When Ben woke me up, the sun hadn’t fully come out yet. I got ready and we left the house. There was a little chill, and Ben had a bag. I asked him what was inside. 

He said there were sandwiches. And then he spoke about his horse. “Gart had a hard time sleeping last night, Berl.” He smiled. “He was worried about you. Did you have a good rest?”

I did not. And I looked at Donny’s lamps as we walked by them. One of them still had fire, but it was about to go out.

We passed by Egler’s Shop, and he saw me through the shoe display. He waved at me. But I continued walking. He got blocked by a boot.

Ben stopped. He looked down, and then he looked at me. “Mind if we stop by Egler’s to patch up one of my shoes?”

The store smelled of leather. And another smell I couldn’t figure out. There were pieces of shoes everywhere. “Welcome,” Egler said. He was holding a small shoe and a blade. He was shaving the sole of the shoe.

He put everything down and looked at Ben. 

“There’s a small disaster here,” said Ben.

Egler fixed his eyes on me. 

“This?”  Egler said while pointing at me.

Ben winked and said, “Yep, he’s on the loose again, you haven’t heard?” 

“The talk of town. Anyway, how can I help you?”

Ben gave him his shoe. Ben’s shoe was big, and it looked new. It was black with a blue shade. It was not as shiny as Totty’s or Principal Leib’s. 

Egler pulled out a large wooden container. There were small pieces of leather inside. He took out a scrap and compared it with the shoe’s color. The scrap didn’t have blue, it was only black. “Perfect, the right one,” Egler said.

No, not the right one at all. And Ben was nodding. Egler reached for a small bottle on the table. Glue. He was about to ruin Ben’s shoe.

“Egler?” I brought myself to say.

“Yes, little one.” 

“It’s not the right color.”

He paused and looked at the patch. At the shoe. Then he looked at me.

“I think I lost you.” 

He looked down, squeezed the bottle over the hole. He placed the patch over it, and slipped a metal shape that looked like a foot inside the shoe. Then he took out a hammer. I turned around. BANG. BANG.

When he was finished, I looked at the shoe. I wasn’t able to  find the patch. Maybe the patch got lost. Or maybe...he was right.

When we left the store, there was a waft of bread in the air. We saw Lae and his horse, pulling a carriage with baskets, and Yoss’s pony trailing behind with a cart of milk bottles clinking against each other. 

“Shame I didn’t show you Gart, maybe next time you come.” Ben said. I saw kids in my class on the next block, crossing the street. 

I spoke. “Maybe I can ride Gart to school.” Ben chuckled. “Gart is for long travel.” I didn’t want to see Gart.

We left the neighborhood. And there were the waters of the Mersey. I saw all the bright silver specs pulsing along the many little waves. The seagulls made noise as they nodded their heads, and the dock was crowded with ships. And red structures hung over them with pulley ropes dangling under.

 The last time I came here was when uncle Dovid’s family went to America. Yes. I can still see them there. The place I realized I wouldn’t see Yoich, Memi, and Yodel. We went to the dock, and it had ropes woven together on the sides, and it bobbed with the water.

Yoich had a big glass marble collection. He even gave me one. Inside the marble was a flame that was pink and blue. I always wondered how it got trapped inside. The flame was made out of… steel. No, not steel —  “Steel buildings,” Ben pointed. “Do you see the big building right over there?”

There was black pouring out of the building. So many chimneys. “That’s where we are going, Berl.” The roof was black, the walls were black. And the building stretched as far as my eye could see.