Lewi's Legacy (14 page)

Harry was watching from the end of his son’s bed and he caught Edmunds attention.

‘Look at his face Eddie.’ He whispered.

Sure enough they all noticed that Victor’s face was changing from deathly white to his usual pink colour. Fay was standing next to Sally and she waved frantically. ‘Look!’ She shouted. They all stood around as Victor’s fingers started to move over his dog’s head. Then Edmund looked over the other side. The same was happening. His hand moved and Zowie lifted her head and started to lick it.

The young doctor looked at Edmund and asked him a question. ‘What is this stone on his forehead?’

‘I’ve had it for over forty years it was given to me. And before you ask, I have never done this before, so don’t ask me what is happening as I have no idea.’ He answered.

‘What will happen if you take the stone away, Eddie?’ Harry asked.

In response to his question, Louis gently removed the stone and replaced it in his pocket and quietly led the dogs downstairs leaving them to check what difference he and the dogs had made.

He tied Sally back outside and stood with Zowie to wait for them to reappear, which they did after a short time. The young doctor spoke first and said that she would come to see the patient next week on her rounds, and although she did not refer to what had just happened upstairs, just before she left, she took a long hard look at Edmund, and he just smiled at her disarmingly.

After she had driven off, Edmund held Fay for a moment, and Harry gripped his hand, they were both too emotional to say anything, but their unspoken words were enough for him.

14
A Pick Me Up

Two grown into one

Initially, Louis was quite taken aback by the request by Harold Meyer, the boss of the Mercedes dealership in Southampton, for him to drive a hugely expensive car, halfway across Europe to Strasbourg. Then after completion of that task, to get to Stuttgart, pick up a powerful sports car and drive all the way back to England.

He had little or no experience of driving these cars, why should Harold ask him? Was there something behind it? The responsibility was large yet Louis did not seem overawed with the task. What he did do though was to ask his boss whether he could take a similar demonstration car for the weekend and get used to the very different controls from his Mini. He was surprised how easy it was to persuade him to agree, and on the Friday evening, the Mini was left in the compound at the garage, and with the whole weekend off, he gingerly manoeuvred the very large silver S400 into the main roads of Southampton on his way home to Aunt Ruth in Shirley.

The automatic gears were a doddle for the young man and as he reversed up the bungalow’s driveway, he could see his aunt at the window with her eyes wide in surprise. As he walked into the hall he asked his aunt a question.

‘How would you like to turn up at the temple tomorrow in this auntie?’ She looked at him as if he had stolen it, but over his tea, he explained about his proposed journey being planned for the following week.

‘Did you say Strasbourg my little Louis?’ He nodded smiling.

Well did you know that my Moshe and your great granddad Lewi came from a nearby small town called Haguenau? I think if you get the chance you ought to go to that place and see what is like.’ He asked her to write some things down for him before his journey and he would try to get there. She smiled and gave him one of her best hugs. ‘My little boychic you are doing very well in your job, you will go far believe me.’

Ruth asked Louis to park as near as he could to the entrance to the synagogue that Saturday, and as all her friends would gather there, at the end of the service.

She held on to Louis saying, ‘look at my little boychic, isn’t he doing well? Look at the car, he is asking me to ride in, we are truly blessed.’

She loved the attention of the congregation and when Harold appeared and gave her his usual kiss of greeting, she said ‘and you are sending my great nephew to my homeland Harold, you are rewarding this boy for all his hard work, am I right?’ Mary nodded and gave her a hug.

‘I told you he would look after your precious nephew didn’t I Ruth?’ Mary grimaced at her husband and kissed his aunt. Louis did feel that Harold needed to be somewhere else and pulled Mary away, his unease was still there, but he just couldn’t put his finger on the reason for it.

The next morning after breakfast he asked his favourite aunt if she would like to go for a drive in the new car, maybe in the country, and perhaps take lunch somewhere. At eleven o’clock that Sunday morning, the car was gliding out of Shirley, and heading for the A31 to Cadnam.

