The Red Flag
Published in Issue #7 Translated from Yiddish by Helen Chava Mintz subscribe to unlock the full storyAbke the Chewer’s troubles began when he tried to do a good deed. He got himself into trouble and was thrown into prison. Not just for a summer, a winter, and then out, but for a good long time.
It was like this. One summer evening, when Abke the Chewer was walking down Daytshe Street, he happened on a guy hanging around the church. The gate to the German church was a regular meeting place for late night rendezvous. At first Abke didn’t pay much attention to the skinny suitor standing under the electric lanterns in a wrinkled jacket and worn out shoes. He figured the guy was probably waiting for a waitress from one of the nearby restaurants so he could take her to the little park on Troker Street.
Abke was on his way to Itske the Redhead’s tavern. They had managed to interest a gambler from other parts in an illegal game of poker and they needed a fourth hand to really sink their teeth into him. This definitely had to be Abke because Abke had expert hands — not for working of course, but for shuffling cards. He was famous for his shuffling — he always held onto two aces. But bad luck got in his way when the young man who was hanging around the church tried throwing a piece of cloth over the electric wires under Abke’s very nose. Abke had no doubt but that this had to be a red flag. What else would someone...
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