The Day the Flowers Died (9 page)

Aaron could taste the flavors of the eggs which sent him walking
half asleep to the kitchen, where he took in a giant whiff over the
stove.  Eli scraped a few eggs onto a plate and handed it to
Aaron.  The two ate standing up, clad in pajamas in the
kitchen.  Friday morning grew late, but neither had to report
to work because of the New Year holidays.

Friday, January 8, 1932

Eli remembered this day well.  The detailed flower print of
the pale blue dress Rebecca wore stained his mind as she swung
around the banister on her porch. Her dress lifted with the
currents of the cold wind still trying to separate from winter and
grow to spring. The spring flowers on the lawn began to bloom
again, reminding them both a new year was born. He remembered this
moment more passionately than others because, on this banister
under the changing skies of Munich, he realized he loved her.

He walked like a heavenly string lifted him high off the
ground.  Her baby blue eyes complimented the blue in her dress
and the sky.  Her hands clutched the metal bars as she played
ballerina on her tiptoes and swirled across the porch in her beige
thick snow socks. Eli enjoyed watching her spin like a child on her
birthday.

She often played like this, but in this moment, a primal hunger
saturated him, and only Rebecca could quench it. He grasped her
hands mid-spin and spun her such that her face and his touched nose
to nose.  Rebecca giggled, lifting her hand to cover her laugh
and then Eli took her hand and held her cold fingers inside of his
warm hands.

“Rebecca?”

Her eyes glistened at her name on his lips.  “Yes?”

“I love you,” he said succinctly and sure.  Nothing now
could be more certain than he loved her.  In this city and
country where finances were failing, culture was crumbling, and
government was grappling for decision, his love for her would not
waver. He wasn’t sure how it happened, how he had fallen in love.
He had never loved anyone this deeply.  Perhaps it was the way
she accepted everything about him, or the way they felt as ease
with each other, or perhaps it was the uncommon manner in which she
carried herself, courteous, and yet free.

Now his gaze searched her face while his heart waited.

“I love you, too.” Her words filled him with a new sensation. He
lifted her into his arms and swung her around the porch for all
peering eyes below to see.  Rebecca tilted her head back,
letting her hair catch the wind and then moved her lips to Eli’s
soft mouth.

The passion from their kiss erupted inside both of them with an
instant flutter of their bodies from the public porch into the
privacy of Rebecca’s apartment.  She brushed her cheek over
his chin, clad with a hint of stubble.  Eli glided her into
her room with his hands moving up her legs and under her dress,
eyes intense on one another as they fell to the bed like currents
on the ocean, crashing into each other.

Into each other’s hair, into each other’s necks, into each
other’s lips, into each other’s legs, intertwined and lost so that
no one could make out where one body ended and the other began
until they journeyed like seamen into each other’s seas and the
sounds of sweetest rapture left their bodies sweating on the
sheets.  Rebecca, in swoon like fashion, leaned her limp body
against Eli’s on top of the sheets, legs still interlaced with a
sheet tangled between them.  They laid there until the sun
fell behind the horizon and the Shabbos began.  Then in
thought, Rebecca rolled on top of Eli and propped her body up with
her elbows against his stomach.

“When will I meet your family?” Rebecca implored with more
intensity in her eyes than in her voice.  “You’ve met mine.”
She concluded with a fact as any good lawyer would do.  Eli
couldn’t help but smile at her persistence, enjoying the
affection.

“You will, soon.  I’ve told my mama I’m seeing someone and
she wants me to invite you to the Pesach, Passover this April at
her house.  You’ll meet everyone there and even have a taste
of some good old-fashioned Jewish cooking.”

Rebecca bounced up, elated at Eli’s words, then leaned over to
nibble on his naked naval.  He giggled and instinctively
pulled back at the tickle before drawing to her.

“Is your family upset you’ve missed synagogue recently because
of me?”

“My father’s friends told him I’ve been neglecting Shabbos and
he asked me about it.  I was honest with him.  I told him
I was dating someone and sometimes Friday and Saturday are the only
times we have together.”

“And he understood?” Rebecca asked.  Eli scrunched his face
and uttered something slurred between yes and no.

“My mama doesn’t understand why the both of us can’t just go to
synagogue together.  I told her it is not something you’re
accustomed to doing.”