They followed the sign to Fordingbridge and drove slowly through the open gorse land, watching the ponies on the side of the road as they grazed. They passed the Fighting Cocks inn at Godshill and dropped down a steep winding hill. On the right there was a small opening where a collection of caravans housed a Gypsy community locally known as Crystal Hollow. In a couple of minutes they were driving over the famous seven arched stone bridge at Fordingbridge. Ruth wanted to go on and so they drove through the town, heading towards Salisbury.

He noticed that everyone stared at the huge Mercedes as it glided by, goodness knows who they must have thought was in it, he thought to himself. Only a mile and a half north of the little riverside town they came to a hamlet called Breamore, at the centre of which was a roadside pub called the Bat and Ball. The swinging pub sign depicted a very old cricket bat held by what was probably the first cricket player. Ruth pointed to the car park in front of the place and he pulled in. It was just midday and someone was putting out the sign for Sunday Lunches.

As he helped her out of the Limo, she asked the man who was staring at the silver leviathan, ‘do you do vegetarian meals young man?’

‘For you madam we can do anything.’ He answered and opened the front door of the pub for her.

Louis had also chosen the vegetarian option and being the first in the pub it seemed that the chef had pulled out the stops for them. They headed for Salisbury after taking their time with their meal and Ruth decided that Cathedral Close was to be the next stop, through an ancient archway; the magnificent cathedral came into view. He drove slowly towards the official at the little toll booth, and Louis thought that the gateman had mistaken Ruth for someone out of the Royal Family, as he saluted and waved them on. He then moved a traffic bollard only twenty yards away so that the limo could park in the best place. Ruth pulled the window down and gave the man a tip. It was classic mistaken identity and Ruth was keen to carry on with it.

Louis pulled into a filling station to buy some red roses for his aunt. She sat on the back seat of the big Mercedes having just had a pleasant pot of tea and cream cake at the refectory restaurant in the cathedral at Salisbury. To round the day off she had asked Louis to take her to the Hill Lane Cemetery in Southampton to pay her respects to her late husband Moshe’s grave, and he passed her the roses he had bought.

‘Perfect’ she said and kissed him on his cheek.

He was able to drive up very close to where she indicated the position of his grave was, and he kept her steady as they came up to the plot. Louis gently laid the roses at the foot of the headstone, as she said solemnly.

‘Alev a sholem ma Moshe’.

They just stood and looked for a while and Louis saw that the top section of the dedication was in Hebrew and the bottom half in English. The name Levi caused his mind to wander. No one ever knew what happened to Lewi his great granddad, did he survive the Holocaust? Was there a grave somewhere with his name on it?

As he drove back to the bungalow in Shirley he felt heavy at heart. Was he right in leaving his father in France? He thought about the three photographs that he never got a copy of. He wondered about André, who must have been around two and a half by then. What would he look like now?

His mind went back to the beautiful wedding scene when he stood proudly at his father’s side. He vowed that as soon as he had returned from delivering the cars he would go and see them again. Later that night his mind wandered to the situation where he lived. He realised there had been little socialising, in fact he knew no one of his own age. On the quest to relate to his ancestral past, he somehow had lost contact with the present.

He thought about his visits to the synagogue with his aunt, he tried to think whether anyone had spoken just to him, not through his dear aunt, bless her. As all these things crossed his mind it was as if a light had gone out. It suddenly dawned on him that he was just play acting with life in Southampton, living on the edge of things.

The next day, being Monday, as usual he left for work at the showroom, returned the big car intact and then walked to his desk. It was a dreary morning, threatening with rain and for the whole of the time before lunch, not a single customer came in. Near lunchtime, he saw Harold pull in to the forecourt and head for his office at the back. Louis followed him in.

‘Nice weekend Louis?’ he asked.

The young man did not feel like small talk. ‘Not really, Harold. Now, when do I take the car to Strasburg?’

‘Go tomorrow if you like, I’ll make a few phone calls and I’ll get back to you in an hour or so.’

Louis went out the door without speaking and closed it. Harold did notice how sharp Louis had spoken, but thought nothing of it, shrugged his shoulders and picked up the receiver.

