Forever Torn

PART TWO: THE PROMISE. C11: Harry (1/3)

PART TWO: THE PROMISE

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Harry

When the S.S. Baltannic arrived in England, the boys were first directed to what was called a Customs Room where they were extensively examined by a Doctor before they were allowed to disembark.

Having passed the medical examination they waited in their cabin a while and very soon the lady who had helped them throughout the voyage came into the room smiling broadly at them, to tell them their Grandfather was here to collect them.

At the sight of Smeras, Orcik too broke out into a huge smile and ran into his Zaida's arms allowing the old man to hug him tightly and kiss him. Solly followed on shyly for he hardly remembered this stranger with a huge white beard.

Another man had entered with Zaida – a tall red headed man who Orcik assumed was a Christian and maybe one of the sailors that he had never seen, but then Zaida introduced the man as their Uncle Joe, the husband of Aunt Janey. Uncle Joe was a friendly sort and soon made his nephews welcome, talking to them as Smeras had, in Yiddish and putting the boys at ease with his joking and convivial manner.

When they left the ship after the formalities had been taken care of, Orcik was delighted to see that they were heading for an automobile called a 'taxi' waiting a short walk away. It turned out that motor vehicles were far more numerous in London and Orcik decided he liked this fact very much.

The streets sped by rapidly so they didn't see much but what they did see brought more of a sense of awe to the boys as these streets were of a different type even to the ones they had seen in Kovna and the other large places they had passed through on their way to the boat.

Another treat was a second new and wonderful fruit which Uncle Joe gave them to eat in the car. This one was yellow and had a long funny shape but like the orange it had an outer skin to be peeled and was equally as delicious although different in texture, being mushy rather than juicy. It was called a 'banana.'

The boys were to pick up English words reasonably quickly in this manner over the next few days but it would be some time before they had mastered this new language although by the time school started in September they had at least a smattering of phrases, enough to get by if the conversation wasn't conducted in too fast a manner.

The taxi took them to their new home, a small flat above a grocery shop in number 25 Hunton Street in an area of the East End called Spitalfields.

Booba Frade came down and greeted them, weeping in joy before they were all invited to take tea with the shop owner Mrs Adelman, a lovely woman who took a shine to the boys. In months to come Mrs Adelman (who at the time lived with an unmarried forty year old daughter) would bag up broken biscuits from the huge boxes she used to buy and send them up for the boys. She also took Orcik under her wing, showing him a few months later on his first day of school, how to do up the knot of his tie

Their conversation was conducted in a mixture of Yiddish, Hebrew and Lithuanian.

That first week was spent visiting relatives, the first being Smeras and Frade's daughter their Aunt Janey in Rushmore Road (Clapton) and they got there by travelling on a big red bus which was yet another experience that thrilled the boys.

Aunt Janey and Uncle Joe had five daughters and it just so happened that the day of their arrival had also been the second eldest daughter Bessie's sixteenth birthday so her parents decided to wait a day and have a family party for her on the 16th so Orcik and Solly could come.

The oldest daughter Mary was nineteen and already married, the third daughter Rose a little older than Orcik at eleven and the youngest were the twins (unidentical) Sylvia and Bertha who were six going on seven and every one of them fell in love with and fussed around the little boys from Lithuania at first sight. Bessie and Rose in particular were fascinated with their cousins stubbly shaven hair and kept patting their heads which of course encouraged the littlest girls to do the same. Only Mary, dignified at nineteen held aloof from this activity but couldn't help hugging the boys on more than a few occasions.

For Orcik who had been deprived of this sort of cousinly affection since Lily had gone, it was wonderful and the bonds he made that day lasted throughout all of their lifetimes.

Smeras had other relatives who had ended up in London including three nieces that he took his grandchildren to see a few days after their visit with Uncle Joe, Aunt Janey and the girls. These nieces were Frayda Jaffe (whose husband was afflicted with fits), Cheyna Goldstein (who was sadly bedridden most of her life) and Shayna Levinson. Each was married with several children, some of whom met their cousins Orcik and Solly that day.

'Orcik?' Frayda had said on being introduced to the boys, 'What kind of name is Orcik, Uncle?'

Smeras had shrugged and told his niece that everyone called him Orca but Frayda was not impressed.

'Feh! What is an Orca? You can't call him that here. Call him Harry.'

So as simply as that Orcik Gilevic, whose surname had already been changed on entry to the United Kingdom due to the Lithuanian variation spelling on his paperwork, became Harry Gilvicious and a matter of days after this, all Smeras and Uncle Joe had to do was swear an affidavit and sign a few papers at a local police station and his new name was official.