Getting Old Is a Disaster (23 page)

  She doesn't answer, standing still, almost holding her breath. Maybe he'll go away. What does he wants from me? she wonders.

  He rings again.

  She hesitates, unconsciously smoothing her skirt down with her hands. He must know she's in here. She can't be rude. As she opens the door she sees Abe glancing at the mezuzah on the right side of her door frame.

  He smiles ruefully. "It is a very strange feeling living in someone else's home. I have never lived anywhere without a mezuzah. May I, Mrs. Slovak?"

  Of course she knows what he is asking—permission to pay his respects to God. Her second husband, Yacov, whom she met after the war, himself a survivor, put the tiny box up when they moved into the apartment. She protested; she cared nothing about religion anymore. She looks at this pious stranger. Let him do what he wants. She nods.

  He touches the sacred parchment scroll gently, then places those fingers to his lips. Then he hands her the flowers, which she accepts in puzzlement.

  "What did I do for you to bring me flowers, Mr. Waller?"

  "It's what
I
did. I felt I did not treat you kindly in the laundry room the other day. Perhaps I was too abrupt?"

  At that moment, Evvie and Joe come out of the adjoining apartment. There is a moment of awkwardness, but quickly and at the same time they all nod. Then Evvie and Joe walk off.

  Enya, not knowing what to do, and feeling obliged, says, "Perhaps you would like a cup of tea?"

  "A glass of water, maybe." Abe says, following Enya inside.

* * *

"Well, that was interesting," Evvie says to Joe as they head for his car, out to a restaurant to cele brate their capture of Izzy. "Bringing flowers? How romantic."

  "I brought you flowers a while ago. You gave them away."

  Evvie flicks an imaginary bit of dust off his shoulder. "Don't go there, Joe. That was then and now is now."

  With that she flounces into his car before he has a chance to open the door for her.

* * *

Across the way, Jack turns from the kitchen window. "Well, well," he singsongs, "love is in the air. Tra-la-tra-la. Just saw Abe bring flowers to Enya, and Evvie actually touched Joe's shoulder."

  I come over, wiping my hands on my apron, and put my arms around him. "It's catching, isn't it?"

  He pulls my arms even tighter, closer. "What is?"

  "Being a yenta and spying on people. Like everyone else does around here."

  He swivels around 'til he's facing me and gives me a playful swat on my rear. Then he goes over to the stove and sniffs what I've cooked for dinner.

  "Decisions, decisions," he says. "Food or sex? Sex or food?"

  "I thought you wanted to hear more about our Grandpa Bandit story?"

  "It can wait." With that, he drags me out of the kitchen and I toss my apron behind me.

Enya stares at the few photographs on her small kitchen table. They are very old, tattered, practically shriveled up. Abe's empty wallet sits beside them.

  Abe points to his photo of a young boy with a bicycle, and says, "We wanted Max to play the violin; he was interested only in sports." He manages a small smile. "I was a musician in the old country."

  As he talks about his children, she thinks of the photos on her bedroom wall. For a moment, she is tempted to get them, but she can't bring herself to share them. She politely listens to him, sensing how much it must mean to him to be able to talk about his family. But something won't let her open up to him.

  He reaches over to touch her hands, but the moment he does, she pulls away. "Sorry," she says. He gestures by raising both hands aloft, as if to say he understands. "You had children?"

  She can barely speak. Her throat seems to be closing up on her. She doesn't want to talk about them. But she doesn't know how to be rude. This very kind man is sharing his pain with her. She whispers, "Rebecca was four and Micah was five. My babies . . ." The tears start to flow. He hands her a handkerchief.

  He indicates the numbers on her arms. "When were you there . . . Auschwitz?"

  She says, "Forty-two to forty-five. Sometimes in my dreams I imagine it never happened . . ." She moves a teacup around in its saucer, but doesn't drink. "In my nightmares there is no doubt it did."

  "You know the strange thing?" Enya understands he is changing the conversation away from the personal to make her feel more comfortable. "I only found out afterward. It was only Auschwitz that tattooed the numbers. None of the other camps ever did."

