Items related to Real Time
Sixteen-year-old Thomas Wanninger wants to find out what his grandfather, a Nazi officer, did during World War II. Thomas is going to Israel to work on a kibbutz, where he will have access to a Jerusalem archive that may hold the information he seeks. His life is one of many to be affected by a terrorist attack that occurs on the day he arrives.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Pnina Moed Kass is an American who has lived in Israel for more than thirty-five years. She is a professional writer whose credits include short stories, television series, and picture books. This novel was inspired by real-life events that, sadly, are a part of the complex everyday reality of living in the Middle East.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
SUNDAY, APRIL 9
5:00 AM Thomas Wanninger Departure Terminal, Schonefeld Airport (SXF), Berlin Thomas Wanninger?”
Yes.”
Traveling alone?”
Yes.”
First trip to Israel?”
Yes.”
Passport, please.”
I hand it over.
He opens it. He looks at the passport photo, looks at me, looks at the photo. Born in Germany?”
Yes.”
What is the purpose of your visit?”
I’ll be a volunteer at a kibbutz.”
Which kibbutz?”
Broshim. It’s outside Jerusalem.”
Can you show me proof of that?”
I unzip my backpack and stick my hand in. I can feel the sports magazine, the guidebook. I look sideways inside there’s a pack of tissues, some stuff from school I’m supposed to read, chewing gum . . . junk . . . junk . . . where did I put the letter from the kibbutz? I see him watching me as if I’m some kind of suspect. Suddenly I think he’s not going to let me on the plane.
Maybe you should empty your backpack, Thomas?”
I slide the backpack off my shoulder and squat on the ground.
He isn’t taking his eyes off me for a minute. Another guy comes over, looks at me, and then whispers something into his ear. He nods and shows this guy my passport and airplane ticket. The guy walks away. My T-shirt is sticking to my armpits. Everything is on the floor. Then I see the pale blue information booklet and the letter is sticking out of it.
Here it is.” I hand it to him. I’m still squatting, waiting.
He looks at it, reads it. Okay, put your stuff back in.”
I jam everything into the backpack and stand up.
Who packed your suitcase?”
I did.”
Did anyone give you a gift or a package or any item to deliver when you arrive?”
No.”
You’re sure about that?”
Yes.”
Do you have any relatives in Israel?”
No I’m not Jewish.” I want him to believe me. He looks at me like he doesn’t.
For your information, there are non-Jews living in Israel. There are Christians, Muslims, Greek Orthodox, Druse do you want me to continue?” He doesn’t wait for my answer.
He looks at me, lifts the suitcase, turns it around, sees the yellow security sticker, puts it down. Do you speak Arabic?”
Arabic? No, of course I don’t know Arabic!”
All right. I’m just asking.”
Well, I don’t know Arabic and I don’t know Hebrew. I speak German, like we’re talking now, right? And English.” By now I’m sure I’m not going anywhere. In an hour I’ll probably be back home. The people in line behind me are staring at me. Like I have a rash, like they’re going to catch something from me. No one’s missing a single one of his questions or my answers.
And then suddenly he hands back my passport, my ticket, and the kibbutz letter. Doesn’t smile, just says, Okay, you can go.” It’s over. He starts questioning the person in line behind me. Whatever he thought of me, of my passport, of what I looked like, it’s history now. I can get on the plane.
* * *
5:45 AM Thomas Wanninger El Al flight 01: SXF TLV (Berlin Tel Aviv)
The seat belt sign blinks red, the airplane engines start to roar, the plane begins to taxi. The flight attendants are walking down the aisle, chatting with passengers, adjusting overhead bins, checking seat belts. Somewhere in the front of the plane a baby is squealing and then beginning to cry. I see the mother start to get up, but the flight attendant points to the lit seat belt sign. She sits down again.
I’m watching and listening to everything, I’m hyped up. Everything around me looks like it is in fluorescent lights, and sounds are funneling through me on high volume. I’m going to a place I don’t know, to find out something that no one at home knows, and if anyone thinks I’m calm, they’re wrong.
