Rosa her store — she smathed icp herself — and moved to Miam. Te was mad thing to do. In Florida she became a dependent. Her niece in New York sent her money and she ved among the ldesy na dark hole, a sage room in a “hovel.” There was an ancient dressercop reffgerator and a one-burner sove. Over in a corner a round oak table brooded on ix henry pedestal, but i¢ was only for Grnking ea. Her meal she had elaewhere, in bed or standing at the Siok — sometimes toast with abit of sour cram an half mnie, oF 4 small can of peas heated in a Pyrex mug, Instead of maid service there was a durbuniter on a shricking pulley. On Tuesdays and Fe days swallowed her meager bags of garbage. Squads of dying Mes blackened the rope. The sheets on er bed were ust as bck — it was | fveblock wall wo the laundromat. The sueets were a furnace, the Sun an executioner Every day without fail blaze and blazed. 20 she sayed in her room and ate reo bites ofa har-boded egg in be, with awaiting Board on her knees she had lately taken to compsing Iter ‘She wrote sometimes in Polish and sometimes in English, but her niece had forgoten Polish; most of the time Rosa wrote to Stella in| [Eglich, Her English was crude. To her daughter Magda she wrote the moat excellent iterary Polish. She wrote on the brite sheets of abandoned stationery that inexplicably curned up nthe cabbyolesof| atbstered old desk in the lobby. Or she would askthe Cuban gil inthe ‘receptions cage fora plece of blank ling paper. Now and then she ‘would finda clean envelope in the lobby bin: she would meticulously Re LUBLIN, A MaDwouAN and 2 soxenger, ave Up crwrmta oztcn ° sty sip sams and Ly out Sat made ane whe square, he fesh fice of anew leer “The room was ered with these eters. twas and to get ther snaled the pot ofc was 4 Hock farther of ha the undo ‘mat and the hotel lobby sap machine bad been maked OUT OF SnD for years There was an vl tin of acne le open on he fink counter since yerteray. Already smled wortous She fe he tees in bell “Cold and beutiful Stl” abe wrote to her nice. “Where {pur myself ism bal. Once I though the worst was the ‘wos afi that roti could be the worst But now see eve er the wore ther’ ill more” Or abe wrote: Stl, my ange my dar fone 1 deel clink into you and es up your sul and you dont ven nowt” “To Maga she wrote: "You have grown toa Komen You ar tawny andyousuetch apart your furry toe nal hee power Whoever scab osaalaber own death” ‘Sella had eyes Uke a small gu’, ke a dos Round, noc bg but prey. bight skin underneath. ie pre skin above. tender eyebrows {ke rinbows and aes wh ay esbwoery She ad the ae of lle ride. You oul not bee fom lis Beauty thee dlls es these bere lp, these Baby's cheeks, ou could no elie in what ‘hamics containers the loodrcker comes. Someties Ross had cabal dears about Selle she was bing ter tongue, er ear. ber ght Band. such aft band with lump Srgers ech allended an oy aso many snp rc oder ngs but od fashioned jankshop ring. Stella ke everything fom Rosas junk shop everthing wed ol, ly with cher peoples xr To pay Stell, Ross called her Dear One, Lovely, Bes she called ber Angel she aed eral these thing forthe sake of peace, bat n reaity Sta was cold. She had no hea. Stels aleady neatly fy Jere, eb Angel of Death “The bd wa ack aback Stes wil Aer whe Ross had mo ‘oc, she ook a bundle of nundy in a shopping cart and waked to {he laundromat. Though twas only en in the moming, the um war luing- lod, why Borda’ Baus ere they were shel ke heel, steady fed fom the un. All the same she bad nothing in common ‘its them Ol ghoss, ol soc: eas. The Human Race was I they cared foe Reed workers they went to lure, they fe Guented the damp and shadowy ide branch ibrar. She tw themalkng with Toby under ther arms, with Dosoenaky