The Voyage (20 page)

Chapter 74

The following day Anna received three letters, each postmarked a few day apart. Alex had written consistently. His letters had been held up in the mail.

For the most part the letters told her about what he was learning. He was still stationed in California, and would not be re-stationed  for at least another six months; then there was a good chance that he would be transferred somewhere out in the Pacific. But if he had his choice, he would put in for a transfer to Europe. Alex wanted to fight the Germans, not the Japanese. He had no issues with the Japanese, he said. He wanted to pay the Nazis back for the deaths of his family, for their hatred of the Jews, for his time in the camp, and for their deception on the
St. Louis
. He explained to Anna how during gun training he imagined the targets to have the faces of the Nazis he’d remembered from Dachau. When he turned the machine gun on them full blast, he said he felt elated. And because of this he’d become an excellent marksman.

“The strange thing here is that the other soldiers think I am German just because I have an accent and I was born in Germany. This automatically makes them leery of me. They think I am some kind of a spy for the Nazis. Can you imagine? If they only understood that Hitler does not see me as a German, only as a Jew. If they would only accept the fact that I am on the side of America even more than the Americans are because the survival of my entire race hangs on the outcome of this war.  I try to explain this to them, but their heads are too thick and they are unwilling to believe me.

  “I do not fear my own death. I only fear that I will somehow lose you, that something terrible will happen to you.  Sometimes at night, I can’t sleep because of this fear. As you know, I have lost everyone I have ever loved. If I should be killed, my only concern is that it would cause you pain, and I hate to think of myself as the cause of any unhappiness for you. I am not worth it,” he wrote. “Anna, if I should die you must go on; you must forgive me and not grieve. This war is something that I must be a part of, it is something I must do in order to make things right in my own mind. When Hitler killed my family, he declared war on me personally, and I want to be sure that I give him just what he deserves.  I only hope that I have the opportunity to kill plenty of Nazis.”

She read his letters and was afraid that he was spiraling down into madness. Anna knew that Alex was angry, and rightfully so, but he seemed to be obsessed with murder and revenge. If only he’d not gone so far away… She could not protect him from himself now. And he needed protection; his mind had been unsound before he left. “Now, without me to lean on, God only knows what will become of him....” she whispered aloud.

Chapter 75

A vote was taken. The union won, hands down. Gimbels employees were now a part of the RWDSU. 

Anna came into work on a Monday morning to find a letter waiting for her behind the counter where she worked.

“This is for you.” Her supervisor, Joan said. It came with the mail this morning.

“Oh, no…” Anna said. “I hope it isn’t about my husband.”

“Go in the back and sit down and read it. I’ll watch the counter.” Joan said. Anna was a good, reliable employee, who stayed out of trouble. Joan liked her.

“Thank you,” Anna said, taking the envelope and walking to the break room.

Three women whom she knew from different departments were pouring coffee. She didn’t want to stop and talk, so she took the letter into the bathroom, locked herself in a stall, and tore the envelope open.

It read:

“Just wondering if you’ve had a craving for egg rolls lately, no pork, of course? Or maybe you’ve had a hankering to go out dancing?  I’ll be at the diner next-door at seven when you get off work tonight. Come on over and say hi to your friendly union rep, Benny, at your service.”

She tore the paper into small pieces and flushed it down the toilet. Damn him, she thought. I have enough to worry about without him bothering me. 

Anna ignored Benny’s request, and three days later a dozen red roses arrived at Gimbels for Anna. All the salesgirls who saw the delivery boy carrying the box wrapped in silver paper came rushing over to see who the flowers were for. 

“It must be from your husband overseas,” one of the girls said as Anna thanked the delivery boy.

“How beautiful… May I get Anna a vase from the housewares department?” another one of the girls asked Anna’s boss.

“That won’t be necessary. I believe we have something in the back that Anna can use.” Joan smiled at Anna. “Come with me and bring your flowers. We’ll put them in water.

