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RECOLLECTIONS OF EILEEN ROTHSTEIN
A SHABBAT INTRUDER
The Rose family lived in a large house in Leeds, which had a kitchen in its basement. On a Friday night, young Esther would sit in this kitchen and read Conan Doyle murder mysteries by the light of the Shabbat candles.
One Friday, Esther had become so engrossed in her book that she had lost track of time. Presently, she was disturbed by a strange scratching sound. Checking the time, she realised it was much later than normal. The back door began to open from the outside and a dark figure began to appear! Instinctively, she screamed, and the entire family came hurtling down the stairs to investigate!!
The intruder was discovered to be none other than her elder brother, Mick! He had tampered with the slide bolt on the external door of the kitchen, enabling him to come and go as he pleased. He would slip out on a Friday night after Shabbat had come in, without anyone knowing where he was, and return some hours later, letting himself in from the outside with the use of a screwdriver or similar implement. However, this time, he had been caught red-handed!
Under the inevitable cross-examination, a mystery was solved. Elsie Rose, the eldest daughter of the family, used to prepare the fish for the entire family's Shabbat lunch on a Friday morning, and leave it covered overnight on the steps of the basement kitchen. However, no matter how much she tried, she could not make enough to feed the entire family, and could not understand why. It turned out that Mick had been pilfering some of the fish on returning from his illicit trips out!
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