  "I never heard that," she says.

  "Your husband. You. What work did you have in Prague . . . before . . . ?"

  "Jacov and I both taught at the university."

  "I was never there. I never traveled far from Munich."

  They sit still for a while. Enya watches the second hand on the kitchen clock move round. She wishes he would go away. Her body is sweating; she wants to wash.

  Abe finally gets up. "I will leave now. You must have your dinner to prepare. Thank you for the water. He gathers up his photos and places them gently into his wallet. He walks to the door, and as Enya moves around him to open it, their arms touch for a second. Enya's body goes rigid.

  Abe opens the door, bows, and leaves.

  Enya slowly returns to the kitchen table and sits down. She lifts the bouquet of flowers from the vase in which she placed them and buries her face in them. She remains there, sobbing until it gets dark.

I
wake up abruptly; something in a dream startles

  me into consciousness. Jack turns, opens one eye, and says, "What?"

  I pat his shoulder gently. "Go back to sleep. It's nothing."

  The phone rings. Jack groans and puts his pillow over his head. I look at the clock. Eight a.m. Has to be one of the girls. I'm up already, might as well start moving.

  I answer the phone in the kitchen so as not to disturb Jack. It's Sophie.

  "News," she says. "The pool is fixed and they're putting water in it. Everyone's going to watch."

  "Everyone? How many calls have you made?"

  "I didn't. Bella called me because Ida called her because Evvie called Ida." And she adds petu lantly, "We always used to get up this early anyway to do our exercise."

  She's speaking in past tense because since Jack moved in, our early-morning routine has vanished. There's a tiny bit of complaining in Sophie's voice. I have to pay attention to this.

  "Okay," I say, "I'll meet you down there soon as I get dressed."

  "Don't bother wearing your suit. I don't think we can swim yet. Something about chlorine."

  I hang up. Why are we all going to the pool if there's no water? I hum a few bars of "Tradition" from
Fiddler on the Roof.

  As I grind my coffee beans it hits me. Why I woke up so abruptly. I phone Stanley. I know he gets up early to supervise the repair work. Maybe I can catch him before he leaves.

  Too late. His wife, Esther, tells me I just missed him.

  I say, "When you hear from him, please tell him to find me. I need to talk to him about something important. If I'm not in my apartment, I'll be at the Phase Two pool."

  I enjoy my coffee and toast, get dressed, and leave Jack a note. It says, "Not going swimming, but will be at pool. Don't ask. Love and xxxx." I leave the note and a camellia on my pillow. I'm really getting into this living together stuff.

* * *

What a sight! Everyone sits in his or her usual place, facing the pool. Well, not everyone. Our Canadians won't be back for a while. But here they are, our regulars, staring at a pool slowly being filled with water. Comical, really. Seems as exciting as watching grass grow. Nothing too much is happening.

  The difference is we have our new temporary neighbors, and even they have come down for this non-event. First face I see is Louise's. She immediately looks behind me to see where Jack is. Maybe she's hoping we had a fight and he's up for grabs. Not a chance, lady.

  Dora Dooley has pulled a patio chair next to Bella and Sophie, even though they try to avoid her existence by chatting with their backs to her. Dora's deep into a
TV Guide
magazine, marking shows she wants to see. Ida knits, ignoring all of them.

  Joe has a chaise next to Evvie. He's glued to her side. The way he watches her makes me imagine how a starving man might look at a steak. Evvie pays no attention to him and is engrossed in a book.

  Tessie sits on the edge of the pool, her feet dangling in air, as she stares down, watching for the water-level changes. Being the only real swimmer, she can hardly wait until the pool fills. Her hubby, Sol, is a different person since their marriage. The talkative Sol has turned very quiet. As Evvie said to me a while back, she'd love to be a fly on their wall. I'm curious, too.

  In between slathering suntan lotion on each other's backs, Casey and Barbi sit directly in the sun, playing gin rummy.

