The Day the Flowers Died (31 page)

“Son, I’m very grateful for the risk you have taken for us, but
I don’t want to leave without you and Rebecca. We can wait till she
feels better.”

“No, Papa, I don’t want to be the cause of your delay. I need to
know you and Mama and my sisters are safe.  We’ll come after
your ship.  I promise.  Rebecca needs her rest.  The
stress of the country has worn on her physically and she should
recuperate before boarding for such a long journey.” Eli’s eyes
brightened with delight, “Rebecca is pregnant.”

“What? When did this happen?” Ezekiel said, excited and yet
taken aback.

“We just found out when she was at the hospital.”

“It looks like you’ll be starting your family early.” He grinned
and then ended, “I would feel better knowing you both were with
us.”

“We will be, Papa, just on a later boat.  The visa is in
the mail, but I can’t worry about Rebecca’s health aboard the
ship.  I have to wait till she feels well enough for
travel.  Please, tell me you’ll take the family and lift the
worry of it from my mind.”

“Ok, ok,” Ezekiel conceded.

“The Hamburg American Steam Liner left on the second, but you
can catch the ship again next month.  Here’s the brochure.”
Eli handed Ezekiel a grey pamphlet with a figure of an American
woman in a long dress gracing the cover. “You ought to leave
tonight to pick up the tickets. You can stay at a hotel in Hamburg
and purchase them first thing tomorrow morning.”

“How much will the tickets cost?” Ezekiel’s left brow rose.

“About two hundred dollars each.”

“One thousand American dollars?” Ezekiel whistled in surprise
and rubbed his forehead.  “How long is the journey?”

“About ten days.” Eli stood and carried his cup of tea with
him.  “I have to get back to tend to Rebecca soon.”

“Yes, yes.” Ezekiel took his son’s face into his hands and
kissed him on either cheek.  “We’ll miss you.”

“I love you, Papa.” Eli helped his father carry his overnight
luggage into this car.  He hugged his father and then Ezekiel
started the engine and began his journey into Hamburg.

* * *

The following Friday on the fourteenth, the Nazis passed another
law Germany would have to suffer, the Law for the Prevention of
Genetically Diseased Offspring, initiated by the Interior Minister
Wilhelm Frick.  The law required the forced sterilization of
German citizens with congenital disabilities such as
feeblemindedness, schizophrenia, manic depression, epilepsy, and
others. Doctors throughout the Reich performed the procedures on
everyone fitting the descriptions.  Following the
sterilization law, the Denaturalization law stripped non German
blood citizens of their citizenship.  Jews were now no longer
protected under the law with the little safety they received as
German citizens.

Saturday morning after these new laws, Deseire came to visit
Rebecca unannounced.  Rebecca had rested the entirety of the
week under doctor orders with meals provided by Eli and with
readings of some of his favorite books of literature and
poetry.  The two lay arm in arm over the bed sheets when the
knock at the door alarmed them.

Eli jumped off the bed and stood at a distance from the
door.

The thought occurred to both of them that the Gestapo made a
second trip for Eli’s arrest. The knock sounded again and Rebecca
hurried to answer it.  She buttoned the top three buttons of
her white blouse and straightened out her sky blue shirt as she
approached the door.  Eli concealed himself in the shadows of
the room. The door squeaked open.

“Mutti?” Rebecca said not really as a question, but more in
disbelief.

“Yes, dear.” Deseire spoke in a polite, but clipped
manner.  Rebecca stood for a few moments gazing at
Deseire.  “Are you going to invite me in the room?”

“Yes, sorry, of course, Mother.  Come in.” Rebecca pulled
the door further open and took her mother’s caramel cashmere coat
off her back as she entered.  Eli hastened to the door with a
sigh of relief and took the coat from Rebecca’s hands before
placing it over the sofa.

Deseire walked in regal grace to the sofa and wiped the seat a
few times with her spread out hand before sitting down.  She
adjusted the gold necklace that hung over her silk white
blouse.  Rebecca pulled her hair back behind her, combing it
with her fingers a few times before sitting down to join her
mother.  Eli prepared warm tea in the kitchen.  The room
remained silent except for the fidgeting of Rebecca’s body trying
to find a place of comfort, and the clinking of the kettle.

