The Day the Flowers Died

by Ami Blackwelder

  “You did a real good job in there. Not many people can handle the sight of blood.”

  “Thanks.” She glanced up, smiled and looked down at her work. After collecting each instrument, she placed them into the kit and began to walk toward the sanitation counter for washing and sterilizing. The doctor brushed up behind her and rubbed his hand over her lower back.

  Startled and unsure of what to say or do, Rebecca abruptly turned to face him. “I’m with someone.”

  The doctor stepped back. “I’m sorry. I thought…I was told you weren’t married.” He answered in a polite manner.

  “I’m not.” She placed the tray on the counter and turned on the water. “But I’m in a serious relationship.”

  “Excuse me,” he said with sincere intonation and retreated into a patient’s room, leaving Rebecca relieved the incident did not escalate.

  After work, Rebecca arrived at her apartment. Upon opening the door, Eli whisked her into his arms and swung her around while a sweet giggle escaped from her mouth. He returned her to the floor and she shook her head, smiling at his antics.

  “What’s gotten into you?” she asked and headed to the bedroom, slipping off her white top and unzipping her hospital skirt. Eli curled his hands around her arm and slid it from her wrist to her shoulder bone and then up along her collar bone. “You’ve really got to get out more,” she grinned, “all this keeping you cooped up can’t be good for a young man.” She tilted her head into his hands and then darted into the bathroom.

  “What do you suggest?” Eli plopped on her bed, filled with an energy out of character.

  “I thought maybe we could go to the park this weekend. I have Saturday free.”

  “That sounds perfect.” Eli threw his head back onto the bed, frustrated with an unsatisfied appetite to stroll around Munich and smell the fresh air, hold hands with the woman he loved and spin her around in his arms for the world to see. But he knew he had to wait. He had to be patient. He had to be still.

  Rebecca finished her bath and sat next to Eli lying on the bed with a book in his hands. “What are you reading?”

  “Heinrich Heine.” Eli read silently, occasionally closing his eyes, imagining the pictures from Heine’s words. Rebecca fell over, lying side by side with him.

  “You always have such a serene expression on your face when you read him. Promise me you’ll bring the poetry when we go to the park this weekend,” Rebecca whispered. Eli turned to kiss her forehead.

  “I promise.” The sun dropped and the evening trickled into Rebecca’s window and over their bodies until an abrupt knock at the door startled Rebecca in the comforts of her bed.

  “Who is it?” Eli asked her while his chest puffed, stroking her back with his finger. A wrinkle broke on her forehead.

  “I don’t know.” Rebecca leapt to her feet and threw on a chiffon pink robe over her silk beige nightgown. When she opened the door, Aaron stood on the other side with sweat dropping from his forehead to his jaw line. “What is it?”

  “Is Eli here?”

  “Yes, yes, come in.” Rebecca opened the door wider for him and then shut it. Aaron sat on the sofa across from the television, the only television in the building. “Eli?” Rebecca called to him from the living room.

  Eli went in after pulling on pants and a tee shirt. “Aaron, what brings you here?”

  Aaron’s face tensed and his eyes became unusually serious. “I thought you should know today the electoral campaign has turned into civil war.”

  “What?” Eli needed clarification. Rebecca sat on the sofa with Aaron and Eli remained standing.

  “The Nazis wanted a fight and they got one. Under police escort, the Nazis barged into Communist Hamburg-Altona, Prussia. Street fights and shooting broke out and eighteen died, including two SA storm troopers.” Aaron shook his head in disgust. “More than a hundred were wounded.”

  “Oh, my God.” Rebecca’s hand instinctively covered her mouth.

  “And that’s not the end,” Aaron said and Eli wiped his forehead in frustrated thought. “Papen, the new Chancellor, proclaimed martial law in Berlin and took over the government of Prussia as Reich Commissioner.” Aaron brushed his hands through his short curly hair and Rebecca gasped.

  “Oh, no.” Eli took a seat on the wooden stool across from the sofa. His words were more like a second thought to the concerned pondering of his mind.