“Aren’t you going to open the card?” another salesgirl asked.

“Perhaps Anna would prefer to open that in private. Come along, Anna.” Joan put her arm around Anna’s shoulder and led her away.

Anna tucked the card into the pocket of her skirt. She had a feeling that the flowers were not from Alex. How could he send flowers all the way from California? They had to be from Benny, and she would prefer that the others not know about his interest in her.

Joan filled a vase with water and put the flowers in one-by-one. “They are lovely.”

“Yes, they are.”

Joan never asked who the flowers were from. She put them on the table in the break room and left.

Once she was alone, Anna opened the card.

“This act of sending flowers is not really my style, but you are a rare find. So, how about that dinner? You know how I hate to eat alone.  Benny.”

He was really beginning to get on her nerves.

Chapter 76

Anna never responded to the flowers, and she did not hear from Benny again. But three weeks later, at the beginning of August, labor and management negotiations began. Mr. Broido, the vice-president in charge of the employees, seemed to be on fairly good terms with Mr. Wolchock, and because of this the employees were hopeful that they would be granted what they asked for. The demands were not outrageous. The employees were asking for a forty-hour, five-day workweek and two dollars a day additional pay. 

Within a few days, the employees had a resolution. The company agreed to a dollar fifty raise per day and a forty-two hour workweek.  The employees were not satisfied. They wanted the forty-hour week, wanted it badly enough to strike. 

Anna was worried about a strike. If the union said everyone must walk out, she would be forced to join them, and that meant no pay until the strike ended. She had some money saved, but she was hoping to have a down payment for a house when Alex returned. This could be a setback, depending upon how long the strike lasted.

On August 18
th
, William Michelson, the leader of Gimbels local two ordered a strike.

That night Anna had dinner with Wera in her apartment.

“I cannot believe that I am going to sit on a picket line instead of working. It seems like such a waste of time.”

“Yes, maybe, but maybe it is good for the company to put these rules in place. In the long run it’s gonna be better for you and everybody else who works there.”

“I suppose you’re right. “

“Listen, I made you a present,” Wera said.

“A present, for me? Why?”

“I have nothing to do all day, so I made you a pair of pants. I saw a poster of Katherine Hepburn wearing them. Maybe you will want to wear them on the picket line.”

Wera got up and pulled a pair of gray trousers out of the drawer of her sewing dresser. “Come on, try them on so that I can fit them to you.”

Anna held the trousers up and looked at them. She’d never considered wearing pants before, but the idea was sort of attractive. Why not? She put them on. They were too big. Wera pinned the sides until they hung just right.

“I’ll have them all ready for you tomorrow,” Wera said.

“Can I at least pay you for the fabric?”

“No need. I had this fabric left over from a customer I made a dress for. You are so small and thin that it was enough fabric.” Wera occasionally did sewing work for private clients.

“Oh, Wera, thank you so much for thinking of me.”

“You are my friend, my only friend,” Wera laughed. “And after all, you are like a movie star, always the first one to wear the lastest fashion. I wanted you to be a style-setter like Katherine Hepburn and Marlene Detrich.”

“I think these pants would look wonderful with my white cotton blouse.”

“Yes, so do I, but I had a little time and a little black silk left over from another customer, so I made you a blouse, too.”

“Wera?” She smiled. “Thank you.”

“No need to thank me. You help by paying for the food.”

“And you hardly even let me pay for that,” Anna said.

“You do plenty.” Wera smiled. “Now, come in the morning and I’ll have these clothes all ready for you.”

“Are you sure? There is no hurry. You can take a few days.”

“Of course I’m sure. I’ll even have a couple of sweet rolls and a pot of coffee for us. We’ll have a little breakfast before you go.”

Anna leaned over and kissed Wera’s cheek.

When Anna arrived on the picket line wearing her new outfit, all of the women came rushing over to her.

“You look marvelous. I love the way the trousers make you look, so stylish.”

