“Certainly, Missus,” the cook answered with a little curtsey. Auntie Edna and Auntie Paula exchanged looks. Mrs. Halpin, her cousin, and the two children were nowhere in sight.
When we went out to get back into our truck, I saw that it had been painted a bright yellow. Fredek, who was already outside looking at it when I came out, explained that it was so German airplanes wouldn’t mistake us for army and attack us again. I, of course, could figure that out on my own and ignored him.
“It was the only paint we could get, Missus, and it’s still a little wet, but the wind will dry it,” Mr. Dembovski explained to Mother. He was carrying suitcases out of the house.
“I think Lupicki stole it,” Auntie Paula confided to Miss Bronia.
“What did he steal, Auntie?” Fredek wanted to know.
“Nothing,” Auntie Paula said.
“I told you he was a crook,” Fredek said to me. Mr. Halpin had come out to say goodbye, and I saw Mother hand him a fold of money. “Oh, I couldn’t,” I heard him say.
“It’s wartime,” my mother told him. “We must all carry our own weight when we can.” She pressed the money into his hand. “Please thank your wife for us, and may God watch over you all.” Mother’s reference to God surprised me.
Suddenly I heard Fredek cry out in pain. “Look what you’ve done!” his mother was shouting. She had Fredek by the ear with her one good hand. “Those pants came from Vienna!”
“Ow!” Fredek was crying while Auntie Edna looked as though she were trying to lift him off the ground by that ear.
“Look at that,” Auntie Edna was saying to the group, turning Fredek around by his ear. On the seat of his gray shorts there was a smear of yellow paint. “We brought these pants back from Vienna last winter, and we’ve waited all this time for him to grow into them. Now look what he’s done.”
“Let it go, Edna,” Auntie Paula said. “It isn’t important.”
“Do you know what Morris paid for those pants?” Auntie Edna said.
“It isn’t important,” Auntie Paula repeated. “You’re hurting him.”
“Ow! Ow!” Fredek repeated. I saw his face was red and he was in tears. Auntie Edna let him go. Fredek rubbed his ear and continued crying.
“He makes me so mad,” Auntie Edna said. “Always tormenting me with his guns, his spies, his … his I-don’t-know-what’s.”
“He’s a boy, Edna,” Auntie Paula said.
“Look how well-behaved Yulek is. He sits quietly, and answers politely, doesn’t make trouble, obeys….” Auntie Edna was saying.
Suddenly I felt very embarrassed—embarrassed and pleased at the same time. I knew immediately that I should feel sorry for Fredek, but I was pleased instead.
“In front of the children!” Auntie Paula admonished her.
“I know, I’m a terrible mother.”
“Edna!”
Auntie Edna was crying as she stepped on a box to get into the truck, and I felt sorry for her. We all followed in silence.
“Basia has a new conquest,” Auntie Paula said, laughing, as soon as we pulled out into the street.
“That anti-Semitic bitch,” Mother said.
“Anti-Semitic?” Auntie Paula repeated.
“That’s why she didn’t want us in the house,” Mother said.
“Really, Basia,” Auntie Paula said.
“This isn’t Warsaw, you know. Small town people aren’t like the people you know in Warsaw.”
“I’ve never seen …”
“No, Paula, you don’t see it, first because you don’t travel, and second because you don’t look Jewish. Edna is a beautiful woman, but she’s a beautiful Jewish woman. Look at her nose. With that nose and her black hair, she could be the queen of Palestine. I have a nose, too, but I dye my hair.” That was news to me. “In America they do operations now where they change your nose,” my mother went on. “Everybody has it done. Lolek and I were going to go to New York next summer. Now I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“Paula, look what’s happening in Germany.” Auntie Edna spoke up for the first time.
“But this is Poland,” Auntie Paula said.
“You think it’s that different in Poland?” Mother said. “Because we have money, we’re accepted. We can go to fine restaurants and hotels. But have you ever tried to get a table at Bolecki’s? ‘I’m sorry, Mrs. Herbstein, but we have no tables this evening.’ Try to enroll Frederick Tishman or Sonya Herbstein in the Kormanevich school.”