I’ve flown only once before, on a school ski trip. But it isn’t the same this time, I’ll be entering a war zone. And I’m alone. There are flight announcements about the altitude of the plane, the weather, and perfume and cigarettes that will be sold duty free. Maybe I’ll buy Mutti a bottle of perfume my mother likes scent. Then the pilot announces the estimated time of arrival.
The plane reaches the end of the runway and lifts off, tilting away from the ground slowly with almost no angle. It’s six o’clock in the morning. Four more hours and I’ll land in Israel. The announcement continues: Local Israeli time is one hour ahead.” I change the time on my watch. I’ve left German time behind. I have the whole row to myself. I stretch my legs and stare out the window.
The plane is cruising over the city. Berlin is concealed behind a thin veil of rain. Through the morning darkness I can see the dots of highway lights and the snaking line of traffic. Mutti must be in her car, driving in one of those lanes leading away from the airport. She probably won’t go back home she hates an empty house. If I know her, she’ll go to the office, or travel to one of the branches of Hanseatic Insurance, or schedule a meeting with her boss. Mutti has to be busy. She says, When I work, I forget.”
The plane starts a steep climb, moves through clusters of clouds, and then pulls out into clear sky. Past my own reflection in the window it’s all blue air, the color of early morning. Beyond the wing the blue is beginning to lighten. Somewhere the morning has started. It will be late morning when I arrive. The engines become a monotonous drone.
I unzip my backpack and take out the pamphlet. I don’t bother unfolding it. I’ve read it and stared at the pictures a hundred times. The green rolling Judean Hills, the distant outlines of Jerusalem, the orderly row of red-roofed kibbutz houses, the auditorium, the guest hostel where I’ll be staying. To myself, and only to myself, I am willing to admit I’m scared out of my mind. Not to Mutti, not to Rudi, even though he’s my best buddy, and certainly not to Christina.
The time off from school wasn’t tough to get. The principal is really hot on us going to Israel. No generation of Germans should forget is his motto. The real reason I’m going is my business. And I can’t be a coward.
So here I am, about to land in a country where bombs go off every five seconds. Why am I doing this? Because I’m looking for information about a Nazi.
My grandfather.
One more time I read the letter I showed the security guy:
"Shalom, Thomas! Welcome to the SEEK program (See-Explore-Educate-Know) at Kibbutz Broshim, located outside Jerusalem. Our mailing address is Kibbutz Broshim, Doar Na 832, Jerusalem, Israel. Since you indicated an interest in agricultural work, we have arranged for you to work in the hothouses and plant nursery. Kibbutz Broshim exports flowers, and your help will be greatly appreciated. You will be instructed by Baruch Ben Tov, a very experienced gardener."
I reread the instructions for what I’m supposed to do when I land, though I know them by heart:
"After landing and passing through Passport Control, look for someone holding a SEEK” sign. This will be Vera Brodsky, who lives at Kibbutz Broshim and will be your buddy” during your stay. Vera will be waiting for you inside the arrivals terminal of the airport. In case of any change, call 02- 994-3242."
I shift around in the seat and feel the bulge in the back pocket of my jeans. The airplane ticket and passport I forgot to put them back in the zippered pouch of my backpack. That’s all I need, to lose my ticket and passport. The passport is dark red, with a stiff cover and a gold embossed eagle in the center. Printed underneath the eagle emblem, in big letters, is BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND. I run my fingers over the spread wings. Eagles are birds of prey, aren’t they? Why does a German passport have an eagle on the cover? Was my grandfather a bird of prey, waiting to lunge and capture, maybe to kill?
I flip open my passport to the inside page:
FAMILIEN NAME Wanninger NAME Thomas STAATSANHÖRIGKEIT Deutsch GEBURTSTORT Berlin
The photo at the left of the typed information is me: unsmiling, brown eyes opened wide by the flash of the camera, short hair, and part of a white T-shirt. A high school kid who looks older than sixteen at least that’s what people tell me.
* * * 6:45 AM Interrogation room, police headquarters, Jerusalem
POLICE OFFICER: You understand you’re not under arrest, don’t you?
