Read Online Too Jewish by Patty Friedmann - Free Book Online
Authors: Patty Friedmann
Tags: Fiction, Historical, Literature & Fiction, European, Holocaust, Jewish, Love Story, Literary Fiction, Novel, Jews, New Orleans, Continental European, Drama & Plays, Regional & Cultural, World Literature, Dramas & Plays, dysfunctional family, Judaica, Jewish Interest, Three Novellas, Southern Jews, Survivor’s Guilt, Family Novel, Orthodox Jewish Literature, Psychosomatic Illness
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know if there's much point in my efforts anymore."
"Hey, maybe she's busy," Ted said. I looked at him funny. "No really, maybe she found a way to Lisbon on her own." Somehow the world news didn't lead me to be that optimistic. I told that to Ted. "We're shipping out next month," he said. "Maybe actually being in Europe will make it easier to know what's going on."
I had to smile. "Europe's larger than it looks on a map," I said. "I somehow don't think you and I will be conquering heroes." I remembered textbooks from childhood, with Hannibal as large as the elephants and the mountains.
He was silent for a moment, as if he was getting up his nerve. And he
was
getting up his nerve, because what he said next frightened me too much to consider. "If you want to go to the Red Cross, I'll go with you," he said.
* * *
Instead I called Axel. It was hot inside the phone booth, but I kept the door closed, as if somehow that would make a difference. I came from a short line of superstitious Jews, and I made up my rituals as I went along. If a closed door would bring me a comfort of spirit, then I would have a closed door. Even if I was going to emerge like a roasted bird.
"I've got to confess," I said. "Fur-covered luxury items don't sell in the South," I said. I wasn't sure where I wanted this conversation to go, but I was starting it.
"Hey, what's the temperature down there?" Axel said.
I'd been in that booth about three minutes, and I already was soaked. Thank goodness it was under an oak tree. "About a hundred and five," I said.
"You want a fur coat right now?" Axel said.
I didn't want a fur coat any time of the year. I'd been in Peltzl's shop. I knew where fur came from. It kind of made me sick, even if it was in nice little geometric strips by the time it got to Axel. But I knew what he meant. "No, in fact I have a feeling maybe one in a hundred women has a fur coat around here when winter comes. Even raccoon. It's hot."
"Same thing happened when I sent a guy down to Washington," Axel said. "Washington! Women go there from all over. From the north! Not a bite. You need to quit worrying. I'm not expecting anything out of you."
I thanked him. I owed Axel my life, and now I was compounding that debt, but I sensed he knew much of the payback came in pure affection and a strange shared history. If we never had left Germany, our lives would have had nothing in common. Because we left, they were as similar as any we were going to find.
"I've still wanted to make money, not paring down that 160 dollars by much," I said.
"If it was life and death, and you're still alive, maybe you don't need to worry so much."
"You think it was my life?" I said.
Axel didn't answer right away. "It didn't occur to me that it was anything else."
"I'm so safe, Axel. No one ever has been so safe."
"I think I understand," he said. "You need to save someone else."
"Yes."
"Do you want to tell me whom?" Axel had English as good as mine. Not book-learned, maybe, but just as correct.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"Is it a woman?"
"Are we going to play this Twenty Questions?" I said. Of course she was a woman, even a woman I was pining over, but I wasn't going to send Axel on that tangent. "Listen, you know there's a topic we never discuss."
"I thought we discuss everything."
"Are you serious?"
"Bernie, I consider you my closest friend. I went into debt to save you. I consider us the same person, one making the business, one fighting the war. If I were in love, I would tell you. When I think you're in love with that girl there, I'll tell you."
"So no topic is off limits?" I said.
"You could commit murder, and I would write to you in prison."
"I want to save my mother."
He didn't hesitate. It was as if I'd blown magic air through the phone and into his ear. "Of course you do!" he said. "Oh, my God!"
"This doesn't bother you?"
Axel reassured me that of course it didn't, that my mother was a wonderful woman, that now he recalled I'd
"Hey, maybe she's busy," Ted said. I looked at him funny. "No really, maybe she found a way to Lisbon on her own." Somehow the world news didn't lead me to be that optimistic. I told that to Ted. "We're shipping out next month," he said. "Maybe actually being in Europe will make it easier to know what's going on."
I had to smile. "Europe's larger than it looks on a map," I said. "I somehow don't think you and I will be conquering heroes." I remembered textbooks from childhood, with Hannibal as large as the elephants and the mountains.
He was silent for a moment, as if he was getting up his nerve. And he
was
getting up his nerve, because what he said next frightened me too much to consider. "If you want to go to the Red Cross, I'll go with you," he said.
* * *
Instead I called Axel. It was hot inside the phone booth, but I kept the door closed, as if somehow that would make a difference. I came from a short line of superstitious Jews, and I made up my rituals as I went along. If a closed door would bring me a comfort of spirit, then I would have a closed door. Even if I was going to emerge like a roasted bird.
"I've got to confess," I said. "Fur-covered luxury items don't sell in the South," I said. I wasn't sure where I wanted this conversation to go, but I was starting it.
"Hey, what's the temperature down there?" Axel said.
I'd been in that booth about three minutes, and I already was soaked. Thank goodness it was under an oak tree. "About a hundred and five," I said.
"You want a fur coat right now?" Axel said.
I didn't want a fur coat any time of the year. I'd been in Peltzl's shop. I knew where fur came from. It kind of made me sick, even if it was in nice little geometric strips by the time it got to Axel. But I knew what he meant. "No, in fact I have a feeling maybe one in a hundred women has a fur coat around here when winter comes. Even raccoon. It's hot."
"Same thing happened when I sent a guy down to Washington," Axel said. "Washington! Women go there from all over. From the north! Not a bite. You need to quit worrying. I'm not expecting anything out of you."
I thanked him. I owed Axel my life, and now I was compounding that debt, but I sensed he knew much of the payback came in pure affection and a strange shared history. If we never had left Germany, our lives would have had nothing in common. Because we left, they were as similar as any we were going to find.
"I've still wanted to make money, not paring down that 160 dollars by much," I said.
"If it was life and death, and you're still alive, maybe you don't need to worry so much."
"You think it was my life?" I said.
Axel didn't answer right away. "It didn't occur to me that it was anything else."
"I'm so safe, Axel. No one ever has been so safe."
"I think I understand," he said. "You need to save someone else."
"Yes."
"Do you want to tell me whom?" Axel had English as good as mine. Not book-learned, maybe, but just as correct.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"Is it a woman?"
"Are we going to play this Twenty Questions?" I said. Of course she was a woman, even a woman I was pining over, but I wasn't going to send Axel on that tangent. "Listen, you know there's a topic we never discuss."
"I thought we discuss everything."
"Are you serious?"
"Bernie, I consider you my closest friend. I went into debt to save you. I consider us the same person, one making the business, one fighting the war. If I were in love, I would tell you. When I think you're in love with that girl there, I'll tell you."
"So no topic is off limits?" I said.
"You could commit murder, and I would write to you in prison."
"I want to save my mother."
He didn't hesitate. It was as if I'd blown magic air through the phone and into his ear. "Of course you do!" he said. "Oh, my God!"
"This doesn't bother you?"
Axel reassured me that of course it didn't, that my mother was a wonderful woman, that now he recalled I'd
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