  “One more step toward a dictatorship.” Aaron shared his news with his head in his hands. “The German youth worship Hitler!” His face contorted. “You know he speaks to audiences of over a hundred thousand at a time.” The room lapsed into silence.

  “Hindenburg isn’t going to make it, is he?” Rebecca’s voice cracked and her lips curled under. No one answered, because Eli and Aaron both knew it was a real possibility.

  * * *

  The weekend gave Rebecca and Eli time to spend together and they both promised to not talk politics or country. Every citizen of Germany felt this strain, which only strengthened whenever people discussed it. They strolled toward the park, past buildings and apartments and, on many of the walls, they could see Nazi posters.

  They stated, Bring down the system and other political testaments, anything denoting the current system under Hindenburg failed and Hitler’s change was necessary for Germany to survive.

  In this cacophonous climate, Eli and Rebecca clutched hands, bodies as they moved toward the park, holding up together something they could never hold up apart, the weight of prejudice. The air on the street felt different. Caution for their lives, once the furthest thing from their mind, now leapt to the foremost, denying them their past naïve closeness. Though they tried to not let the prying eyes and callous whispers into their space, they knew this time, this year, the invasions invited danger.

  They passed the crowds of buses and cars rushing to and fro. They passed buildings stained with the blood of men brawling. They passed bushes hiding the park that held their secret passions. When they turned the corner to enter, they noticed the park unusually empty. An elderly couple brushed past them before exiting. Another couple sat on a bench a few yards to their left. But neither mother nor child was seen, the life that once saturated the green grass gone. Deafening silence replaced the warm motherly affections and the sounds of children giggling and kicking balls across the green.

  Eli took Rebecca’s hand and whirled her around on the grass dance floor, with her for his muse. She laughed despite the tensions and emptiness around them. He whisked her toward the closest bench, laid his head in her lap and sang a song she knew well. At the end of the first line, Rebecca joined, and with a lack of proper harmony they sung words into the breeze and to each other.

  …I do not know what haunts me, what saddened my mind all day;

  An age-old tale confounds me, a spell I cannot allay…

  They giggled over themselves and Rebecca raked her fingers through Eli’s hair.

  “I love that German song.” Her expression, once a mix of fondness and fear, melded into memories of childhood.

  “It is by Heinrich Heine.”

  “I never knew.”

  “German politics don’t want you to.” They laid in each other’s comforts in the quiet emptiness of the morning, watching the sun become full, and listening to the birds chirp in the trees until the afternoon when the sidewalks became busy. Eli knew the change of expression on her face and reacted with prompt care. “We ought to get back. It’s late and people are filling the city.” Rebecca slid off the bench with Eli beside her.

  * * *

  On July thirty first, Aaron, Jacob, Robert, Rosalyn, Eli and Rebecca huddled around the radio in Eli’s apartment, listening to election results. Every eager ear and every taut emotion stilled, waiting for the results. Robert and Rosalyn held hands with eager anticipation, staring at the radio. Eli and Rebecca stood close. The radio voice, rough in the sporadic static, spoke with hesitance as if reading over notes.

  “…The results are in… with th
e Centre Party commanding 12.3 percent, 75 seats.” Eli clapped his hands once and made an approving guffaw. “The Communist party holding 14.6 percent of the votes, 89 seats.”

  Robert and Rosalyn grabbed each other and smiled. The voice paused, “the Social Democratic party has 21.9 percent of the votes, 133 seats.” Eli looked to Aaron whose eyes had a hint of smile at those results. “The National Socialist German Workers Party receives 37.8 percent, 230 seats.”

  The faces in the room crumbled. “The Nazi party is now the largest party in parliament,” the voice shouted over the air waves. “But wait, the other ten minority parties make up…” the voice paused again to read his papers. Jacob’s hold on Aaron intensified and he shouted, “Go liberals!” “…19.7 percent, giving them 81 seats in parliament.” The eyes in the room became hopeful, “Combined with the Communists, the antifascist parties hold the majority of seats.” The voice on the other end became low, “a disappointing day for a divided parliament.”