OMAR JOULANI: If you say so.
POLICE OFFICER: Of course we say so. Why would we lie? We just want information. You live in the same village as Sameh Laham, right?
OMAR JOULANI: No, in Jabel Fahm. And you know it. You know everything. But we go to the same high school. When there’s no curfew. It’s our last year.
POLICE OFFICER: Why aren’t you in school today?
OMAR JOULANI: How can I be in school if you brought me here? Anyway, I don’t go to school. Instead I work. I study at night. POLICE OFFICER: And Sameh? Does he also study at night?
OMAR JOULANI: I don’t know what Sameh does. But I study. All night.
POLICE OFFICER: Do you study bomb making?
OMAR JOULANI: No, I study history. Who did what to whom, how the Jews keep the myth of the Holocaust going while they do genocide to us.
POLICE OFFICER: Congratulations, you probably got one hundred in history. So, getting back to your best friend. You don’t know what he does . . . ?
OMAR JOULANI: I’m his friend, not his guard. That’s your job. Me, I study and I work.
POLICE OFFICER: Good, that means you’re a smart boy and a strong boy. You look strong, really strong.
OMAR JOULANI: I’m not that strong. I mean, I wouldn’t be able to do anything anything violent, that is.
POLICE OFFICER: So you’re just into books, right? You never touch knives or guns, do you?
OMAR JOULANI: I don’t touch them or see them. I swear by Allah. I start shaking, my whole body, when I even think of someone being hurt. And Sameh too, he wouldn’t harm anyone. His Jewish boss loves him like a son, like his own son.
POLICE OFFICER: Oh, he has a Jewish boss. Now that interests us. Where is this Jewish boss?
OMAR JOULANI: I don’t know. It’s illegal to hire us. Don’t think I’m stupid.
POLICE OFFICER: So you don’t know where the Jewish boss is, what his business is. Do you know where the bomb factory is? You know about bombs, don’t you? Your buddy, Rashid, said you were the best student in chemistry class.
OMAR JOULANI: Rashid is a liar and a stinking little thief. You have him in jail, and he’ll say anything.
POLICE OFFICER: He says you know how to explode bombs, Omar. He says you have a real touch with them. You get high as if you’re on drugs when you make them.
OMAR JOULANI: You’re trying to get me to say I’m one of those a shaheed. I won’t say it. I’m not. I sell vegetables with my grandfather.
POLICE OFFICER: Where is Sameh?
OMAR JOULANI: I told you, I don’t know. Go to the Jewish man who is his boss.
POLICE OFFICER: We don’t know who that is. No one ever heard of Sameh. So, Omar, it seems your best friend has disappeared. (Suspect looks at the floor and does not respond.)
POLICE OFFICER: Three days and no one knows where he is.
OMAR JOULANI: Sameh has a cousin in a village near Jerusalem. Maybe he went there.
POLICE OFFICER: What is the name of the village?
OMAR JOULANI: I can’t remember.
POLICE OFFICER: Try. Try very hard.
OMAR JOULANI: Please let me go home. I’m sure Sameh will show up today. You’ll see.
POLICE OFFICER: Why do you say that? Why are you so sure?
OMAR JOULANI: They are without food in his family. He must work.
POLICE OFFICER: We can keep you longer you know that.
OMAR JOULANI: I know that. But I know nothing. Nothing. Please.
POLICE OFFICER: Release him.
* * * 6:45 AM Baruch Ben Tov Kibbutz Broshim, Judean Hills
The boy from Germany is coming today. His arrival throws me back into the past. He’s not the first German student to come here, but he’s the first who will work in the flower fields and hothouses. The first who will be under my supervision. Of course I was consulted. Will you mind working with a German boy, Baruch? I was asked. No, of course not, I answered. I am a member of the kibbutz and will do my share. But I am uneasy. What will this Thomas Wanninger say when he sees the number on my arm? Will he foolishly apologize? Will he speak to me in German? Does he know I speak German? It is an intrusion in my life. I will speak to him in English.
