To Earth and Back

by William Boardman

  Adie was mesmerized. After a moment, she replied, “Oh, yes, please. Yes, I would.”

  “Well, then maybe you can be my helper. How about that?”

  # # #

  “We’re going to move forward to the birth,” Ari said. “I avoided censorship by using views that didn’t compromise Mrs. Behr. I just wanted to capture Adie’s interaction.”

  ———————

  In the interest of common decency, ERS mission planners had instituted censorship protocols within the Global Imaging System to block all transmissions that contained nudity or explicit sensual content.

  > > >

  Ari’s display divided into two images. The top half of the display showed a wide overhead view of Mrs. Behr from the chest up, clothed in a gown and clearly in great distress. The lower half of the display provided a head and shoulders view of the midwife and Adie.

  Speaking to Adie over Mrs. Behr’s elevated voice, the midwife said, “I need to keep an eye on a few things right now. You can help by wiping the sweat off your mommy’s face and neck...and tell her what a good job she is doing.”

  Adie, who had been watching the midwife’s every move, took a dry washcloth from the small table beside her, moved to the head of the bed, and calmly blotted the perspiration from her mother’s forehead. “Mama, you’re doing fine. The baby is almost here. We’re taking care of you. Be strong. Be strong.” After a few minutes, she returned to observe the midwife.

  “There’s the top of the baby’s head. Do you see, Adie?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Tell your mama to push.”

  Adie coached, and Mrs. Behr struggled to respond.

  “Okay, stop pushing for a second,” Mrs. Meinstein said. “Yes, everything looks good. Push! Push! That’s it!”

  In extreme anguish, Mrs. Behr strained one last time, and within moments, the baby was out. Mrs. Meinstein took a damp towel to clean his face, and he began to cry.

  Mrs. Behr was euphoric. “Is it a boy?” she asked, hopefully.

  “Yes, Mama, it’s a boy,” Adie said.

  Mrs. Meinstein glanced at Adie. “Why don’t you hold him for a minute, my dear, while I take care of a few things?”

  Eyes wide, Adie reached out to receive her brother. “He’s beautiful, Mama, just beautiful.”

  “Can I hold him now?” Mrs. Behr asked.

  The midwife helped Adie swaddle her brother in a towel. “There, that should do it. Go ahead, my dear,” she said, motioning toward the bed.

  Adie carried the baby to her mother and crawled up beside her in the bed.

  “Oh my, oh my,” Mrs. Behr said, smiling, “and what a sweet face.”

  # # #

  “You know, I’m not sure I would have handled things quite that well,” Merrick said of Adie.

  “Yeah,” said Ari. “Not many little girls her age could have managed that and still maintained enough focus to be a help. And, she didn’t miss a thing. I think you’ll see what I mean in this next sequence. Mrs. Behr had another boy a year later. You’ll see that things were a little different. I broke the event into several short segments to give you the gist of what happened. Okay, Zoey, go ahead.”

  Merrick noted the data stream scrolling across the display.

  > > >

  Case Study: Adina (Adie) Behr - Age: 9 // Location: 52°29’04.86” N 13°16’11.73” E // Elevation: 143 ft // Berlin, Germany - Behr Home - Music Room // Earth Date: September 30, 1937 - Local Time: 1436 //

  Mrs. Behr sat with Adie at the piano, preparing her for an upcoming recital. “Yes, sweetheart, the music is the most important thing, but you must never forget to look your very best. You must look the part, from your hair to your shoes.” Mrs. Behr bent forward slightly and grimaced. “And don’t forget poise and—” A pronounced contraction produced a pained expression and a deep groan.

  “What is it, Mama? What’s wrong?”

  Mrs. Behr shuddered from the pain. “The baby...coming—call your papa. I’m going up to my room while I still can.”

