FICTION

Little Things

Continued from preceding page

Remember the
11th Commandment:

"And Thou
Shalt be
Informed"

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You've read the
five books of
Moses. Isn't it
time to try the
Fifty-Two Issues
of the Detroit
Jewish News? It
may not be
holy, but it's
weekly! And
such a bargain.
To order your
own subscription
call 354-6060.

True to her word, she never
gave up the apartment, even
when her winters in Florida ran
into spring and then summer.
"Why should I come home?" she
would ask me on the telephone
from Miami on the Fourth of
July. "It's not even hot here."
However, to her newly-made
Floridian friends, "I have a
home up north, you know, and
I'll probably go for a visit next
month."
But next month never came
and the apartment became a
storehouse for possessions and
memories that my mother would
never give up.
And now I have returned to
the Bronx, considerably more
mellow and minus the hostilities
I carried with me when I left.
The job of giving up the apart-
ment is now mine. The furniture
dealer has been contacted, the
charitable organizations, always
happy for contributions, have
been called, and the realtor has
been notified that after 40
years, 4B is now for rent.
I drive around the block at
least six times looking for a
place to park. I am luckier than
my former boyfriend; someone
pulls an old Chevrolet out of a
spot not far from my mother's
building. I walk down the street
I used to roller-skate on and
notice the neighborhood is only
vaguely familiar; the kosher deli
is now a bodega, the candy store
where I'd quench my thirst on
egg creams is a bar.
I pass two little black girls
jumping rope as I enter the'
front entrance to the apartment
house and look around the once
elegantly furnished lobby. There
is an old stained sofa pushed off
to a corner. Its stuffing is falling
out. I walk into the mail room
where I once played hide-and-
seek. My mother's mailbox is
crammed full of junk mail ad-
dressed to Occupant and Tenant.
One envelope is addressed to
Our Friendly Neighbor. I
laugh. My mother was not a
friendly neighbor.
The names on the letter boxes
have changed. Levy and
Goldberg have been replaced by
Gomez and Hernadez. I open the
elevator door. The walls are
covered with obscenities, which
I didn't know until I was too old
to derive any satisfaction from
using them. I feel for the keys
in my pocket. There are four,
one for each lock on the door of
my mother's apartment.
The elevator stops at one. A
very old lady eyes me suspici-
ously, hesitates, and slowly
walks in. She looks vaguely
familiar. "Mrs. Waxman?" I ask
uncertainly.
"Yes, who is it?" she asks
nervously as though I had rung
her doorbell in the middle of the
night.
"I'm sure you don't remember,
but I used to live here." Moving
a little closer, she looks up at
me and a faint smile crosses her
wrinkled face.
"Of course, 4B, what a big

Roberta Graff is a writer in
Woodmere, NY.

38

Friday, July 4, 1986

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

beautiful girl you've become,"
she says appraising all 5 feet 2
inches of me.
"I can't believe you remember
me, after all these years," I re-
ply.
"Why, who could forget that
white carriage?"

❑

Senate Passes
Measure On
Israeli Embassy

Washington (JTA) — A
measure approved by the Senate
last week would prohibit the
construction of any new em-
bassy or consulate in Israel
unless it is within five miles of
the Knesset.
Introduced by Sen. Jesse
Helmes (R-NC), the amendment
was incorporated into a bill
authorizing $1.1 billion for
security improvements at U.S.
diplomatic facilities abroad
before the package was approved
by voice vote on the Sentate
floor.
If included in the final version
worked out with the House of
Representatives, it would effec-
tively force the Administration
either to change its policy on not
having an embassy in Jerusalem
or to refrain from leaving its cur-
rent embassy, which is said to
have some major security flaws.
The measure passed by the
Senate earmarks a requested
$83 million for construction of a
new Israel embassy and $41
million for a consulate only on
the condition that they are
located within five miles of the
Knesset, inside the 1967 boun-
daries.
The wording thus permits the
construction of a new embassy
or consulate in West Jerusalem,
where the Knesset is located,
but not in the eastern part of the
city which was captured in the
1967 war. There are currently
two diplomatic facilities in
Jerusalem — a consulate in the
western part and a cultural
center and visa office in the Old
City.
State Department spokesman
Charles Redman indirectly
criticized the measure approved
by the Senate. "Relocating an
embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem while the status of
Jerusalem remains unresolved
would undermine the role of the
United States as the principal
intermediary in the Arab-Israeli
conflict," Redman said.
In any case, the State Depart-
ment spokesman stressed, no
one in the Administration is "up
in arms" at this stage, as the
provision might well be omitted
from the final authorization
measure adopted when the two
houses of Congress reconcile the
packages they have approved.
The House version contains no
such condition on constructing
new facilities in Israel.