“That’s right,” Auntie Edna said. “Basia’s right. You and Felix don’t look Jewish. Only your name gives you away, but you don’t travel.”
“What do you mean we don’t travel? We came back from Paris just last month.”
“That’s not the kind of travel Basia is talking about. First of all, people who travel don’t go to Paris in August, and second of all…”
“Felix had to go there on business.”
“All right, on business. And where did you stay, at the Plaza?”
“Isn’t that where you and Morris stay?”
Auntie Edna began to laugh. “From now on, we all hide behind Paula,” she said. “And Bronia,” she added.
“Why don’t you dye your hair like Auntie Barbara?” Fredek asked his mother. The three mothers all burst out laughing.
Miss Bronia quickly reached into her purse and brought out the knotted string we had played with the day before. “Let’s do cat’s cradle,” she suggested.
“I want to do cat’s cradle with Fredek,” Sonya suddenly announced.
“We’ll all take turns,” Miss Bronia said.
I didn’t want to play cat’s cradle, and I exercised my newly-discovered right to voice it. Something far more important was forming in my mind. How could I best love and help Mother, as I knew I was supposed to at this difficult time? The answer was simple—by converting her to Catholicism. Then her Immortal Soul could go to Heaven for the rest of eternity, and that would be a much more valuable thing than anything else I could ever do for her. Suddenly I was very excited. How I would go about doing this, I had no idea. But if I had faith in God, He would show me. Hadn’t He already shown me signs of His approval?
That day was mostly uneventful. There were no people on foot on this road, and only an occasional farmer’s wagon passed by. Once some cars and trucks carrying soldiers zoomed past us, going the other way.
But there were thoughts rushing through my head. I could see myself going to mass with Kiki and Mother after the war. I was the tallest of the three, and I would prompt Mother on her prayers. Kiki would be so proud of me and would hold my arm tightly. I was on a mission now. God had sent me on this adventure with these five Jews and Miss Bronia for a purpose.
Did that mean that I was supposed to convert all of them? God would tell me. If I had faith, God would tell me His intentions in His own time.
The three mothers talked little and slept a lot. Fredek and Sonya huddled in one corner whispering and laughing. Mr. Dembovski had tied both doors wide open and there was plenty of light now. Miss Bronia would ask me occasionally if I wanted her to tell me a story or something. But there was too much in the way of stories going on in my head to warrant troubling her. I realized by now that God was not really an old man with a long white beard and sandals, but lacking a more current image, I envisioned His bearded presence praising me for my missionary work.
We stopped at a farmer’s house and Auntie Paula went to the door and bought bread, cheese, and milk for our lunch. We made some bathroom stops, one by a stream where we washed our hands and faces. Mr. Lupicki made us laugh by pulling a stone out of my ear and then doing funny things with his hands by bending his fingers in ways that nobody else could. I noticed that he had taken off his jacket and even his hair was a little messy.
Turning to the mothers, Mr. Lupicki pulled a well-worn deck of cards out of his back pocket and proceeded to do some card tricks that I couldn’t follow, where he guessed what cards they were thinking of. He finished b
y fanning the entire deck out and then making them all fly through the air in some way that landed them neatly stacked in his hand.
“What clever hands Mister has, Mr. Lupicki,” my mother said to him. “Such supple fingers. Let me see them.” She held her hand out, palm up.
Mr. Lupicki carefully laid one of his hands in Mother’s. He was a small man, and his hand wasn’t much larger than hers. “You can tell so much about a man by looking at his hand,” Mother said, turning his hand over. “I don’t tell fortunes, but I see courage and great cleverness in that hand.” Mr. Lupicki blushed. “When this is over,” Mother went on, “Mister should look into something more ambitious than selling shoes in someone else’s store. Maybe Mister should come to see us in Warsaw.”
“Thank you, Missus.” Mr. Lupicki withdrew his hand as carefully as he had placed it.
“Why are you turning poor Lupicki’s head?” Auntie Paula asked when we were back in the truck, rolling down our empty road again.