Lunchtime came at last, so Louis walked through the showroom and out into the compound where his Mini was parked. He drove his car into the city centre just as the rain began to fall heavily. He fed the parking meter and went in search of a coffee bar. The Rolling Stones hit ‘You can’t always get what you want’ was coming out of the juke box at the time, Louis mulled over his frothy cup and the black cloud just seemed to get blacker.

It seemed to him that he had his feet in two homes, and right then he was not sure which place was best. Disregarding the weather, he walked further into the centre and suddenly stopped outside a brightly coloured window. The whole area was covered by a gaudy picture of the seaside with palm trees trying to tempt the passerby to head for the Costa del Sol.

He could see that beyond the advert in the window, a poster on the far wall in the shop. The poster displayed just two words ‘Visit Provence’ he just stood and stared at it for quite a long time. Rainwater began running down his neck, which brought him to his senses, and so he headed back to his car even more forlorn.

He had to start running back as the rain came down in torrents. He jumped into the mini and started the engine. As he turned on the wipers he saw the parking notice, he had exceeded his time, and so he just sighed, tore it off and drove back to the garage. He walked into the showroom and went straight into Harold’s office. His mood was such that he even hoped that Harold might say something to provoke him into, well who knows?

His boss was smiling at him, and handed him the keys to the S500 limousine as well as a folder, which he told Louis contained maps, contact names and addresses, Insurance cover for travel in Europe and another folder containing foreign currency and some travellers cheques.

He then handed over the specification sheet of the car that the young man was to pick up from the Mercedes works in Stuttgart. He looked at the glossy sheet, it was the very latest SL350 sports car hard top with a strange concave shape. His eyes widened at the statistics of the car, especially the top speed of 150 miles per hour.

‘I don’t expect you to drive to these limits my boy’ He laughed heartily. ‘I promise you Louis, if you do this job well. There’ll be a nice bonus for you and perhaps I might let you have the use of one of our demonstrators all of the time. ‘Why not take the rest of the day off and get ready for the drive tomorrow young man?’ he said. Louis just looked at all he had in his hands, and just nodded at Harold, and went to find the S500.

It was two thirty when he arrived at the bungalow, with the big car. He opened the front door and sensed that it was empty, so he went straight into his bedroom to start packing for the journey. He had only managed to get a few items in his bag, when he heard the front door open and close and then Ruth’s voice.

‘Is that you up there Louis?’

‘Yes aunt, I’m getting ready for tomorrow, that’s the car outside that I’m taking.’

‘Can you come and meet my guests, dear boy?’ She asked rather sweetly.

Standing next to Ruth was a tall, elderly woman dressed in a fur wrap over an exquisitely tailored grey suit. She oozed cash and class, Ruth introduced her as Ethel. As she stepped aside Ethel revealed Ruth’s other guest. A much shorter and younger person was revealed looking at the carpet, offered her slim dark skinned hand to him.

‘I’m Esther’ she said in a very soft voice, and as they shook hands she looked up at him.

She had an olive skin with delicate features in her face, dark almost black eyes under the most strikingly beautiful eyebrows. She was wearing a bright blue coat which the older woman indicated for her to take off. As they sat down on the couch he noticed her silky white blouse and blue very mini skirt. Ethel introduced her as her granddaughter, and said she lived with her, as just recently she had been orphaned.

Ruth and Ethel disappeared into the kitchen to prepare some tea and they were left alone. He sat next to her on the couch and gently asked her about her parents and without looking up she told him that they had both been killed in a car accident near Winchester. The weather was bad and a lorry driver had lost control on black ice and ploughed head on into them. They didn’t have a chance she told him. He gently put his hand over hers and squeezed it as he told her about his mother dying at his birth, and his father remarrying and living in France. She looked up at him eyes full of tears and then squeezed his hand also. As the two ladies returned laden with sandwiches the two young people didn’t move their hands away from each others.

‘Look, Eth darling, it looks as if they like each other.’ Ruth said and there was no mistaking what she meant.

Louis realised that they were a target of the old fashioned Jewish practice of matchmaking. In normal circumstances he would have recoiled from such an idea, but Esther continued to look up at him, and at the same time she was still holding his hand tightly.