They brew food mater. Whatever you wore they would fel Between thir Frges and gie + name to fale, conlroy, sheng, jee, OF sted velour crepe She heard hem peak of Bas, rosa the sea fon." the Teng Yelow they called mustard. What wes pink 10 ‘reryons ee to them was suse: orange was tanger: ed as Bot tomuta, They were fom the Bronx fom Brooklyn ow mcighbor: Jods, bum out bw were fom West Ed Ave. Once se met | former vegetable store ower fom Carus Avene: sore was ‘on Columbus Avenue ab residence aot fon West Seventh Set, ‘of Contra Par. Even inthe perpetal garden of i, he remi- ‘niced about his owery gren heads of romaine lice, hi owing sxranberbes heck socados Teacemed to Ros Luba tat the whole penis of Frid was ‘weighted dow th regret. Everyone had ef behing elie Here they had nothing They were all carerows, own about unde the rmotdenng snbal with empty nibages In the laundromat she sat on a eracked wooden bench and watch the ‘ound porthole ofthe washing machine. Inside, the sur of detergent ‘bubbles fothed and slapped her underwear agains the pane. ‘An old man sa crossleged beside her, fingering 2 newspaper: She Jooked over and saw that the headlines were all in Yiddish. In Fonda the men were of higher qualiy chan the women. They knew a ite ‘mote of the world, they read newspapers, tbey lived for incernational shir. Gverything that happened inthe lsaet Knesst they fllowed. Bur the women only recited meals they used to cookin ther old ives kage, pirogen, lakes, Bitz, herring slad. Mainly the women ‘houghe about their hai They went to hairesers and came out nto the brillant day wath plaike crows the color of tinnis. Seagreen pint oo thee eyelids. One could pty theme they were in love with rumor of thee grandchildren, Kate at ry Maver Jeff at Princeton. ‘Tothe grandchikren Florida was a slum, 19 Rosa it was a 200. ‘Se had no one but her cold icc in Queens, New York. “Imagine this the old man nex o her said “Jus look, Gt he has ‘Hider, dhen he as Siberia, e's ina carp in Siberia! Nex ting he gots sway to Sweden, then he comes to New York and he peddles He's peddle, by now he's got wife, e's gor kis, so he opens aide store just a ite store, hs wife sa sc woman, is what you calla bar wainxore—" ernrmia oztcK + itp wher’ Rose sad. “Abargain sore on Main Sect, 2 place in Weathester, no even the Brons. And they come in easly i the mornin, he dnt even hang out bis shopping bags ye, robbers, muggers, and they choke him, they finish him off. Prom Siberia he lives for thi dy" Rosa said nothing, “an innocent man alone in his store. Be glad you're not up there anymore. On the other hand, here sno parade neither Believe me, ‘when comes to muggers and strangers there's no utopia nowhere” “My machine's Hinished," Ros sad. "Thave ro putin the dryer” She knew about newspapers and their el reports: newspaper tem her self woway axes own tz. Rosa Lublin, 3, owner of a second hand furniture store on Uvea Avenue, Brooklyn, yesterday afternoon elbertely demolished... The New and the Pest A big photograph, Sella standing near with her mouth stretched and her sems Wd, In ‘the Times sx ines. “Ezeuse me, notice you speak with an accent” [Rosa flushed, “Twas bom somewhere else, not here” “Valo was born somewhere else. You're a refuge! Bern?” ‘bo from Warsaw! Nineteen twenty [lf Nineteen st I was bom, “Happy birthday” Rosa sid. She began to pul her things out ofthe washing machine. They were twisted into each other lke mixed-up makes. “Allow me” sid the old man He put down hie paperand helped her untangle. “Imagine this.” he said. “Two people ftom Warsaw meetin Miami, rida, In nnereenten I id dream of Miami, Florida” “My Warsaw isnt your Warsay" Rosa said. “Astong as your Miami, Florida, is my Miami, Florida” Two whole rows of