Yossi's Goal by Ellen Schwartz Page B

Finally they came to an alley behind a row of little-used shops. There was a mound of lumber scraps and garbage in the middle, and the alley was narrower at one end than the other. But it sloped down at the center, and it was so pocked with potholes that it didn’t look as if anyone traveled that way. At the corner was a hand pump with a long metal arm.
    René grunted. “Here. Tomorrow morning. Bring pails and shovels and wheelbarrows, boys.”
    The next day, Yossi showed up with Abie, Benny, Louie and Milton. Together, the boys carted away armfuls and barrow-loads of scraps, garbage, rocks and debris. They filled buckets of water at the pump and emptied them into the trench. Slowly the water level rose.
    At first they grumbled as they worked. “
Sales Anglais
…Rotten thieves…” Then the French boys began to sing. “
Alouette, gentille alouette
…” in rhythm with the passing of the buckets. They taught the Jewish boys their song, and the Jewish boys taught them “My Rumania, My Rumania.” Neither group understood the words of the other’s song, but they parrotted the sounds and laughed at one another’s mistakes.

    The boys waited overnight for the water to freeze, then came back the next day, and the day after that, and did it again. Finally, after four days, the ice was level with the ground.
    The assembled boys stood and regarded their new rink. It was bumpy in places, gouged in others. It sloped toward the low side of the alley. It was wide at one end, narrow at the other.
    â€œBeautiful,
non
?” Michel said.
    â€œYeah,” the others chorused.
    Yossi didn’t chime in. As far as he was concerned, the new rink wasn’t nearly as good as the one they’d lost. And he knew that Max Steiner must have been behind it. He must have seen the rink the day he and the supervisor had chased Yossi anddecided then and there to take it away from the French boys.
    Well, he’d done it.
    But as Yossi’s friends slid happily on the new sheet of ice, the French boys on skates holding up the Jewish boys in boots, he made a silent vow. Somehow he’d pay Max Steiner back.

Chapter Ten
    Something was up. Something was definitely up. Daniel and Miriam were going out more frequently than ever, looking over their shoulders as they came and went. Yossi heard new phrases: “protest march…labor action…ultimatum.”
    One night Solly came over, accompanied by Abie’s father, Herman, and Josef, a stitcher who operated a machine a few rows over from Papa. The five of them— Daniel, Miriam, Solly, Herman and Josef—huddled around the kitchen table. Papa greeted everyone, then went into the bedroom, pointedly not joining in. As they started talking, Papa loudly rustled thepages of
Die Zeit
as if he were devouring every word. Even so, Yossi noticed that the rustling grew less and less frequent as the conversation—which was all about timing and whistles and doors—went on. Yossi couldn’t imagine what it was all about.
    Later, after the visitors left, Papa came out, arms folded across his chest, a worried look on his face. “Now what crazy plan are you hatching?”
    Miriam and Daniel exchanged a look. “A walkout, Papa,” Miriam said.
    â€œWhat!” Papa shouted. “Are you mad?”
    â€œPapa,
shaaah!
” Miriam hissed. “The neighbors’ll hear.”
    â€œWhat’s a walkout?” Yossi asked.
    â€œIt’s a disaster, that’s what,” Papa said. “An invitation to get arrested—”
    Ignoring him, Daniel turned to Yossi. “It means that the workers are going to walk out of the sweatshop—”
    â€œTo protest their working conditions—,” Miriam added.
    â€œAnd not go back until Steiner agrees to improve things.”
    â€œAnd not just at Steiner’s, at the other two sweatshops too.”
    â€œWalk out how?” Yossi asked.
    Daniel