  I note that Enya is not here. However, her new neighbor, Abe, who brings flowers, sits in the shade behind the small wrought-iron gate, away from us, reading a newspaper. Abe is fully clothed, wearing his usual black suit. He doesn't seem to mind the heat. I'm surprised he's even there.

  And last and never least, Hy and Lola.

  It's as if he's been waiting for me to arrive. "In honor of the return of our pool, I got a new joke, folks."

  Sol says, "Hah! Like we care."

  Tessie gives her darling a little pinch. "You tell him, honeybunch."

  No one shows any enthusiasm at all, but Hy is never bothered by opposition. In fact, he thrives on it. He gets up and emotes:

  "A young woman brings her fiancé home to meet her parents. After dinner, the mother tells the father to find out about the young man. The father invites the fiancé to his study for a drink. 'So, what are your plans?' the father asks the young man.

  " 'I am a Torah scholar,' he replies.

  " 'A Torah scholar. Hmmm,' the father says. 'Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in, as she's accustomed to?'

  " 'I will study,' the young man replies, 'and God will provide for us.'

  " 'And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring, such as she deserves?' asks the father.

  " 'I will concentrate on my studies,' he replies. 'God will provide for us.'

  " 'And children?' asks the father. 'How will you support children?'

  " 'Don't worry, sir, God will provide,' replies the fiancé.

  "Later, the mother asks, 'How did it go, dear?'

  "The father answers, 'He has no job, he has no plans, he has no ambition, but the good news is, he thinks I'm God.' "

  There are a few small laughs. Abe gets up without a word and starts to leave.

  "You insulted him," says Evvie, "using the name of the Lord in vain."

  "What's the matter, a man can't take a joke?" Hy says, offended.

  As Abe moves out of the perimeter of the pool area, he meets Stanley, who is hurrying in. That stops him. "Is something wrong?" Abe asks worriedly.

  "I don't think so, but"—he glances to me— "Gladdy said she needed to see me about something important."

  I am now the center of attention. I try to underplay it. "Just some thoughts I wanted to share with him."

  Sophie claps her hands. "I bet it's about the skeleton."

  "Yeah," says Bella excitedly. "I bet you figured out who he is."

  My girls are about to move in my direction as I head toward Stanley. I wave them down. "Relax, everyone. Let me chat with Stanley. If there's anything new to report, you'll hear about it."

  They are disappointed. Everyone stares after us as I lead Stanley out of earshot.

* * *

We find a bench to sit at near the duck pond. The ducks are slowly returning after our disaster. I wonder how many were lost forever. We settle ourselves under a tree that is split in half, another result of the hurricane. Stanley shakes his head at all the damage to plants and trees. "So many years this tree was here. I remember we planted it soon after we finished the construction. Now it's dead."

  I commiserate with him. He changes the subject. "Never mind, you have information? I thought our case was over."

  "Just a hunch, Stanley. Something's been bothering me ever since we came back from Tampa. We finally decided that this Lucy Blake's brother, Johnny, was not our skeleton. But his sister, Lucy, said something that stuck in my head. She questioned the way he died. Falling off the dock immediately after a long voyage? Lucy was informed that her brother definitely left the ship. But what if he didn't? What if somebody wanted to steal his papers? Somebody trying to get into this country from a foreign country? He would wait until they were near port because he couldn't move around the ship before that. Suppose he threw Johnny Blake overboard the day they docked, and used his papers to get off the ship?"

  "A stowaway, you're thinking?"

  I nod. "Yes. Once onshore, he could have been moving around, using Johnny's identity, and somehow ended up here and got the job working for you."

  Stanley is eager now. "And this stranger is the one buried under the cement."

  "Maybe," I say, "and maybe not."

  He looks puzzled. "What do you mean?"

  "I don't know. But it's something to think about."

  Stanley paces back and forth in front of the shattered tree, his hands behind his back. "How can we make sure that it is the same Johnny Blake who is the connection? How can we find out?"

  I shrug. "You got back the items you gave Morrie for the testing?"

  "Yes. As a matter of fact, this morning. They are in my apartment. I was trying to figure out what to do with them. I almost threw them away."