“And she understood?”

“And then my father insisted on asking me a rhetorical question
involving something to the effect of what kind of Jew works on
Shabbos and then I told him.”

“You told him?” Rebecca’s body tensed, knowing what prisons her
own mother had built around her life and knowing Eli’s father did
much the same.

“I told him, she isn’t Jewish, and he just stared at me for a
few moments with his mouth ajar and then my mama interrupted and
told me to invite you to Passover dinner, that way we all could
meet you.”

“And then they understood?” Rebecca’s hopes lingered with the
words repeated.

“And then they all wanted to meet you,” Eli said with a higher
pitch in his tone and tickled her sides.  “My oldest sister
seemed most excited about the idea.” Rebecca giggled and then the
stern expression returned to her face.

“Sounds like an intense conversation.”

“It was, but not to fear.  Everything will be fine.”

“What are their names?” Rebecca asked, “Your sisters names, your
mother and father’s names?”

“Ah,” Eli’s eyes grew wide, “Sarah is my oldest sister. 
Miriam is my youngest sister and Leah is in the middle. My mother’s
name is Deborah and my father’s name is Ezekiel.” Rebecca’s body
shifted off Eli’s chest to his side, plopping comfortably onto the
thick sheets.  Her face lost its pink shade from the friction
they shared and her gaze fixed itself on the ceiling.  “Are
you alright?” Eli tended to her with his fingers raking through her
long hair stretched over the sheets such that it gave the illusion
of waves on the ocean.

“I’m fine.  I’m just trying to digest it all.”

“It’s really nothing to worry about.  They will love
you.  I know they will.  I love you, how could they not?”
Eli squished himself close to her and she smiled halfheartedly
until he tickled her stomach again and she bellowed out a
scream-laugh that could be heard upstairs.  The early evening
became late evening and the night belonged to only the two of them
lying like branches twisted on her bed under the stars of Munich,
innocent of the country choking around them.

* * *

Saturday morning newspapers piled up around the city block,
waiting to be read by the many still asleep.  Eli walked
downstairs early in the morning to collect his paper from his
mailbox.  The news was never something he wanted to read
anymore, but he knew ignoring it didn’t make it go away and he had
to be prepared for whatever came.  Eli skimmed the front page,
reading the recent politics which make him throw the paper to the
bedroom floor.

Adolf Hitler received a telegram from Chancellor Bruening,
inviting him to come to Berlin to discuss the possibility of
extending Hindenburg's present term.  The invitation delighted
Hitler.

“What is it, my darling Eli?” She said darling with a smile,
trying to console his sudden disturbance of serenity.

“The President of Germany welcomes Hitler’s visit; he welcomes
the wolf to the flock of sheep.”

“What are you talking about?” Rebecca lifted the paper off the
floor and read the news.  “I heard from my friend at the paper
that Hitler told Rudolph Hess he has them in his pocket, because
they recognize him as a partner in their negotiations.”

“And yet you won’t find the press printing that.” Eli raised his
hands.  “They’re cowards, all of them.  They won’t print
what’s really going on, who the man really is.”

“The Nazi’s stormtroopers can hurt the press too, people with
families.  Everyone has to be careful.  No one is going
to put their head on the chopping block.” She rose off the bed and
rubbed her hands over his shoulder.  “You know how violent the
Nazis can get.”

“And if no one is willing or strong enough to control them, what
will become of the country? Hindenburg invites him into the
political arena, the Chancellor sent as messenger.” Eli’s tone
became sharp, serious like she had never seen him.

“Hindenburg is a fair-minded man.” Rebecca cuddled Eli in her
arms and then turned his face to her own.  “Look at me. 
Hindenburg is not letting Hitler run the show, but he also knows
Hitler has many people on his side.  Hindenburg has to
consider the influence Hitler has.  They’re just political
games.  It doesn’t mean Hitler wins.  We can trust
Hindenburg in the presidency.  He will protect this country
from radical madness.”

“But for how much longer?” Eli stood next to Rebecca with his
eyes intensifying and his words more certain.  “There is
already talk of Hitler wanting to run for the Presidency. 
What if he wins?”

“He won’t.  He can’t.  He doesn’t have enough
support.”

