abe didn’t want to get caught up in another anti-Mort tirade, so he cut Helen off. “Which colleges are the letters from?”
“There was one from Barnard and another from Bryn Mawr.”
“Where’s that?”
“Honestly, Abe! Katharine Hepburn graduated from Bryn Mawr.”
“Oh well, if Katharine Hepburn went there, it must really be something!”
Helen rolled her eyes at him. “Those letters could be important.”
“You said yourself, she’s not even graduating this year—the girl hasn’t even applied. They’re just brochures.”
“They’re not brochures.”
Abe held up his hands in defeat. “All right, fine. Not brochures. I’m going to go wash up.”
An hour later at the dinner table, Abe stood up and tapped his fork on his water glass. “Your attention, please,” he said. “I have a family announcement.” Helen put down her fork but the boys kept on eating. “What’s a ’nouncement?” Natalie whispered to George.
“I don’t like to talk business at the dinner table, but I think it’s important for my family to know that Box Brothers is having a very good year. Last week Bob Sherman’s client sent us a five-year contract to become his exclusive supplier, not just for cereal boxes but a lot of other products they’re creating.”
“That’s wonderful, Abe!” Helen was beaming. She started to clear some of the serving plates and made a stack in the sink.
“Sure is,” he agreed. “But now we need a bigger factory to make all the boxes, and a different kind of machinery.”
“Are you looking for a new factory?” Harry asked.
“Now you’re paying attention!” Abe was pleased. “Actually, we already found one. It’s perfect—big enough and not expensive.”
“Where is it?” Joe wanted to know.
“Out on Long Island, not too far from where your uncle Sol lives.”
“Oh,” said George. “Are you going to see Uncle Sol when you work there?”
“Well, as it turns out,” Abe wiped his mouth with his napkin and placed it on the table, “we’re all going to see more of Sol.”
Helen was shuttling back and forth between the table and the sink now, grabbing glasses and silverware, even though the boys were still eating. “Is he going to be working with you?”
“Sol and me?” Abe shook his head and chuckled. “You really think Sol would want to work at Box Brothers? Nah, we’re not going into business with him. We’re going to be neighbors!”
Helen stopped short, the last of the glasses still in her hand. “What did you say?”
“Neighbors!” Abe grinned. “We’re moving! We’re going to buy a house ten minutes from Sol.” Helen said nothing, so Abe went on, “I went looking with a realtor the other day and I asked her to show me some houses; I told her I only wanted to see ones with a big room by the front door. Whaddya call that thing again?” He turned to Helen. “Right where you walk in?”
“A foyer,” Helen whispered. She was still holding the glass. In a flash, she remembered the day she first met Rose, on the front steps of the two-family house, almost nineteen years earlier. Helen hadn’t been thrilled when Abe first told her they were going to share the house with Mort, but the brothers had purchased it together for a price they couldn’t pass up. She had been pregnant with Harry, and they needed more space.