“Lupicki’s very resourceful,” Mother answered her. “It’s good to have his good will.”
“Isn’t that a dangerous way to do it?”
“Why?”
“He’s a simple man, and you’re putting wrong ideas in his head.”
“Because I told him to have bigger ambitions than clerking in a shoe store?”
“You know what I mean,” Auntie Paula said.
“For heavensakes, Paula.”
“Paula’s right,” Auntie Edna said. “It’s not a good idea to be putting ideas in these people’s heads.”
I had no idea what they were talking about.
“I’m not putting ideas in anyone’s head. He’s an intelligent man, who’s just never thought he could do better than be a shoe-store clerk.”
“It’s just dangerous, particularly at a time like this,” Auntie Edna said. Then they all stopped talking.
I thought my mother was right. If Mr. Lupicki was as smart as she said, then he should certainly do something that paid him more money than being a shoe-store clerk. What was dangerous about that, I could not understand.
Later that afternoon we pulled to a gradual stop without pulling off the pavement, which seemed to concern the grownups. “Why are we stopping here?” Auntie Edna asked.
Mr. Lupicki’s dark head and shoulders immediately appeared at the back of our truck. Just some soldiers with car trouble, blocking the road, he assured us. Then he helped us all to the ground.
Looking around the side of the truck, I could see three cars and three trucks, all different shapes, but all painted the same green that ours had been until this morning, stopped in the other lane of the road. Soldiers stood all over the road, and some were peering under the hood of one of the trucks. They had helmets on their heads and carried rifles. Some had backpacks. I could see one young soldier, without his jacket, his shirt sleeves rolled above his elbows, a large screwdriver in his hand, talking to Mr. Dembovski at the front of our truck.
“What is it, Dembovski?” Mother said, walking up to the two of them. I found myself following her, though the others stayed at the back of the truck.
“They want to take Missus’s truck,” I heard Mr. Dembovski say.
The young soldier’s face suddenly turned a dark red. “I am First Lieutenant Yan Tchymanchek,” he said, and I could see how nervous he was. “One of our trucks has broken down, and I have authority to commandeer Missus’s truck for military service.”
“This is Senator Nathan Padovich’s truck,” my mother lied. That had been my father’s name. I didn’t know what a senator was.
“I am Mrs. Senator Padovich,” she said. In Polish the wife of a doctor was addressed as Mrs. Doctor, and this must have been the title for a senator’s wife. “I’m taking my family to Durnoval.”
The young lieutenant pulled to attention. “I am sorry, Mrs. Senator, but I have orders.”
“What kind of orders?”
“Orders to take my men to Warsaw for defense of the city. My orders …”
“I understand,” Mother cut him off. “What’s wrong with your truck?”
“We don’t know, Mrs. Senator. It just stopped.”
“Maybe my driver can fix it.”
“We haven’t the time, Mrs. Senator. We have already been delayed.”
“And you want to leave us out here on the road? We have children,” she said.
Suddenly I was frightened. I could see us all standing in the empty road with the broken truck as the soldiers drove off in ours.
The lieutenant’s face got still darker, and now he was sweating. But he didn’t have an answer for her. He had dark wavy hair and a little mustache.
“Go see what’s wrong with his truck,” Mother said to Mr. Dembovski.
“Y-yes, Missus … Mrs. Senator,” Mr. Dembovski said, touching his forehead as in a salute. He walked over to the truck, and the soldiers made room for him at the engine. Mr. Lupicki quickly joined him.
“He’s an expert mechanic,” Mother said. “But tell me, Mr. Lieutenant, where is Mister from?”
“Oh, from Lvow, Mrs. Senator.”
“I hear it’s a beautiful city,” Mother said, “though I’ve never been there. Is Mister married?”
“Yes, Mrs. Senator.” “And children?”
“One little girl.” And now he was smiling.
“Does Mister have photographs?”
“I have some in my tunic in the truck.”
“I would love to see them. This is my son Yulian.”
I stood to attention and saluted.
“My father’s in the Air Force,” I heard Fredek say behind me.
“Fredek, come back here!” Auntie Edna said. I saw Fredek head, instead, towards the broken truck.