“Would you enjoy a morning tea, Mrs. Baum?” Eli suggested,
turning his head in her direction.

“I would, thank you, but no sugar please.” She answered
cordially, but as if she spoke to her cook Rueben.

“What brings you here, Mother?” Rebecca inquired.

“A few matters have come to my attention.” Deseire opened her
beige colored handbag and pulled out a folded letter. She began to
open it and look it over, “I felt I needed to address them
personally.” She handed the letter to Rebecca and as Rebecca’s eyes
fell upon its words, Desiere continued.  “My sister Martha has
told me about your marriage to Eli and your desire to depart
Germany and sail to America.” The cup in Eli’s hands hit the
counter and he turned his head toward her.

“You’ve come to scold me?” Rebecca responded.

“No, dear,” Desire shook her head and then pulled Rebecca’s chin
with her forefinger, drawing her face to her own.  “You are my
little girl.”

Her finger dropped back to her lap.  “I know you think of
me as a rigid old woman who doesn’t understand you, but I’m not
heartless.  I don’t want to see my daughter getting herself
hurt or worse, killed.” Deseire touched her throat as she said the
last word and her voice wavered.  Deseire reached for her
daughter’s hand and Rebecca didn’t pull it away from her.  Her
mother rested her hand over her own and it felt uncommonly warm to
the touch.

“So why did you come?” Rebecca inquired a second time.

“To give you this.” Deseire handed Rebecca a miniature blue
booklet with the words American passport embossed in gold lettering
over the top.

“You had my passport?”

“After receiving the letter from your aunt, I knew you would
need it.”

“But when…?” Rebecca couldn’t complete her thought before her
mother answered.

“When you were sixteen, your father thought it would be a good
idea in case we visited Grandma in America.  We never did.”
Deseire spoke the last sentence in regret.

“Thank you, Mutti.” Rebecca said mutti with tenderness as she
embraced her with both arms. Deseire cleared her throat and arched
her back as if to conceal her emotions.  She patted her
daughter a few times on the shoulder with her outstretched hand and
then adjusted back in her seat.

“I’ve also brought you this.”Deseire pulled out a wad of bills
wrapped in a string from her bag and in clandestine manner as if
the whole of Germany was watching, slipped it in between Rebecca’s
clasped hands. “You are going to need money to start a life in
America.”

“This is too much.  You don’t have to do this.” Rebecca’s
face softened from the hardness it usually carried in the presence
of her mother.

“I do,” she said boldly with honesty.  “I’ve been
intolerable to you, to Eli,” she said almost ashamed.  “You
won’t have much if a life together in Germany with all the new
laws.  I’m afraid for your well being,” she corrected herself,
“for both of your well beings.” Rebecca wiped a fallen tear from
her eye which had made its way to her cheek.

“Thank you, Mama.  Thank you so much.” Rebecca embraced her
mother again, this time letting go of all the barriers between
them, of all the injustice and hurt from the past.  The past
did not exist between them anymore, only the here and now. 
Deseire held Rebecca’s face in her hands.

“I love you,” Deseire said with an unbridled emotion.

“I love you too.” Rebecca kissed her mother on each cheek. 
She wanted to tell her everything, how much she loved Eli, how they
were pregnant and looking forward to starting a family in America,
and the word mama perched on her lips.  But her mother stood
and took her coat off the sofa, interrupting her before the thought
formed into words.

“I need to be going.  There’s a lot going on today.” Eli
set the cup of tea on the kitchen counter that he had prepared for
Mrs. Baum, holding it until the private conversation finished. He
knew she had forgotten all about her tea. Instead, he helped her
with her coat and walked her to the door.  She turned to him
and kissed him once on the cheek, “Take care of my little
girl.”

“I promise,” Eli said, his words meant for two and opened the
door for Mrs. Baum.  Rebecca kissed her on the cheek one last
time and, as Deseire turned to depart, Rebecca pulled her back into
a warm extended hug.

“Tell Papa I love him,” Rebecca said.

“I will,” Deseire answered, smiled, then headed down the
corridor and disappeared on the stairwell.

