War Torn Love

by Londo, Jay M.

  My father turned to me, given me his comforting glance, he knew me so well. “Don’t worry little bear!”

  Then I gave them both a kiss on the cheek - substitutes for my husband, who I really wanted - to kiss.

  Then the moment I have been positively dreading had finally arrived, months of preparing for this moment all boiled down to this very instant, I prayed to God he was going to be ok. Because I was not so sure, I was going to be – but this was by far his biggest fight of his career.

  They both came out looking strong; Burkhard managed to take the first punch, landing it squarely in Abram’s chest. Abram continued to dance around, avoiding receiving any real significant blows from the German. Thanks to being around the ring for the last five years, I became skilled at knowing a few things. When it came to the subject of boxing, especially my husband’s boxing style. It was obvious to me, Burkhard was getting over confident by the fact Abram was not able to land any significant punches. Burkhard thought he had the tactical advantage over Abram, maybe thinking this was going to be a cakewalk. I knew my husband, he was just playing Burkhard like a fool, and Burkhard was falling right into his trap. Burkhard began landing a few-punches - I knew Abram was setting him up, tiring him out. I just hopped it was it. The first round clearly was going to Burkhard camp. The bell rang and they both headed back to their respective corners. The crowd had quieted down.

  I could hear the German officers laughing loud, “This stinking Jew sucks!”

  After Abram was sitting down in his corner, and drank some water he began searching me out in the crowd. Once he made eye contact with me, he winked at me, and smiled. I knew exactly what that meant, knowing what direction this fight was going to start taking. He and I had a signal for one another that we had worked out, long ago. I now knew I did not have to worry. I leaned over to let Poppa know.

  When the high-ranking German office suddenly gave me a bizarre glance, seeing Abram communicating with me. I think he had figured out just who I now was. They turn back forward, and then began laughing.

  The bell rang, and then they both came out strong once more, the German over confident now. I was clear there was going to be quite a show. Now it was Abram’s turn to let loose all his abilities on his challenger, he landed one punch after another; at an alarming speed, each punch only seemed to be getting more powerful than the previous. The German was stunned by this sudden turn of events, by the end of the second round, Abram’s opponent did not physically look so good, in just one round he had the snot beaten out of him, he had barely landed a single decisive punch on Abram. The German’s left eye was now nearly swollen completely shut, and you could tell he just had the life nearly beaten out of him. He had a look of shock, wondering where that all came from. He appeared to be tired, maybe confused and perhaps…worried. His trainer had to cut his eye in order for him to see, it was not looking so good for him. The referee even came over to ask if he would continue to fight.

  The bell rang, and Abram was quickly up to his feet, he looked good, excited to finish the German off. Burkhard appeared to be a little hesitant to start the third round, after what had happened to him in the last round. Abram was not holding anything back any longer, he had Burkhard pinned in a corner, Burkhard was barely able to hold him back, fighting to stay on his feet. He was doing his best to block the many punches coming in at him, and was not doing such a good job. Focusing his punches on Burkhards right side, after he had noticed he was now favoring it. If I had to venture to guess, Abram broke one or more of Burkhards ribs. Then with one very powerful uppercut, to the German’s jaw. Burkhard flew back falling out coldly before even hitting the mat. The referee quickly ran over, got down on one knee. And began counting, slamming his palm down on the mat with each number he called out.

  I crossed my fingers, and then nervously awaited it out. I found I could barely stay in my seat. The count of ten seemed like a lifetime. I had my fingers crossed. Then my ears began ringing, when I heard the referee count nine, then finally - oh joyfully - ten! The bell rang. The crowd erupted loudly in cheers. Burkhard was still out cold. They had to revive him with smelling salts.

  Then to make it official, the announcer said, “Ladies and gentlemen in a third round knockout the Polish darling 22 and 0 t.k.o’s is the winner by a knockout, as he grabbed onto my husband’s right hand, and then held it up high. Abram jumped up and down. He looked so happy!

  The German Officers immediately stood up from out of their seats, and then came over to me, “Pardon me Fraulein if you do not mind me asking, is that your husband, the boxer that just won the fight?’

  I smiled proudly, because I was so excited, “Yes that he is!”

  “Well in that case, I would like to be the first to congratulate you on his win tonight, he is one hell of a fighter, I will give him that much! One of the best I have ever seen. I shall not forget him. I have a feeling our paths shall cross once more, until then, good evening Mrs. Balsam.”

  “Thank you! I said, I was taken back, but it was the way that he said it that gave me a strange feeling, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Our dreams coming true”

  “Abram, sweetie could you please wake up, hey! Good you are up - could you please go get me a glass of water? My mouth is awful dry; I am so thirsty” You have to understand I was not trying to be cruel; waking you, it is just that I was getting quite big now.” Then my emotions kicked in, and I began to bawl. “It is becoming quite an endeavor just to do the simplest of things in life these days. The things that I normally would take for granted, like getting out of bed, even going the bathroom, and washing up, but the worst thing was trying to get up out of a chair or bed on my own accord.