  Adie ran through the archway between the music room and living room, picked up the phone, and called the jewelry store. “Yes, this is Adie. I need to speak with my papa.” Listening to the response, her patience quickly ran thin. “Tell him the baby is coming!” she shouted as she set the receiver back on the hook. Running to the kitchen, she retrieved a large cooking pot and dashed up the back stairs. “I’m coming, Mama!” she yelled, running down the hall and into the master bedroom. “I called Papa. They told me he’s on his way back from a meeting.”

  Having put on a gown, Mrs. Behr moved toward the bed, doubled over in pain.

  Adie set the pot down. “Here, I can help.” She took her mother’s arm and helped her into bed. “They will send Papa for Mrs. Meinstein as soon as he gets in.”

  Mrs. Behr grimaced. “Well, I hope that’s soon. I don’t think this one’s going to wait around.”

  # # # Ten Minutes Later > > >

  Adie was kneeling beside her mother in bed when the phone rang. She slipped down and dashed into the sitting room to answer. “Hello...Yes, Papa? Okay...Yes, Papa, I’ll tell Mama.” She returned to the bedroom. “Papa called Mrs. Meinstein, but her daughter says she’s at the market. Papa is going to find her.”

  Mrs. Behr motioned Adie back up on the bed. Holding her daughter’s head between her hands, she said, “Sweetheart, I want to believe the midwife will be here on time, but you and I must assume she won’t. How much do you remember of what Mrs. Meinstein did last year?”

  “Everything—I remember everything, Mama.”

  “Then why don’t you start to get things ready?”

  “Oh, yes, I will. Don’t worry, Mama. We’ll be fine,” Adie said in a calm voice. “I’m going to run some hot water and get some things. I’ll be right back.” She quickly went about gathering what she needed—the small table from the hallway, washcloths and towels from the linen closet, and the sewing kit from the sitting room. Soon, all was in order: linens on the end of the bed—the other items and hot water on the small table. She opened the sewing kit, cut a short length of heavy thread, and submerged the scissors in the hot water.

  # # # Forty Minutes Later > > >

  Mrs. Behr was delirious with pain, struggling to get her words out. “They aren’t...going to...make it. You’re going to have to...do the best you can.”

  Adie dabbed the sweat from her mother’s face and neck. “Mama, everything is fine. Don’t worry. I remember what to do.” She slipped away and returned to the foot of the bed. “Mama, it’s almost time. I see the top of the baby’s head. I don’t think it wants to wait.”

  Mrs. Behr’s voice was elevated and indiscernible.

  “Okay, Mama, I think it’s time to push some.” With steady hands and voice, Adie prepared to receive the baby. “The head is out, now wait for a—”

  By this time, Mrs. Behr had lost all muscle control. The baby was in Adie’s hands in a matter of seconds. “Okay, okay, Mama. I have it…. It’s a boy! I’m going to clean him up a little.” As she wiped the baby’s face, his lungs came to life in a loud staccato scream. “Uh-oh, I think I made you mad,” Adie said, relieved by his breathing.

  “Is he all right?”

  “Oh, yes, Mama, he’s all right…. I’m almost done.” Adie took the heavy thread, tied the umbilical cord snugly, and with the scissors, cut the cord as she had seen the midwife do the year before. “Okay, Mama, he’s all clean.” She swaddled her brother in a towel and carried him to her mother. With the baby safely in her mother’s arms, she returned to the foot of the bed to put everything in order.

  “Go check on your other brother,” Mrs. Behr said. “Make sure he’s still sleeping.”

  # # # Twenty Minutes Later > > >

  Adie was lying close to her mother, with the baby’s hand tightly clasped around her finger.

  Downstairs, the entryway door thundered open, and anxious footsteps ascended the stairs. “Rina!” Mr. Behr yelled. The commoti
on startled the baby, and he began to scream. Moments later, the bedroom door swung open. Mrs. Meinstein looked around the room to find everything in perfect order. She quickly stepped into the bathroom and returned with a puzzled look. “Who delivered the baby?”

  Mrs. Behr smiled and tipped her head toward Adie, then looked up at her husband. “Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to say hello to your new son?”