gliing dencures smiled at her; be was proud to be a Hit “Together they shoved the snared load into the dryer. Rosa pot in tO ‘quires and the thundering hum began. They beard the big maps on the bet of her dres with the blue senps, the one that was torn in the armpit, under the lef sleeve, clanging against che caldron's metal sides. You read Yds” the ld man sid = “You can speak few words maybe” “No” My Warsaw fare your Warsaw, ur she remembered her grandmother's cradle coonings: her grandmother was from Minskndsa + Umer Reps wpe shee a Horsey tagele How Rosa's mother de spised those sun! When the drying oe ended, Ross noticed that the old man handed the clothes ike an expert She was asbamed for him to touch her underpants: ier Rous eu the's« deere Hd goat. Bathe knew bow to fins sleeve, wherever might be hiding “What ie" he aed, "you're bath Now “in Miami, Fonda, people are moce fiendly Wha.” he sai “youre sil foi? Nazis we ait got. even Ku Kluers we ain't got |Wha kind of person ae you, you'r sil aid?” “The kind of person.” Ross said. “is what you see. Thirtynine years gp Lwas someboy le” “Thiry-nine years ago 1 wasnt so bad enyself 1 lowe my soeth out ang cry he bagged “Tretingperet Pot wat a chemist almost A physics.” Ross said. “You think 1 wouldn't have bees ascent” The chlews who tok her ie All at fonce the landscape behind her eyes fll out of contra: aright eld Aashed shen a cerain shadowy corridor leading to the laboratory nop plies closer The loser opened inher dream aso. Retots and micro- scopes were ranged on the shelves. Once, walking there. she was Conscious of the couing of her own etary ~ her new brown shoes, laced and sober he white coat, her hai ct short in Bangs serious perso seventeen, bio, «Fare Matie Curie! One Of her teachers in the high school praised her for what he said was a “erary style” — ob, lost and Kidnapped Polish! —and now she wrote and spoke English as heplesaly at tis old immigrant. From Warsaw! Born ood She imagined what biter ancient alley, dense with als, cheap clothes strung om ourdoor racks, sigs in jargoned Yh. Any how they called her refugee. The Amencans cola tell her apare from this fellow with his false teeth and his dewlaps and his akzhell, reddish toupee bought God knows when or where — Delancey Steet, the lower Bat Side. A dandy. Wars! Whar dd be know? In school she had read Tawi: such delicacy. uch lines, such Felis. The \Warsiw of her gio: a great light: se switched con, she wanted rollive inside her eyes. The curve of the legs of her mothers bares. “The strc leather smell of he father's desk The white te tract of the Iuechen floor, the big pou breathing a narrow tower stair ext £9 crmmmia ozier 7 iat the atc... the house of er githood laden with a thousand books. Polish, German, French; her father’s Latin books; the shelf of sby Ierary periodicals her mothers poetry now and then wandered ‘ough, in shor lines Hike heated telegrams. Cultivation, old civilize ‘Tm devoted to nature. like the sound of a waterfall Wherever’ ‘cools plesnre to sand ead my paper” What a story ‘AML night, sol go to have avis with the ladies Tel me, you ike concert” “Tike my own room, ha’ ll~ "lady what wants to bea hermit” “got my own troubles,” How sid. “Unload on me” In the srect she pled esi him dumbly led animal. Her shoes ‘were not nice; dhe shoold ave pur on the other ones. The murlight wat smothering —-cooked honey damped on their heads: one lick Was ‘pod, 100 much could drown you. She was Jad to have someone 10 pullthe eae "You got internal warnings abou aking oa strange? If say my ‘mame, no more » ranger Son Pesky A third cous to Shimon eres the Ire polcian. Ihave diferent famous relatives, plenty of famaly pide. You ever heard of Becry Bacall, woo Humpirey Bogart