  My zombie like husband ignoring my crying, since I was doing it all the time these days, my emotional state was like a yo-yo. He was becoming oblivious, he slowly and grudgingly attempted to wake himself up from a deep slumber, but not complaining, the sweetheart, he knew better, he knew I would have let loose on him if he did, as I have on occasion over these many months of pregnancy. I guess I tend to be a bit insensitively harsh on him, since I had became pregnant.

  “Alright, I’ll be right back in a minute!”

  Now half-asleep, he got up out of bed - sort of machine like, automatic, he sleepily ran into the bedroom door, smashing his face, I heard him say ow! As he went to retrieve my water in the hall bathroom. A minute later I then heard, “Here you go, I am back with your water! I am going back to sleep now if that is it?”

  “Sure I am good - Oh thank you sweet heart!

  Then to my dismay, after laying back in bed, pulling the covers back and was comfortable once more, the baby decided to sit directly on my bladder. I felt the urge, I knew he was not going to like it; I had a dilemma either wake him to help me up to go the bathroom, or let’s see let him sleep, and pee my pants. Of course, I decided to wake him, and take my chances. “Oh, jeez, sweetie now I have to go pee, Sweetie I hate to bother you once more, but could you be a gem, and help me up, would you.” I of course had asked him, only after he had gotten comfortable back in bed, and was nearly fallen back asleep once more. I could not help myself I was now eight months pregnant, and had to really go pee.

  “Sure honey!” I could hear him complaining under his breath, I decided not to push it. I knew him well enough to know that.

  About all I could manage to do these days is to be somewhat helpful, is help out in the kitchen. Let me give you a little update on what has happened to Abram and I since the big fight. Abram came home to a hero’s welcome - the whole town had come out to honor him with a parade. It took a while for things to die back down, and life to return back to a more normal state. We also suffered a very cold winter. Our little home was chock full of people. We took in the young Jewish family - the Cihak’s - a very nice family, they were really good people. Not to mention I was a now a whole lot more pregnant. I was shocked how many changes my body had been going through during this
pregnancy.

  My dear husband has been physically pushing himself, working extremely long hours lately, six days a week. Especially hard lately - with the arrival of spring. That meant a busy time for a farmer, so he was now working both at the farmer’s farm, preparing for a new years of crop planning. And began training for his next fight. More importantly, my dear sweet husband could not wait any longer. Over the cold winter, he designed the entire house, with the help of Mr. Cihak’s expertise in building our house. He also tried to find time to train, since he had a title fight in June.

  To help relive Abram of some of his many burdens weighing down on him, Mr. Cihak came to work for us - we were going to rely on him to handle anything Abram could not manage. He sought to pay his way, since Poppa had been so kindly providing room and board for him and his lovely family. They had lost everything fleeing with he - giving him a job gave him a measure of dignity. His wife, Mrs Cihak’s has been graciously stepped in and been helping-out at the store, since I was now much too far along in my pregnancy to handle such taxing duties - sitting for long hours bent over and stitching.

  Mr. Cihak has been a godsend to Abram - he could not stop talking about him. He is very handy with his hands, and proving a very hard worker. Especially since his trade has been a carpenter his whole life. He did quite a bit of the work on our future home. Between the two of them plugging away at it, they managed to get the foundation all in, with a large root cellar for storing all our vegetables, and canned goods. The floorboards were laid out for the first floor when I visited in late spring. I have to say I was so excited every time I had an opportunity to venture up to the farm, especially in the spring, all the wild flowers are starting to come out, mainly dandelions, and some of the trees and bushes were now showing signs of life. Traveling to the farm I first-handedly witnessed all the new progress that has occurred, since my last visit to the farm. I was also glad to get out of the house once in a while anyways; I was suffering a smidge of cabin fever, not venturing much further than the front yard. I was used to taking long walks nearly every day. My world had grown much smaller, do to my physical limitations.

  We also had a couple of our animals give birth up on the farm this spring, we were increasing our little brood, we had one-calf, and two additional sheep born - we also decided to enlarge the size of the chicken coop to accommodate for more new eggs laying hens. We were planning this as another stream of income, which was to sell our fresh eggs in town, to restraunt, hotels, and grocers. I was discovering Abram really has a head for business; he got-that from his old man. He say’s we should not “put all our eggs in one basket.” Take his fighting; he knew he could not box forever, that was why he is doing so much pushing himself and stretch his prize money for the good of our future, thinking ahead. He was good at that. In a couple of week’s time, Abram would start plowing the fields for all the new crops we were planning to plant this year. Abram researched everything that he did, he read everything he could get his hands on about farming, and asked a whole lot of question when it pertained to business from his own father, as well as mine.

