Leon Uris (19 page)

“Sure, why not?” he snapped.

Their eyes met over the tops of their glasses. Kitty set hers down quickly. “All right, Mr. Parker. You are all lit up like a road sign. You’d better start talking before you explode.”

“What’s the matter? You mad at me? You don’t like me any more?”

“For goodness’ sake, Mark. I didn’t think you were so thin skinned. I’ve been working very hard ... besides, we agreed it would be best not to see too much of each other during the last two weeks, didn’t we?”

“My name is Mark Parker. We used to be friends. We used to talk things over.”

“I don’t know what you’re driving at.”

“Karen ... Karen Clement Hansen. A little refugee girl from Denmark via Germany.”

“I don’t think there is anything to discuss ...”

“I think there is.”

“She’s just a lovely child I happen to like. She is my friend and I am her friend.”

“You never could lie very well.”

“I don’t wish to talk about it!”

“You’re asking for trouble. The last time you ended up naked with a marine in bed. This time I think you’re going to have the strength to kill yourself.”

Her eyes dropped away from Mark’s glare. “Up to the past few weeks I’ve been so sane all my life,” she said.

“Are you trying to make up for it all at once?”

She put her hand on his. “It has been like being born all over again and it doesn’t make sense. She is such a remarkable girl, Mark.”

“What are you going to do when she goes on the
Exodus
? Are you going to follow her to Palestine?”

Kitty squashed out her cigarette and drank her cocktail. Her eyes narrowed in an expression that Mark knew. “What have you done?” he demanded.

“She isn’t going on the
Exodus
. That was my condition for going to work for Ari Ben Canaan.”

“You damned fool ... you damned fool, Kitty.”

“Stop it!” she said. “Stop making something indecent out of this. I’ve been lonely and hungry for the kind of affection this girl has to give and I can give her the kind of understanding and companionship she needs.”

“You don’t want to be her companion. You want to be her mother.”

“And what if I do! There’s nothing wrong with that either.”

“Look ... let’s stop yelling at each other ... let’s calm down. I don’t know what you have figured out, but her father is probably alive. If he isn’t, she has a family in Denmark. Exhibition number three ... that kid is poisoned like they poison all of them. She wants Palestine.”

Kitty’s face became drawn and her eyes showed a return of sadness and Mark was sorry.

“I was wrong not to let her go on the
Exodus
. I wanted to have her for a few months ... to gain her complete confidence ... to let her know how wonderful it would be to go to America. If I could be with her a few months I’d be sure of myself....”

“Kitty ... Kitty ... Kitty. She isn’t Sandra. You’ve been looking for Sandra from the moment the war ended. You were looking for her in Salonika in that orphanage. Maybe that’s why you had to take Ben Canaan’s challenge, because there were children at Caraolos and you thought one of them might be Sandra.”

“Please, Mark ... no more.”

“All right. What do you want me to do?”

“Find out if her father is alive. If he isn’t, I want to adopt her and get her to the States.”

“I’ll do what I can,” he said. He spotted Ari Ben Canaan, dressed as Captain Caleb Moore, coming through to their terrace. Ari walked quickly to their table and sat down. The Palestinian was his usual cold expressionless self. The instant Kitty saw him, her face lit up.

“David just contacted me from Caraolos. Something has come up that requires my immediate attention. I think under the circumstances that you had better come with me,” he said to Kitty.

“What is it?” both Mark and Kitty said together.

“I don’t know exactly. The Landau boy, the one who does our forgeries. He is now working on the transfer papers for getting the children out. He refuses to do any further work until he speaks to me.”

“What do you want me for?” Kitty asked.

“Your friend, the little Danish girl Karen, is about the only person who can talk to him.” Kitty turned pale. “We must have those papers completed in the next thirty-six hours,” Ari said. “We may need you to talk to the boy through Karen.”

Kitty stumbled from her chair and followed Ari blindly. Mark shook his head sadly, and his troubled glance remained on the empty doorway for many moments.

K
AREN STOOD IN THE CLASSROOM
that was Palmach headquarters. She stared angrily at the boy with the soft face, blond hair, and sweet appearance. He was a little small for seventeen years and the softness was deceptive. A pair of icy blue eyes radiated torment, confusion, and hatred. He stood by a small alcove which held the papers and instruments he used for his forgeries. Karen walked up to him and shook a finger under his nose. “Dov! What have you gone and done?” He curled his lip and grunted. “Stop growling at me like a dog,” she demanded. “I want to know what you have done.”