“Not yet, but his support grows every day,” Eli said. Rebecca
saw the weight of the country falling on Eli’s shoulders and she
threw her hands around his face; her eyes lightened and
widened.

“We should go see a movie.” Her head nodded and her lips became
perky.  The color in her skin flushed pink with her
enthusiasm.

Eli half smirked and half frowned, “You ought to be a
lawyer.  You’re good with distraction.”

“So, that’s a yes?”

“What’s showing?”

“Two Kinds of Women,” she said with a high pitched tone like she
wanted to see it.  “Scarface,” she looked at Eli and shook her
head no, “and the Jan Kiepura movie, Das Lied Einer Nacht.” With
the last movie listed, Rebecca sauntered to the bathtub until Eli
chased her and she raced the rest of the way to the tub. 
Rebecca leapt in first, pulling off her nightgown, and snapping her
hands together as if she had won a race.  Eli poured in the
water, watching it slowly drizzle over her hair, her breasts, her
legs and then hopped in with her, sitting with his legs wrapped
around her waist.  His legs were a fortress around her,
keeping their love strong and holding it sturdy against the
brutality of the city.

Afterward, they took Eli’s car after he insisted on driving and
pulled into the parking lot behind the theatre.  The short
line indicated not many were spending money on movie tickets. 
Standing in line, down the block they watched a fight break out
between two men, one dressed in ripped brown slacks and a dirty
white shirt and the other in a business suit.  The poor man
threw a fist into the other’s face, and the business man stumbled
back for a moment until repositioning himself and then returned a
fist, knocking the poor man in the nose and to the ground.

“What’s going on?” Rebecca asked.

“He probably lost his job,” Eli said matter-of-factly, and
walked to the ticket window.

“That’s so sad.  He appears so desperate.”

“Desperate times.” Eli glanced over the movie titles, trying to
distract her and himself from the reality around them, “What do you
want to see? Scarface?” He raised his brows up and down with the
title.

“I’m more of a Two Kinds of Women girl.” Rebecca replied and Eli
winced.

“How about the Jan Kiepura movie, Das Lied Einer Nacht?” He
nudged her shoulder and she smiled at the idea.

“I do love Joseph Schmidt’s tenor.”

“Settled then.” Eli grabbed the tickets at the counter and
followed the worn burgundy carpet to the theatre room.  A
chill ran through the dark room since the heater had been turned
off to save money.  Eli took off his long, brown coat and
wrapped it around Rebecca before they sat.  She snuggled with
his coat pulled over her long, beige skirt, white blouse and
sweater, burrowing her head into his shoulder and neck.

As Joseph Schmidt sung Heute Nact oder nie, Tonight or Never,
Rebecca’s eyes filled with teardrops rolling down her cheeks and
she rubbed her nose.  The sounds of his high pitched voice,
soft and melodious, saturated the theatre and touched her soul,
making her feel like he was in the room with them.  Eli forgot
the stresses of politics and all the backhanded maneuvering Hitler
and his party were guilty of while he sat in his seat, listening to
Joseph Schmidt’s sweet words to tonight or never.

Heute Nacht oder nie sollst du mir sagen nur das Eine: Ob du
mich liebst.

Heute Nacht oder nie will ich dich fragen, ob du deine Liebe mir
gibst.

Heute Nacht oder nie will ich für dich allein nur singen bis
morgen früh nur die Melodie: Heute Nacht oder nie.

Tonight or never you are to say to me only one: Whether you love
me.

Tonight or never I want to ask you whether you give me your
love.

Tonight or never I want to sing for you alone to tomorrow
morning only the melody:

Tonight or never.

* * *

Next weekend, dark rain clouds filled the Munich weather with
gloom and Eli went into work Sunday to review documents for an
upcoming court trial.  He shuffled papers on his desk, filing
them into neat piles, lost in his thoughts until his father walked
in.

Ezekiel Levin, tall and muscular, carried himself like a king
with a black briefcase in his left hand.  The case involved a
claim made by a customer directed at a dry cleaning shop around the
corner.  The customer insisted the shop owner deceived him in
how much he was owed for cleaning the suit.  The client
claimed the shop owner charged him twice the amount of his other
customers.