  “What does this mean?” Rebecca asked.

  Robert answered in a heavy soft voice. “It means, with the Nazis on one end, the antifascist parties on the other, and President Hindenburg in the middle, the parliamentary government won’t be able to function.”

  After he finished, Jacob interjected, “Papen’s minority government will continue until another election.”

  The air in the room became a little harder to breathe as everyone realized the elections did not solve anything and the country was still at a violent standstill.

  Friday, August 5, 1932

  While Schleicher and Hitler battled for the position of Chancellor, Hindenburg’s grasp on his country wavered, but his persistence on cooperation from Hitler finally prevailed and Hitler put the SA and SS on a two week furlough. This gave Eli the chance to enjoy being outdoors without the fear of being attacked or the fear he heard in Rebecca’s voice. It also gave Eli’s father, Ezekiel the courage to open his firm again and he called Eli back into work on the following Monday.

  Eli found piles of papers on his desk waiting for him, and the day was never long enough to get it all done. He never complained, being in his office brought him satisfaction second only to being with Rebecca. Focusing on his work made everything feel normal again, like the country could push through all this mess and soon things would go back to democracy and liberty.

  Eli’s office showed an arrangement of family photos, degrees and awards. He was a well accomplished young man for someone of only twenty five years.

  Ezekiel knocked on Eli’s office door before letting himself inside the room.

  “Papa.” Eli grew a tender smile, desperate for family since the woes of the attack in Hamburg which made him essentially a prisoner of his own home.

  “Eli,” Ezekiel smiled warmly. He opened his arms to embrace his son and Eli welcomed the gesture. Ezekiel held Eli for a few moments and then continued, “I am worried for you, son.” He sat in the chair across the desk from Eli. “Everything has gotten very bad, for Jews especially. Hitler won’t keep the ban for long and the Nazis will soon be up to their old tricks.”

  Eli grabbed his father’s hand. “Don’t worry, Papa, everything will be fine.”

  “You say that, but you forget I’m older and have seen more than you. I know the nature of men. I know the nature of politics. None of this looks like it will end well.” Ezekiel’s voice cracked, “I don’t want to see you getting beaten, thrown in jail or worse, killed.”

  “The Nazis have no grounds for jailing me.”

  “Do they ever need grounds to do as they please?” Ezekiel scratched his head. “Hindenburg is old and won’t be able to retain power much longer. The parliament is failing. New elections are continually called, but when this leadership is finally achieved, I’m afraid it will not be in our best interest, in your best interest.”

  “Papen will still be chancellor, Papa,” Eli comforted himself with his words, “He is a National Socialist. He isn’t as devious as the other parties.”

  “Papen is weak and he’s got two vultures circling around him. How long do you think it will take to have either one of them in Papen’s seat alongside a President who is also weakening?”

  Eli glanced to the papers at his desk, the one thing he could do something about and control.

  “Son, you must be careful, you know…” Ezekiel stared into Eli’s eyes, “with your lady friend. The world we live in now is not kind to Jews who take German ladies away from them.”

  Eli was glad to hear his father’s concern and, instead of disapproval, advice.

  “Yes, Papa.” Eli nodded and they established an unspoken understanding between them. Eli knew Ezekiel could never fully accept his choice to take a non-Jewish woman, but he would also never abandon his son.

  Ezekiel knew Eli had an independent mind and followed his heart above all else. Ezekiel kissed Eli on the forehead before leaving.

  Eli returned to his work and, though Ezekiel had appointed others to complete Eli’s load in his absence, many employees could not finish all that needed to get done. This came either out of their own hectic schedules or out of a covert selfish sense of pride in doing a Jew’s work, so Eli found he had more work than anticipated. Each day stretched well into evening and a few times he didn’t get back to his apartment until ten.

