Read Online Ashes by Kathryn Lasky - Free Book Online

a lie-I found that out.
    -Mark Twain,
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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    B y now it was late afternoon and we were ready. Our bags were downstairs, including half a dozen boxes of books—mostly Papa’s, but some were mine—and at least two boxes of Mama’s music. There was a hamper of food so we wouldn’t have to go out and buy anything for our first night’s dinner. I was just planning a third good-bye call to Rosa when Papa came up and said he needed to call the office at the Institute again. The car that was supposed to pick us up had still not arrived despite Ulla’s earlier call, when the person she spoke with said it would be right over. It wasn’t a long drive to Caputh—an hour in light traffic. Hertha had already left on the train that morning to prepare the house.
    Papa dialed the phone number and was speaking to someone from the Institute. He nodded into the receiver while Mama stood by listening, trying to make out the entire conversation from his end.
    â€œYes. Problems you say? Did the car break down, Frau Hagen? Not that you know of, eh.” He turned to Mama, shrugged his shoulders, and opened his eyes wide as if confounded. “Well, can you connect me with Professor Haber, kindly.” There was a long pause and Papa grimaced. I noticed a ruddiness flush his cheeks. “Not available, you say,” he snapped. Mama sighed. “All right. Thank you for your efforts. Good-bye.” He slammed down the phone.
    I could tell that Papa was really upset. I couldn’t help but wonder if the car not coming was something to do with “Jewish physics.”
    Just the two words “Jewish physics” seemed crazy enough. Now, after Papa’s talk with Uncle Hessie, there were two more words: “white Jew.” I didn’t quite understand these terms. Papa was a gentile scientist and member of the Institute, but it seemed as if there were just as many Jewish members as gentiles—Einstein, Max Born, Lise Meitner, Fritz Haber. And yet it wasn’t as if Papa looked at gentile stars and Einstein looked at Jewish stars. Stars were just stars. And Lise Meitner studied isotopes. Were there Jewish isotopes that she studied and gentile ones that Max Planck studied? I knew there were scientists at the Institute that Papa said might look at things this way. Philipp Lenard was one, I think. I had heard Papa say that Lennard was very critical of Einstein’s approach to relativity, which he claimed “offended common sense.”
    In the end, the car from the institute never came, but good old Uncle Hessie sent his own Mercedes Benz and his chauffeur, Marcel. Hessie followed in his super sport touring car, the SSK Count Trossi model. Since he was helping transport us to Caputh, he would stay a few days with us at the lake. He came often throughout the summer.
    We said good-bye to Ulla, who promised to call every other day. It all felt a little odd to me. This would be my first summer ever at Caputh without Ulla. We shared a bedroom at the lake cottage, and she joked that I could have it all to myself and keep it as messy as I wanted. Ulla was a lot neater than I was.
    I got to ride with Uncle Hessie, which was much more fun than going in the big Mercedes, and it was big. The model was called the Grosser-Mercedes 770 and it seemed like a salon or parlor with its gray upholstery and little silver rosebud vase. But the SSK sports car was made for a jolly good time. The top came down and Uncle Hessie and I both got to wear goggles. That’s how fast he drove!
    â€œThere is a scarf in the glove compartment for your hair if you want it.” He reached over and popped it open. I took out a peach-colored chiffon scarf with flowers on it.
    â€œOh, it’s beautiful!”
    â€œDo you know who that belongs to?”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œJosephine Baker.”
    â€œNo!” I exclaimed. Josephine Baker, the American