Letters Across the Sea by Genevieve Graham (best short novels of all time txt) 📗

and lanky, not yet having grown into his muscles. Max thought he probably never would, judging from his father’s slight build, but he was a good-looking, genuine young man with a glint in his eyes. Max had always liked him.

“Sure, sure,” David said. “Business is good. As good as can be expected, anyway. Hey, is that your sister over there? She gets more beautiful every time I see her.”

Max lifted an eyebrow. “You’re no good for Hannah. She’s a smart girl. No time for a meshuggener.”

“Ah, you don’t know.” David winked. “Some girls like the crazy ones. Who’s the shiksa?”

“You remember Molly Ryan,” Arnie said. “She was in school with us.”

“Don’t tell me that’s Molly.”

The girls had spread out a blanket and were peeling off their summer dresses, leaving them in a pile and revealing their bathing suits beneath. As Molly leaned down to slip off her shoes, Max followed the long, smooth line of her legs in a sort of daze. When had she gone from being the adorable little girl next door to being a woman he’d admire in a magazine?

“Wow. She looks incredible,” David said, reading Max’s mind.

“Put your eyes back in your head,” Max told him, his grin a little forced as he swallowed a strange new sense of possessiveness. She’s here with me. He handed David the basket. “Here. You carry this.”

They headed toward the girls, and David plopped down by Hannah, proudly declaring that he’d brought lunch.

“In our basket.” Hannah laughed.

“Sure, sure. But it’s here, ain’t it?”

Arnie and Max joined the others and tossed their shirts onto the pile. The sun beamed down from a cloudless sky, and Max revelled in the simple heat baking his skin. Over by the girls, David was busy praising the virtues of lace-up, mid-heel Oxford shoes.

“I’m telling you. Come to the store. I have the softest leather in stock. I can make you a pair of shoes you’ll never want to take off.”

Hannah smiled politely, but Max could tell she didn’t realize David was doing his best to flirt with her. David hadn’t bloomed like the girls had, so she saw him as an old schoolmate, nothing more. That’s when Max noticed Molly discreetly nudge his sister then tilt her head slowly toward David. Hannah’s eyes widened and she shook her head ever so slightly, but Molly was nodding. Max watched their silent communication with fascination.

“What about you, Molly?” David asked, interrupting without knowing. “Such beautiful feet as yours deserve the best.”

“They might deserve it, but my pocketbook can’t afford it,” she told him, still grinning at Hannah. “Thank you anyway.”

“I’m sure we could make a deal.”

“No thanks. Eaton’s doesn’t exactly pay the kind of wages it would take to buy a brand-new pair of shoes, no matter what kind of deal you offered.”

Max knew she was working at Eaton’s. When Hannah had told the family over dinner, his father had frowned and declared that Eaton’s was a sweatshop compared to his own factory.

His mother had nodded. “That girl has been crossing the street to our house since she was born. We can’t let her rot in that place. She’s mishpocha.” Family.

“She can work for me,” Max’s father agreed.

He was always doing that, offering jobs to people who were down on their luck. Max wasn’t sure how long he could continue to do so, considering business these days. Then Hannah told them Molly couldn’t take the job. She said that Mr. Ryan was concerned about Molly’s safety.

“Safety?” his father echoed. “My factory is safer than Eaton’s.”

“I guess that’s up to her family to decide,” Hannah replied.

Max had been disappointed for Molly’s sake, knowing his father would have treated her well. She would have been much happier. He hated to think of her working in a place like that.

Molly glanced up as if sensing his gaze, and for a moment, he couldn’t look away. The sunlight caught her eyes, the shine of green and hazel made almost transparent by the light. His skin tingled with her attention, as if she had touched him.

“Max,” David said, breaking his trance. “I hear you’re gonna be in Toronto this fall.”

Max nodded and tried to listen, but his attention was still on Molly, who was talking to Hannah again, her slender fingers twisting her ponytail into a loose, shining coil at the back of her neck. The sharp, inquisitive girl he had always known had matured into a fascinating woman who shared his exasperation with the state of the world. But what held his thoughts were the differences the two of them faced within it.

seven MOLLY

Max was watching me with that earnest expression of his, and I smiled back, slightly embarrassed. I hoped he hadn’t overheard our conversation. David and Hannah had been talking about Brave New World, and I’d felt oddly out of touch. Usually Hannah and I had lively discussions about books, but lately I’d been reading more newspapers. It had started because I’d been scanning the pages for a job, but the headlines had caught my eye. There was a lot, I’d realized, that I didn’t know about the world.

“So what are you reading?” Hannah asked. I could tell she was disappointed I hadn’t read Brave New World yet.

“Well, did you know that one in five Canadians is dependent on relief? In the Prairies, farmers are at over sixty per cent. On top of the Depression, they’ve gone through years of drought, and the dry heat brought in a plague of grasshoppers, then hailstorms… Saskatchewan’s income has fallen by ninety per cent in two years.”

She looked at me like I had two heads. “That was not what I was expecting.”

I tilted my head toward Max, then whispered, “Do you think Max is going to marry one of the Beiser girls?”

“What?”

I grinned. “You said you didn’t want to talk about politics.”

She lay flat on her back and draped her arm over her eyes, against the sun. “Honestly, Molly, sometimes I don’t even know you.”

“Of