They raved, and Anna felt good. She wasn’t earning a salary, but the picket line wasn’t so bad. It was fun to socialize with the other girls. They never had time to sit and chat for very long while they were working. Anna was given a sign to carry that said: “Don’t shop at Gimbels. They treat their employees terribly.”

Everything went fine for the first few days, until one of the well-known, affluent customers came to Gimbels and tried to break through the picket line.

Anna had never seen her fellow employees get so angry and volatile. The female customer was testy, spoiled and demanding, not uncommon for the typical prosperous Gimbels customer. For years the employees had been forced to cater to the whims of the well-to-do customers, whom they had come to hate. Now, they refused to back down. They called out obscenities at the woman, and frightened her away.

As the strikers grew in number, the workers grew bolder. They hurled strong insults at Gimbels’ wealthy clients who tried to cross the picket line. Then things went too far when Helen, one of the sales girls, threw a bottle of red ink at a woman. Anna had seen Helen around the store. She always appeared quiet, and reserved; there had been no evidence of this fire brewing within her. Anna watched as the police came rushing over. They handcuffed Helen, and she was arrested for assault. 

As the time went on, the strikers became more daring in their approach until finally someone released a swarm of bees into the store.

Anna was not violent by nature, and she didn’t like the screaming of obscenities in the streets. But she understood how the employees felt.

A few days later, several workers from Quills TWU came to join the strikers, as the picket line grew larger and more aggressive.

Bette and Alice invited Anna to join them as they sat on the curb eating sandwiches. Anna sat down. She was wearing another pair of brown trousers that Wera had made for her, and a cream-colored blouse.

“I have an extra sandwich, Anna. You want one?”

“No, thanks.”

“Look over there...” Bette said. “Remember that handsome union organizer, Benny? He’s coming this way and he really looks good in that fedora.”

“Jeez, he’s handsome,” Alice said.

“You know what I heard?” Bette said.

“What?” Alice asked.

“I heard that Benny gives lots of his own money to help picketers, you know, like guys with families who have to be out of work because of a strike.”

“Where did you hear that?” Anna asked.

But before Bette could answer, Anna looked up to see Benny sauntering over to them. Several of the other strikers tried to stop him and engage him in conversation, but he was heading straight for Anna.

Chapter 77

Alex was on a plane on his way to England. He was to work on bombers and tanks. This was the first time he’d ever flown and the altitude bothered his ears. A sharp pain shot from the back of his ear down his neck.  As he sat in the dark cabin of the plane, he thought of Anna.  Poor Anna, she’d put up with so much from him, Now he’d left her alone to fend for herself in New York City, and if he died, then what? He hated himself. It had not been fair of him to marry her. When they met, Alex already knew that he was damaged. He should have stayed away from her. She was so young and innocent. She could have married so much better. She should have married Manny.  But she’d been so kind to him and cared so much about him, that he’d fallen in love with her so deeply that even now the depth of his feelings left him breathless.

Perhaps enlisting had been a mistake; perhaps he owed Anna more than this. Dear God, if only he could be more decisive. Everything he did always seemed wrong after the fact. But he could not go on living the way he had been, constantly feeling as if he should be doing something, anything, to fight against the Nazis.

His time in boot camp taught him many things, but the one that had been the most difficult was discovering that anti-Semitism stretched its ugly head into the U.S. armed forces. Once the other soldiers learned that he was Jewish, some of them refused to sit next to him in the mess hall, and one even refused to bunk on the bottom of his bunk. They acted like he had a contagious disease.

The plane hit some turbulence, rocking and shaking like it might fall out of the sky.

Alex shivered. Anna...

It felt strange to be going back to Europe. He’d worked so hard to get to America. Well, at least once he got to England he could begin searching for Manny. A day never passed that Alex didn’t remember that both he and Anna owed everything to Manny, and he would not rest until he found him.

Although the cabin of the aircraft was dimly lit, Alex took a pencil and paper out of the breast pocket of his uniform and began to write a letter.

“Anna, my Anna...”