The Girl With the Glass Heart: A Novel Read Online Free PDF

a coin. There was no one else on the corner. The morning was quiet. “Let’s take a walk, hey,” he said.
    “Okay, Jerry.”
    They strolled slowly toward a near-by park. When they were almost there he slipped his arm around her waist. In the park the monuments and statues brooded all about them as they flopped down on the grass laughing at something Jerry had said.
    “Why’re you so nice now and so different other times?” Elly asked.
    “When am I different?”
    “Oh, you know, on the corner with the boys and that poor kid Eddie.”
    “Oh, that. I don’t know. You can’t be soft, you know. You’ve got to be able to take care of yourself.”
    “Am I soft?” she asked.
    “Yeah, you’re soft.” He laughed, poking her gently in the stomach.
    She pulled away quickly. “Don’t do that,” she said.
    “All right.” He leaned over and kissed her.
    She moved her lips under his as if she were speaking in her surprise. When it was over she said, “I have to go,” and got up, brushing at her skirt.
    “Don’t go.”
    “I have to.”
    Leaving the park, Elly observed the statues apparently observing her and thought it strange that their blank white eyes could not see her. She told this to Jerry, who grinned but did not seem to understand. Her cheeks were flushed from the kissing. Before they left the park she applied fresh lipstick.
    “By the way,” Jerry said, “Eddie Roth wanted to talk to you. He said for you to meet him here under the big statue at three o’clock today. How about it?”
    “Okay,” she said. “What about?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    She left Jerry at the door of his house and returned to the synagogue alone. She slipped in beside her mother, who wanted to know where she’d been. “Just outside,” she whispered.
    In front of the temple later the family gathered: Harry and Sarah, both the darkest members of the family, and looking, oddly enough, quite alike; Alec, skinny and singular, and Max and Rose, both heavy and authoritative in manner. Elly stood near Alec. She knew the tableau well. This arrangement was for funerals, holiday services, bar mitzvahs , the family standing around too neatly dressed to be really comfortable.
    “Come up to our place,” Sarah suggested.
    “No, come by us,” Max said. “Rose has whisky and spongecake already prepared.”
    There was a general murmur of agreement and they began walking. When they reached the house Elly started to run and called out, “I’ll be back soon.” Before anyone could object she was gone.
    Upstairs, coats were thrown on the beds and they all sat in the living room drinking and munching spongecake.
    “So, Alec,” Harry said, “I hear you might be in a movie in New York.”
    “Might be.”
    “You spend all this time trying to get into movies in Hollywood and now to New York?”
    “That’s what I said!” Rose exclaimed.
    “Well, that’s the way it goes,” Max said.
    “I don’t need any defense.” Alec rose and filled his glass. “You all know I’m in a tough field.”
    “Tough!” Harry exclaimed. “Impossible! Acting—my God! Why don’t you take a job with Max, Alec, or in my office? Mama would have liked for you to work with us.”
    “I’m worth as much to Max’s factory or your office in Hollywood or New York as I would be here and you know it. I’m not cut out for anything except my own field.”
    “All right,” Harry said, throwing up his hands, “all right.”
    “Have a piece of spongecake, Harry,” Max offered. “Rose baked it.”
    “I don’t know how she finds time to bake,” Sarah said as her husband accepted the cake, “with Max and Elly on her hands.”
    “You make time,” Rose replied. “Max is nothing. He’s never home. It’s Elly with the schoolwork and all that’s such a problem.”
    “She’ll be all right,” Alec said. “She’s a lovely girl.”
    “Oh, she’s lovely all right. Rose is only afraid she’s too lovely.”
    “Sure,” Rose said. “Where do