He blinked his eyes nervously. No use arguing with Karen when she was angry. “I told them I wanted to talk with Ben Canaan.”

“Why?”

“See these papers? They are forgeries of British mimeographed forms. Ben Ami gave me a list of three hundred kids here in our compound to be listed on these sheets for transfer to the new camp at Larnaca. They aren’t going to the new camp. There’s a Massad ship out there someplace. It’s going to Palestine.”

“What about it? You know we don’t question the Massad or the Palmach.”

“This time I do. Our name isn’t listed. I’m not going to fix these papers unless they let us go too.”

“You’re not sure there is a ship. Even if there is and we don’t go they have their reasons. Both of us have work to do right here in Caraolos.”

“I don’t care whether they need me or not. They promised to get me to Palestine and I’m going.”

“Don’t you think we owe these Palmach boys something for all they’ve done for us? Don’t you have any loyalty at all?”

“Done for us, done for us. Don’t you know yet why they’re breaking their necks to smuggle Jews into Palestine? You really think they do it because they love us? They’re doing it because they need people to fight the Arabs.”

“And what about the Americans and all the others who aren’t fighting Arabs? Why are they helping us?”

“I’ll tell you why. They’re paying for their consciences. They feel guilty because they weren’t put into gas chambers.”

Karen clenched her fists and her teeth and closed her eyes to keep herself from losing her temper. “Dov, Dov, Dov. Don’t you know anything but hate?” She started for the door.

He rushed over and blocked her exit. “You’re mad at me again,” he said.

“Yes, I am.”

“You’re the only friend I’ve got, Karen.”

“All you want to do is go to Palestine so you can join the terrorists and kill ...” She walked back into the room and sat down at a desk and sighed. Before her on the blackboard was this sentence chalked in block letters:
THE BALFOUR DECLARATION OF 1917 IS THE BRITISH PROMISE OF A JEWISH HOMELAND IN PALESTINE
. “I want to go to Palestine too,” she whispered. “I want to go so badly I could die. My father is waiting there for me ... I know he is.”

“Go back to your tent and wait for me,” Dov said. “Ben Canaan will be here soon.”

Dov paced the room nervously for ten minutes after Karen had gone, working himself up to greater and greater anger.

The door opened. The large frame of Ari Ben Canaan passed through the doorway. David Ben Ami and Kitty Fremont followed him. David closed the door and locked it.

Dov’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “I don’t want her in here,” he said.

“I do,” Ari answered. “Start talking.”

Dov blinked his eyes and hesitated. He knew he couldn’t budge Ben Canaan. He walked to the alcove and snatched up the mimeographed transfer sheets. “I think you have an Aliyah Bet ship coming into Cyprus and these three hundred kids are going on it.”

“That’s a good theory. Go on,” Ari said.

“We made a deal, Ben Canaan. I’m not fixing these papers for you unless I add my name and the name of Karen Clement to this list. Any questions?”

Ari glanced at Kitty out of the corner of his eye.

“Has it occurred to you, Dov, that no one can do your work and that we need you here?” David Ben Ami said. “Has it occurred to you that both you and Karen have more value here than in Palestine?”

“Has it occurred to you that I don’t give a damn?” Dov answered.

Ari lowered his eyes to hide a smile. Dov was tough and smart and played the game rough. The concentration camps bred a mean lot.

“It looks like you’re holding the cards,” Ari said. “Put your name on the list.”

“What about Karen?”

“That wasn’t part of our deal.”

“I’m making a new deal.”

Ari walked up to him and said, “I don’t like that, Dov.” He towered over the boy threateningly.

Dov backed up. “You can beat me! I’ve been beaten by experts! You can kill me! I’m not afraid. Nothing you do can scare me after the Germans!”

“Stop reciting Zionist propaganda to me,” Ari said. “Go to your tent and wait there. We’ll give you an answer in ten minutes.”

Dov unlocked the door and ran out.

“The little bastard!” David said.

