Page 15

Two weeks before the three-month deadline, Anyu cleaned the showroom, locked the front door, and gathered all her sketches from the attic. Then she went to the kitchen, where the family was eating dinner.

They had a simple meal today, some cabbage and bread and crackers, and the aunts were lamenting the food money they had lost. They had kept the bills in their pockets, but when they arrived at the market, they couldn’t find them. How on earth had they lost them? They were bewildered.

Isaac was chewing a cracker with his mouth closed, listening to Esther, who was also bemoaning her money problems: the low sales and high expenses.

“The budget will be tight next month,” Uncle David said.

“Mr. Mandelburg?” Anyu asked, holding her sketches.

Isaac dabbed at the corner of his mouth. “Yes?”

Anyu said, “I don’t want to stand behind the counter, Mr. Mandelburg. I’d like to be a jeweler. I want to learn how to craft jewelry to help you with the shop. Will you train me?”

Everyone stared at her, Uncle David, Esther, and the aunts. Except Samuel, who yawned. He had the talent for releasing expertly formed yawns, loud and enduring, with deliberateness and powerful vocal capacity, filling the room with a spell of sleepiness that hovered in the air.

Isaac glanced at him and frowned. Samuel failed to notice, picked up a fork in slow motion, and stared as if it had become gold. He was twenty years old, four years older than Anyu, and he had grown a thick beard.

“Making jewelry is hard work, Anyu. It’s manual work, hard labor, a tedious, dirty job,” Isaac said.

“I don’t mind. I’m good at drawing. I’ve been learning how to draw like a jewelry designer. Do you want to see?” She held out her papers.

“I’m sure they’re fine drawings.”

But he didn’t look at them! “Here, here.” She placed the stack near his crackers.

“Young lady, we’re having dinner,” Uncle David said.

“You won’t regret it, Mr. Mandelburg,” Anyu said.

Isaac sighed, took a pair of glasses from his pocket, and held the drawings. His eyes grazed over the Siberian tiger pin, the platinum forest fox, and the red-crowned crane. “These images are unique and refreshing. You’re a talented artist, Anyu.”

“You like them?”

“You have potential.”

“I can be an excellent jewelry designer if you train me.”

He chuckled, shaking his head. “I forget how young you are, Anyu.”

“I’ll be seventeen in two months, Mr. Mandelburg.” She liked to see him laugh, and she wished he would laugh more often.

“Is this why you’ve been snooping around the workshop?” Esther asked.

Anyu opened her mouth.

“You are not allowed to enter the workshop,” Uncle David said.

“I didn’t enter it.”

“Did you take anything from the workshop?”

“What? No!” Anyu was alarmed. A woman’s reputation was like a porcelain vase: once cracked, it could never be fully repaired, Mother had said. “I didn’t take anything!”

Isaac gave back her stack. “I can’t train you, Anyu.”

“Why not?”

“You’re a girl. Women do not become jewelers in Russia,” Esther said.

She was not wrong. The idea of a female jeweler was unimaginable to many. But she insisted. “We’re in Shanghai.”

“Well, tell me. Do you know any female jewelers in Shanghai?” Esther asked.

“Are you saying there are no female jewelers in the world?”

“Well,” Isaac said. “Believe it or not, the jewelry industry has seen many fine female jewelers with astounding artistic talents. Esther might not know this, but Fabergé had two female master designers. One of them was the ingenious Alma Pihl, who designed the Mosaic Egg for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, an egg inspired by needlework. She had an incredible gift, and she made her name with frosty snowflakes in a platinum-silver setting decorated with rose-cut diamonds.”

“Still, jewelry making is not a woman’s craft,” Uncle David said.

“But Mr. Mandelburg said there were female jewelers,” Anyu said.

Uncle David cleared his throat. “There were female jewelers—no argument there—but I wish to remind you that we do not train outsiders. We are a family of jewelers; goldsmithing has been our family’s trade for centuries.”

Anyu blinked. She had not forgotten; she was only a helper hired by Isaac. “But—”

“We’re Jews. For hundreds of years, the sultans and emperors and tsars imposed brutal, restrictive policies to starve us, and many perished as a result.

Our family has survived because of our goldsmithing skills.

Isaac’s father and his grandfather were jewelers, and I’m also from a jeweler’s family.

I worked together with Isaac’s father since my sister married him.

We’ve relied on our skills to make a living since we were in Crimea, when it was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. This is our family’s trade.”

Anyu had not realized their jewelry-making background. “But I can help with your family’s business.”

Uncle David shook his head. “We do not work with outsiders. Our means of survival have to be passed down from father to son; it has remained so for generations. It stays in our family. I’m not blessed to have children, but Isaac has Samuel.”

Family legacy and the tradition of passing skills through sons. The Jews and the Chinese were very much alike, barring women from entering some professions. Anyu didn’t like it at all; she looked at Samuel. “But he’s not a jeweler, he’s a gambler.”

Silence fell in the room; Samuel’s fork dropped to the floor.

Isaac put down his cracker. “I’m sorry, what did you say, Anyu?”

He didn’t know.

“Is this true? Is this what you’ve been doing these days, Samuel? You had a stomachache and you needed to go see the doctor?”

Samuel turned his face away.

“Look at me, Samuel! When did this start?”

“What does it matter? What else can I do? I hate this. I hate my life!” He stormed off.

“Esther? You knew about this. Why didn’t you tell me?” Isaac’s voice was hoarse.

“Father, I wanted to tell you. I’ve tried—”

“Have you been giving him money?”

“No, Father.”

“Then where did he get the money?”

“I gave him a few cents ... but I won’t do it again. I promise.”

Isaac sagged in his seat; his shoulders dropped, his face slack. “My son, my only son.” Then he pushed away his chair and rose, his eyes filled with tears.

Anyu’s heart sank. She should have kept her mouth shut.

“You have two weeks,” Esther said. She stood and left with Uncle David and the aunts. The house descended into a still gloom.

How had she managed to thoroughly alienate the family who sheltered her? She had not meant to cause pain for them. For Isaac, especially. She should have been working on learning some sales skills, and now she already had a foot out the door. What had she done?

Alone, Anyu sat.