  Rebecca also kept occupied with her work at the hospital. Though the attacks had lessened, patients from the previous months still needed intense care. So, the two of them only saw each other sporadically until the weekend.

  With the two week breather from the assault troops dedicated to Hitler’s tyrannical views, Eli and Rebecca needed to enjoy life again and joined Jacob at their swing house in Hamburg the following Saturday night. Though many German youths filled the floors, Eli and Jacob could also remember the freedoms their country once afforded them.

  As Rebecca swung the doors open to the loud boisterous sounds of swing, the music flowed over their spirits, lifting them out of the chaos of the country and inside to the dimly lit room, a room that didn’t care who was Jew or German, Communist or Socialist, Catholic or Liberal, because under this roof they were all swingers. The high pitched violins whistled over the thumping of drumsticks beating against soft fabrics pop, pop, pop and combined with guitar strumming and occasional pats on the guitar wood frames. The mixed crowds cheered in gratitude. A room of youth and young adults from every political party, except the Nazis, clapped in unison to the sweetest sounds, melding them all into the counter sub-culture that defied the country.

  The stage speaker said, “Get up hubcaps! Get ready to jump up and down for the jazz of Artie Shaw.” The stage performers mimicked his sounds without missing a note or beat and much of the crowd moved in various boogie-woogie and jive movements while another portion swung through the air.

  Eli stood and twiddled his fingers, calling Rebecca to him with his eyes and holding her in a deliberate trance-like state. Rebecca rolled her shoulders back as she approached and he grabbed hold of her, swinging her into his long, sturdy arms. He spun her before lifting her and swung her through the air like the many other young ladies around her. Her once cautious demeanor morphed into a carefree girl.

  Jacob noticed a young lady with a long, elegant nose twisting her long blonde locks with her fingers under the soft lights spread around the borders of the room. Her bright pink blush and lipstick blended with the dazzling silver out of place flapper dress. She smiled ostentatiously at Jacob and he took it as a sure gesture. Strutting across the dance floor, he grabbed her hand much like he had with Rebecca the first time he met her. He spun her wildly in the excitement of hopping, sliding, and bouncy rhythms of the music. The two made a spectacle of themselves, as if there were no social boundaries to keep.

  Aaron laughed at the sight of Jacob and his free spirit, wishing he could lose himself like that, but never could with so many concerns on his mind. The dancers kept to the beat of the music on the floor and at least forty swirled about, clad in all variants of col
or and makeup. The inside of the room stood in stark contrast to the country outside, dark and gloomy. The streets that used to have life had been replaced with fear and the days that used be filled with social gatherings had been replaced with Nazi attacks.

  Eli and Rebecca sat down at a table they secured with drinks, expressing their affection and enjoyment. A tall blonde approached from behind and tapped Rebecca on the nape of her back. Rebecca spun her head around and shouted, “Rosalyn,” her voice high pitched with excitement.

  Rosalyn sat next to Eli across from Rebecca, who asked, “How are you? I didn’t hear from you after the rally in June. Did you get home alright?”

  “Fine.” Rosalyn shrugged as if she attended rallies and fights all the time. “Robert came home with a couple of bruises on his cheeks, but we made it back.” Rosalyn reached her hands out to hug Rebecca’s like a sister.

  “Where’s Robert?”

  “He’s somewhere around here, probably getting a drink.” Rosalyn lifted her head, gazed around the room and refocused her attentions back to Rebecca, sliding into the seat next to her, whispering into her ear.

  “So, how are things with Eli?” Rosalyn’s eyebrows rose in anticipated gossip. Rebecca smirked and her face flushed a hue of pink.

  “Very nice.”

  “Because I heard you broke up in May and then, when I saw you at the rally, we didn’t really have much time to talk.” Rosalyn grinned and her cheeks puffed under her pursed lips.

  “Yes, we broke up.” Rebecca recalled her decision to ask Eli to leave, a decision she could not hold to emotionally. “But we’re fine now. Better actually.” Rebecca spoke in a low voice to ensure privacy, but over the loud music it would not have mattered.