  As if he did not have enough on his plate, he was starting us a small vegetable patch. When he got the prize purse from the fight, he had enough money to buy an addition twenty-five acres. From the farmer on the opposite side of our own farm. Virtually doubling the size of our little now expanding farm. He bought a broken down tractor as well as other equipment to go along with it, but it was in pretty-bad shape. Mr. Cihak said he could get it running in time for plowing, and planting the new crops, so we let him try. We knew this would drastically speed up things, making our farm that more efficient. We also bought four more calves, and a half dozen additional sheep. Being able to plant extra crops, and having additional livestock, we would be able to continue to afford to hire Mr. Cihaks after the house was completed, and still produce a modest amount more. And with good sales on his first batch of homemade vodka, he was planning on expanding that business as well, using his newfound fame he has from boxing, to help expand into other markets, putting his name and face on the label.

  Since everyone else in the household was away during the day working so hard every day, and then the Cihaks kids were now enrolled into the same school I had attended, I tried doing all the cooking duty for everyone-even this tired me out. I wanted to be ready to lend a hand wherever I could. During the day, the house was so quiet. I could tell that the last few weeks of my pregnancy were going to pass by awfully slowly.

  One night Abram came home earlier than normal - so excited jumping up and down, wanting to tell me something. He was so darling - that is when he proudly informed me that he and Mr. Cihak’s had successfully gotten all the walls up to the ground floor of the house. He was so excited that he wanted to show me the latest progress they had made on the house that very afternoon, and I willingly obliged. I was not about to let him down. He went and borrowed his dad’s car so he could drive me to the farm - I was unable to still walk that far.

  I was no longer able to physically walk up there, heck, I could barely still wear my shoes, - and my feet had swollen up, and spread out so much by this time. My body had been going through so many changes. I horrified to look at myself in the mirror. I could understand if my husband was not currently attracted to me - looking at me I would not. About the only good thing was the drastic increase in size of my breasts.

  It was wondrous seeing our new house take shape as it was. Unlike Abram, I could not visualize it like him - he could see the whole thing completed in his head. Abram showed me exactly where my future kitchen was going to be. Looking through the hole were the window was going to be soon, I discovered I had me a beautiful breath taking view of the mountains off in the distance - the snow still capping off all but the shallowest of peaks. Abram purposely planned that for me - I could tell that he had put a lot of thought into this. Then there was the nearby walnut trees just off in the distance - situated about twenty feet from the house. From the looks of the tree it certainly must had been more than a hundred years old - the tree is going to generate a nice bath of shade on the kitchen side of the house, during the hottest portions of the summer days. Not to mention produce a lot of fine walnuts in the fall. It was going to be a pleasure doing dishes in my new kitchen - being able to gaze out through the large window he was planning to put in for me. As I walked on the new floor looking around, I noticed the house was being built up on a slight hill - the highest point on the entire farm. This afforded the ground floor to sit up high. Only improving the views of our little spread, especially from the covered deck he was planning to build for me - with a swing chair were he and I could both sit. It just felt so right - I just knew I was going to be content living here. That day, I remember the doubts lifting about living there.

  A couple of days later, I was all alone in my parents’ house, making dinner, around two pm. It was the oddest feeling - while preparing to boil a pot of potatoes, I suddenly felt my water breaking. At first, I thought perhaps I just had simply spilled the water from the potatoes. As I carried the pot full of water and potato’s, over to the stove, there was a small, sudden gush. It was an odd feeling that had came over me. I wished I was not alone when it had happened, I began to panic, but took stock, and then a deep breath to try to calm myself, I had to think through what I should do next.

  I went over to the phone in the living room, and called my mother on the phone at work,

  Thankfully, Momma answered right away, “Momma I had great news!

  “Hana what is it!”

  “Momma, my water just broke. Do you think you could go ahead you tell everyone, and please send someone up at the farm, go to Abram to let him know the news! Mean while after I hang the phone up with you, I will call Doctor Gorski. Momma I cannot believe it I am having a baby!”

  “Hana, are you going to be alright until I could get there to you?”

  “Yes Momma I am going to go up to my bed and wait for you and the Doctor to show up - , I love you!”

/>   “Ok that sounds like a excellent idea honey, oh you be careful going up those stairs, oh Hana before you go dear, I want you to know how much I love you as well.

  “Thanks Momma I know, I am so unbelievably excited. I really would love to talk, but Momma I really got to get off my feet now.”

  I hung up with her fumbled around for the doctor’s number, finally I found it and called the doctor, “Hello Doctor Gorski this is Hana, sorry to bother you, but do you think you could come over to the house, its time?”

  “Hana is everything ok with you?”

  “Doctor Gorski, my water broke a couple of minutes ago!”

  “Ok my dear girl, I will tell you what, you go make yourself comfortable and I will be over shortly, do not worry it should be a while before the baby actually comes, especially with your first.”

  “Ok, thank you Doctor!”

  Little by little attempting to my way to our bedroom - the stairs were making it slightly difficult -I suddenly wished there were not so many stairs. To my dismay the contractions had begun when I was only half way up the stairs - I could not believe how powerful a contraction could actually be, that is until I experienced it firsthand for myself. Just about the time I had made it to my bed, I heard me sister entering the house.