  “Oh my gosh,” said Mr. Behr, astonished. He looked at his daughter and back at his wife. “Our Adie’s a wunderkind—a wunderkind!”

  # # #

  The display went blank. For a moment, Merrick sat motionless. “Brother! That was intense.... Seems like an awful lot for a little girl.”

  Ari nodded. “At least one news reporter thought so—made her into somewhat of a local hero.”

  The two men decided to break for the day and resume as their schedules permitted.

  CHAPTER 11

  Three days later, they met in Ari’s quarters for dinner. Later, they adjourned to view more of Adie's archive, beginning with four short vignettes at ages nine and ten.

  > > >

  The first showed Adie walking home from school, arm in arm with a friend. The woman walking ahead of them was obviously well to do, sporting a beautifully embroidered dress and glamorous hat with a silk band and feathers. She lifted her hand to suppress a sneeze, then reached into her purse for a handkerchief, unknowingly pulling out a one hundred mark note with it. The bill slowly spiraled down to the cobblestones below, landing squarely in front of Adie. The girls stopped and stared in disbelief as the woman walked on, oblivious.

  Adie felt a soft jab from her friend’s elbow. “Take it,” her friend whispered. “No one will know.”

  “But I will,” Adie retorted with conviction. She picked up the note and quickened her pace to catch up with the woman... “Ma’am! You dropped this.”

  The woman turned; her eyes fixed on the note. She was younger than Adie expected—in her late twenties, with long blond hair and light gray eyes. Initially, the woman seemed very grateful. Then, noticing their Jewish attire, her expression hardened. She snatched the note and rudely walked away.

  “See!” Adie’s friend scolded. “You should have just kept it.”

  “No, I should have returned it,” Adie corrected. “My papa told me that I’m not responsible for other people’s behavior—only mine.”

  # # #

  Ari presented the next vignette in several short segments, beginning with Adie seated among classmates, listening to her teacher complete their three-day study of the solar system.

  > > >

  “Now class, I know it’s difficult to understand just how much space is out there, even in a relatively small region like our solar system. It might help if you look at it this way: Our Earth is about eight thousand miles wide. Most of us can understand that—right? So, you can think about the distance to the Sun like this: If you were to string twelve thousand Earths together in a very long line, that would be how far it is to the Sun. Now, if you wanted to understand how far it is to Pluto, that would be roughly forty times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.” She scanned their puzzled faces. “A lot to imagine, isn’t it?”

  The class voiced agreement.

  “Okay, you’ve heard enough from me,” the teacher said. “It’s time to do a review for Friday’s test, so now I want to hear from you…. Paul, why don’t you tell us something about Neptune?”

  Paul, a well-dressed boy with wire-rimmed glasses stood up to field the question. “Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun, the fourth largest of all the planets. It’s like the Earth because it has one moon. I think it’s called Triton.”

  “And does anyone remember where Neptune was first viewed in a telescope?”

  Adie’s hand shot up.

  “Yes, Adina.”

  “Right here in Berlin, at the Berlin Observatory,” Adie said with a broad smile and sense of satisfaction.

  “Well, that’s exactly right. And does anyone know Neptune’s composition?”

  A knock on the door interrupted their review, and the school secretary poked her head in. “The headmaster needs to see you.”

  The teacher gave a nod and excused herself, assuring the students of her prompt return.

  Shortly after her departure, the class joker brazenly walked forward and began flipping through the papers on the teacher’s desk, coming up with the Friday science test. He zipped back to his seat and began copying answers.

  # # # Thirty Minutes Later > > >

  The students followed the teacher out for recess, but the joker delayed. Upon seeing the teacher exit, he darted over to her desk and slipped the test back in its place before joining the others outside. Then, while everyone was playing, he stealthily moved from classmate to classmate offering to supply test answers to everyone in the class. Only Adie and two others declined.

  # # # Friday After School > > >

  The teacher sat at her desk looking suspiciously over the students’ test results: All perfect scores, with the notable exception of her three best students.