“Fredek!” Auntie Paula commanded. Fredek turned back.
“Come with me, Yulek,” Mother sang out and reached for my hand. I sensed there was a purpose in this invitation and took her hand obediently. We followed the lieutenant to the truck where Mr. Dembovski and Mr. Lupicki were both tinkering with something under the hood. A soldier was in front of the truck fitting the crank into its receptacle under the grill.
The lieutenant brought his tunic out of the cab and pulled a photograph out of an inside pocket.
“Oh, aren’t they beautiful,” Mother said. “The little girl looks just like Mister. And Mister’s wife looks so young. Look, Yulek, aren’t they a beautiful family?” I understood that I was to agree, although the faces in the picture were small and dark. “Yes, Mummy,” I said. I was surprised that the lieutenant didn’t see that we were putting on an act for him.
“Is the little girl strong?” Mother asked.
“Strong?”
“I mean, is she in good health?” “Oh, yes.”
“Then Mister must thank God for it. Yulek is so fragile. Every little thing upsets his little system.”
In the context of the situation, I didn’t consider this a put-down. “Oh, the poor boy,” the lieutenant said. I coughed, and Mother looked at me out of the corner of her eye.
“In Warsaw he was under a pediatrician’s care.”
“Maybe he will grow out of it.”
“Yes, his father and I pray for that. Is Mr. Lieutenant a career officer?”
“Actually, Mrs. Senator, I’m an architect. I am in the reserve.”
“Then, after this is over, Mister will have to come to Warsaw and visit us. We’re in the telephone book, Padovich, you know. My husband is in charge of some important building projects, and there will be a lot of rebuilding to do.”
Mother was telling one lie after another. But this, too, I supposed, was part of its being wartime.
Then there was some shouting among a small group of soldiers, and the lieutenant excused himself to tend to the commotion. Immediately, Mr. Lupicki was at Mother’s elbow.
“Boleswav says he can’t fix their truck. It’s something electrical,” he said in a whisper that I could hear. “He says that we should all, very quietly and quickly, get back
in Missus’s truck.”
I saw that Mr. Dembovski was still working under the hood of the soldiers’ truck. Mother didn’t answer Mr. Lupicki, but took my hand again and began to lead me with quick steps back to our truck. The rest of our group, who had been standing at the back, were not in sight.
Mr. Lupicki helped Mother and me climb up, and I found everyone else in the truck already.
“We’re not supposed to speak,” Fredek whispered as I took my seat next to him.
“Shish!” Auntie Edna hissed.
“Shish,” Miss Bronia said quietly. We sat in silence. Then I heard the engine start up, and we began to move. People were holding their breath.
After we had passed the soldiers in the road, I could see the lieutenant standing alone, looking after us.
“Do you think they’ll come after us?” Auntie Edna whispered.
“No,” Mother said. “He wouldn’t leave women with children out in the road.”
“Well done, Mrs. Senator Padovich,” Auntie Edna whispered, as we watched the lieutenant in the road growing smaller.
Relieved as I was to be on our way, it wasn’t without some pangs of guilt. It was only when I realized that it wasn’t the lie about who we were that had let us escape, but the lieutenant’s unwillingness to leave women and children stranded on the road, that I felt better. I chose not to pursue the matter further.
In a while we made another stop so people could go to the bathroom. Again, we had stopped by some trees and a stream. The three mothers and Sonya walked a way along the side of the road to stretch their legs. When I had rinsed my hands in the stream after going to the bathroom behind a bush, I saw Mr. Lupicki standing behind me.
“Would you like to learn how to do a magic trick?” he suddenly asked me.
“Yes, please,” I answered him, surprised that he should single me out for this attention. Mr. Lupicki put the cigarette between his lips and proceeded to show me how he flicked a coin into the palm of his hand as he pretended to throw it into the air. He gave me a coin, a smaller one, and had me try it. I, of course, immediately dropped the coin, but he urged me to try it again, and after awhile I got so that I could actually hold it without its looking like I was holding anything.
Mother and Me Page 11