Ari nodded quickly for David to leave the room. The instant the door closed Kitty grabbed Ari by the shirt. “She isn’t going on that ship! You swore it! She is not going on the
Exodus
!”

Ari grabbed her wrists. “I’m not even going to talk to you unless you get control of yourself. We’ve got too much to cope with without a hysterical woman.”

Kitty pulled her hands free with a fierce jerk.

“Now listen,” Ari said, “I didn’t dream this up. The finish of this thing is less than four days off. That boy has us by the throat and he knows it. We can’t move unless he fixes those papers.”

“Talk to him ... promise anything, but keep Karen here!”

“I’d talk till I’m purple if I thought it would do any good.”

“Ben Canaan ... please ... he’ll compromise. He won’t insist on Karen’s going.”

Ari shook his head. “I’ve seen hundreds of kids like him. They haven’t left much in them that’s human. His only link with decency is Karen. You know as well as I do he’s going to be loyal to that girl ...”

Kitty leaned against the blackboard where the words:
THE BALFOUR DECLARATION OF 1917 IS THE BRITISH PROMISE
... were written. The chalk rubbed off on the shoulder of her dress. Ben Canaan was right; she knew it. Dov Landau was incorrigible but he did have a strange loyalty for Karen. Mark had been right. She had been a damned fool.

“There is only one way,” Ari said. “You go to that girl and tell her the way you feel about her. Tell her why you want her to stay on Cyprus.”

“I can’t,” Kitty whispered. “I can’t.” She looked up at Ben Canaan with a pathetic expression.

“I didn’t want anything like this to happen,” Ari said. “I am sorry, Kitty.” It was the first time he had ever called her Kitty.

“Take me back to Mark,” she said.

They walked into the hall. “Go to Dov,” Ari said to David. “Tell him that we agree to his terms.”

When Dov got the news he rushed over to Karen’s tent and burst in excitedly. “We are going to Palestine,” he cried.

“Oh dear,” was all that Karen could say. “Oh dear.”

“We must keep it quiet. You and I are the only ones among the children who know about it.”

“When do we go?”

“A few more days. Ben Canaan is bringing some trucks up. Everyone will be dressed like British soldiers. They’re going to pretend to be taking us to the new camp near Larnaca.”

“Oh dear.”

They went out of the tent, hand in hand. Dov looked out over the sea of canvas as he and Karen walked in and out among the acacia trees. They walked slowly toward the playground, where Zev had a class of children practicing knife fighting.

Dov Landau walked on alone along the barbed-wire wall. He saw the British soldiers marching back and forth, back and forth. Down the long wall of barbed wire there was a tower and a machine gun and a searchlight.

Barbed wire—guns—soldiers——

When had he been outside of barbed wire? It was so very long ago it was hard to remember.

Barbed wire—guns—soldiers—— Was there a real life beyond them? Dov stood there and looked. Could he remember that far back? It was so long ago—so very long ago——

W
ARSAW,
P
OLAND,
S
UMMER 1939

Mendel Landau was a modest Warsaw baker. In comparison with Dr. Johann Clement he was at the opposite end of the world—socially, financially, intellectually. In fact, the two men would have had absolutely nothing in common except that they were both Jews.

As Jews, each man had to find his own answer to the relationship between himself and the world around him. Dr. Clement clung to the ideals of assimilation up to the very end. Although Mendel Landau was a humble man he had thought out the problem, too, but had come to an entirely different conclusion.

Mendel Landau, unlike Clement, had been made to feel an intruder. For seven hundred years the Jews in Poland had been subjected to persecution of one kind or another, ranging from maltreatment to mass murder.

The Jews came to Poland originally to escape the persecution of the Crusaders. They fled to Poland from Germany, Austria, and Bohemia before the sword of “holy” purification.

Mendel Landau, like every Polish Jew, well knew what had followed the original flight of the Jews into Poland. They were accused of ritual murder and witchcraft and were loathed as business competitors.

An unbroken series of tribulations climaxed one Easter week when mobs ran through the streets dragging each Jew and his family from his home. Those who would not accept baptism were killed on the spot.

There was a Jew’s tax. Jews were forced to wear a yellow cloth badge to identify themselves as a race apart. A thousand and one statutes and laws aimed at suppressing the Jews stood on the books. The Jews were moved into ghettos and walled in to keep them isolated from the society around them.