  # # # The Following Monday > > >

  The headmaster joined Adie’s class and the inquisition began. The truth quickly surfaced, and all but the three honest students received failing grades.

  # # #

  “So her formal name is Adina?” Merrick asked.

  “Yes, Adina Marie Behr,” Ari replied.

  “And when did she start wearing glasses?” Merrick asked, referring to the images of Adie on the far wall.

  “Oh, she was twelve or so. And her vision’s grown worse over the years. Of course, losing an eye during the war didn’t help.”

  “I wouldn’t think so,” Merrick said, empathizing.

  “Listen...this next event...I thought it might be easier to describe verbally, rather than show imagery.

  “It happened in April that same year. One of Adie’s Jewish classmates and her family were put out of their home. The Nazis confiscated everything, and the family had no recourse but to impose on relatives. Things being what they were, it wasn’t long before the relatives resources ran thin, and the girl stopped bringing her lunch to school. Of course, Adie noticed right away and began to share hers. This eventually came to the attention of Mrs. Behr, and while she was proud of what Adie was doing, she was also concerned that she wasn’t getting enough to eat. So she decided to include a second lunch in Adie’s satchel each day. Sadly, two months later that same family was arrested and shipped off to a work camp.”

  Merrick frowned and shook his head. “With all of this going on around them, weren’t Adie’s parents becoming concerned for their own safety?”

  Ari nodded. “Mr. Behr had heard other stories from his customers—so much so that he hired a tutor for Adie the following year and kept her at home as much as possible.

  “Now, Mrs. Behr, on the other hand, being an American celebrity and not Jewish, enjoyed great popularity among the German people. As a matter-of-fact, Albert Speer, one of Hitler’s top men, admired her so much that he provided the family with special identification papers, granting them unrestricted travel—not only within Germany, but also any newly acquired territories. Even so, Mr. Behr kept to his office during the day and restricted his family’s movements.”

  “And yet, Mrs. Behr remained out in public?” Merrick asked.

  “Mr. Behr wasn’t quite the socialite his wife was. He moved in smaller circles—mainly business colleagues. During social events at the Behr mansion, he typically stayed in the background, allowing Mrs. Behr to be the gracious hostess, which she was. He encouraged her to continue her work with the Berlin Philharmonic and entertain at social events. His belief was that her social status might afford the family some degree of protection. Of course, those hopes didn’t last.” Ari paused. “Look, before I get too far ahead, I wanted you to see this next sequence. It happened on a Saturday in May of 1938, when Adie’s family went to worship at their synagogue.”
>
  > > >

  From the outset, the worship service seemed to pique Merrick’s interest. “The man who’s singing—is that the Rabbi?” he asked, referring to the man’s exceptional tenor voice.

  “No, that’s the Cantor,” Ari corrected...“He’s singing a prayer.”

  Toward the middle of the service, when the congregation sang, Ari drew Merrick’s attention to Adie’s devout expression and sweet voice.

  As the service drew to a close, Merrick pointed out several things he found enlightening and commented on the beauty of the synagogue’s architecture.

  # # #

  “Unfortunately,” Ari explained, “just five months later, the Nazis burned it to the ground. They destroyed synagogues and ransacked Jewish businesses all over Germany. That same night, they arrested nearly thirty-thousand Jews and sent them off to prison camps.”

  Merrick lost focus and fell silent.

  “They called it ‘The Night of Broken Glass.’ From that point on, things became pretty grim for Jews all over Europe. In the weeks that followed, some fairly disturbing accounts of persecution came to the Behrs’ attention, mainly through business and social contacts. For Mrs. Behr, it started with the arrest of a fellow musician. According to a witness, brown-shirted Nazis broke into the man’s home, dragged the family out, and just carted them off. Mr. Behr heard two similar stories from business colleagues, one concerning a jeweler in Berlin; the other, a gemologist in Austria. As the bad news kept mounting, Mrs. Behr’s hopes of dodging persecution began to fade. And even though Mr. Behr continued to play everything down, he had already begun planning a way out of Germany.”