Wednesday, August 9, 1933

Ezekiel Levin packed up the last of his belongings and walked
with his family to a cab outside their home.  They had decided
to each carry only one piece of luggage and Ezekiel sold their car
to have more money upon arrival in America.  He put the house
with its furnishings on the market and entrusted the profit of the
sale to be put into his account by a German real estate agent who
he had befriended over the years.

Ezekiel and Ada helped place the five suitcases into the trunk
while Deborah wept on the driveway.  Sarah wrapped her arm
around her mother and walked her to the cab just after Ada finished
with the last suitcase and hugged Deborah.  Leah and Miriam
were already sitting in the back with their faces to the window on
either side of the seat.  Eli drove up in Rebecca’s car just
as Ezekiel had gotten Deborah into the cab.  He rushed up to
his family and threw his arms around his father.

“Papa, I thought I was going to miss you.” Eli squeezed him and
then leaned into the cab to hug his mother and kiss each sister on
the cheek.

“Promise me you’ll be on the next ship out of here,” Deborah
implored.

“Just as soon as Rebecca is stable enough to travel,” Eli
reassured.  “I love you and I’ll see you all very soon.”

“We love you too, son.” Deborah reached out to hug her son once
more before the cab drove off.

The Levin family arrived at the docks in the late
afternoon.  Trolleys road over rails in front of the large
building and an exquisite tower clock stood high above to the right
as they approached.  Ezekiel led the family through the
building with signs posted: Third Class on the S.S.  New York
of the Hamburg Amerika Linie from Hamburg, Germany to New York.

He followed the signs to the ship and, as they boarded, someone
handed him a menu for their meals. A flowery decorated grey card
with a picture of a mountain in water framed the words Hamburg
Amerika Linie at the bottom.  He flipped the card over and
read the food items: Philadelphia Pepper Pot Roast, Ribs and German
Puff Pastries. The words were in German with an English
Translation. The steam liner featured game rooms with tables for
playing cards, and a dining hall with black and white checkered
floors. Standardized private quarters came with bed, mirror, and
bathroom. Outside offered deck tennis, and long rows of chairs
lining several wooden decks.  The family stood on the deck to
watch the ship sail away from Germany and to their future in a new
land.

* * *

Rebecca’s health had been fluctuating for weeks, yet she
frolicked on her porch in ballerina movements for the past couple
of days like she had after her and Eli first made love. The thought
of her new child kept her spirits high, though her body went
through many physical changes from her recovery and from the
growing baby inside of her.  Eli was relieved to see the
hospital visit had not brought her to a state of melancholy.

Rebecca held her stomach and tried to feel the life made of part
herself and a part of the man she loved.  Every breath she
breathed was not just for her, but for that tiny child.  She
knew she could not let her health falter in the slightest in order
to keep her baby healthy and strong.  She ate abundantly and
slept in when she felt the need.

The hospital afforded her a savings combined with Eli’s savings
which they needed to live on in the months to come.  The
doctor who helped her recover put in a good word for her with the
head of the hospital.  Even so, rumors circulated that she had
married a Jew and so her baby was a half Jew. Those two rumors
spoiled her reputation for good, leaving no manager at the hospital
allowing her to return.

Eli took care of balancing what savings they had.  He
bought food by the volume, but always inexpensive produce and
usually at a Jewish market.  German citizens grew particular
with whom they bought from so, whenever Eli purchased from the
local Jewish market, only fellow Jews shopped there.

He carried a wicker basket on one arm and filled it with apples
and assorted vegetables.  Stew was easy to prepare and
healthy.  Apples could be baked into a pie, fried, put into a
salad and eaten whole.  Rebecca adored the fruit and Eli could
never purchase enough for her; however, her cravings for pickles
and sauerkraut always kept him searching at several places before
returning home.

Jacob met with Eli at the market and filled his own basket with
fruits for the woman who accompanied him. She sat on a short wooden
bench just outside the market, combing her long blonde hair with a
silver plated comb and then started on a cigarette.  Eli
glanced to where she sat as Jacob smiled with a glitter of
frivolity in his eyes.