The sun has risen, warming the air and making the last of the night sky very light. I hear the birds speak to each other, the dew hangs transparent from each petal, the sprinklers whirr in the still spring air. I always walk up and down the rows of sunflowers at this hour. No one is here. I can say, Rachel, Ruchele,” and no one hears me. Her name is my morning prayer.
Rachel was wonderful with her hands. She would have planted sunflowers and dahlias, petunias, daisies, everything. Even in the room under the roof she painted flowers on the enamel plates we ate from. Her hands were like the wind and her imagination endless. She turned the attic into our palace. What she would have made of this solitary place, this small house I live in! And books goodness, how she loved books. She would smile to see me now, not the professor of anthropology I wanted to be but a simple gardener. If she were here, she would lead me by the hand to my shelf of poetry books and she’d recite the poems of Goethe, the German poems we both learned in school. Remember, she’d certainly say, and laugh if I couldn’t remember some lines or the teacher who taught us.
But she’s not here. She was buried fifty feet from the wall that closed us in, surrounded us, in the old cemetery of the ghetto. The Germans bulldozed it, looking for tunnels. God only knows where her body is now.
All of us who hid in the attic that night had to run for our lives. I wrapped her body in the flowered down comforter, her and the baby together.
Vladek and I timed the German patrols, waiting for them to pass through our street. When we heard the steps of their heavy boots fade away, we dared to creep out of the attic and down the stairs.
We dug the grave in the muddy soil between the sewer pipes and the wall. There was almost no time to hold her and the baby, seconds only. No time to recite the words of Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. Only time enough for those six words I’d known since I was a child: Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Ehad.”
Thomas Wanninger will arrive this afternoon. I will be polite and considerate to him. After all, I have not lost my senses. He’s a young man, he’s not to blame for my past.
* * *
6:45 AM Sameh Laham Zebedeid, Palestinian Authority When I’ve got my hands in the grease and food scraps of the stinking sink full of dishes, I talk to myself. This is what you will be doing when you’re twenty-three, Sameh. And twenty-four. Forever, probably. You’ll be washing the floor, scrubbing the marks left by soldiers’ boots. Is this what you will be doing, Sameh? No, Sameh, you will not be doing this. You will do something brave and heroic. You will save your mother’s life, and your sisters and your brothers will remember you forever.
I know the fields that lead back to the diner. I know them like the narrow streets of my village. I could be blindfolded and still find my way to Zebedeid, to the intersection, to Jerusalem. My mind is a map of bushes I can hide behind, gullies I can drop into, holes in the barbed wire I can squeeze through, boulders I can roll to cover a cave. I know all of these. I am the lord of this territory. It is mine, no one else’s.
Om...
5:00 AM Thomas Wanninger Departure Terminal, Schonefeld Airport (SXF), Berlin Thomas Wanninger?”
Yes.”
Traveling alone?”
Yes.”
First trip to Israel?”
Yes.”
Passport, please.”
I hand it over.
He opens it. He looks at the passport photo, looks at me, looks at the photo. Born in Germany?”
Yes.”
What is the purpose of your visit?”
I’ll be a volunteer at a kibbutz.”
Which kibbutz?”
Broshim. It’s outside Jerusalem.”
Can you show me proof of that?”
I unzip my backpack and stick my hand in. I can feel the sports magazine, the guidebook. I look sideways inside there’s a pack of tissues, some stuff from school I’m supposed to read, chewing gum . . . junk . . . junk . . . where did I put the letter from the kibbutz? I see him watching me as if I’m some kind of suspect. Suddenly I think he’s not going to let me on the plane.
Maybe you should empty your backpack, Thomas?”
I slide the backpack off my shoulder and squat on the ground.
He isn’t taking his eyes off me for a minute. Another guy comes over, looks at me, and then whispers something into his ear. He nods and shows this guy my passport and airplane ticket. The guy walks away. My T-shirt is sticking to my armpits. Everything is on the floor. Then I see the pale blue information booklet and the letter is sticking out of it.
Here it is.” I hand it to him. I’m still squatting, waiting.
He looks at it, reads it. Okay, put your stuff back in.”
I jam everything into the backpack and stand up.
Who packed your suitcase?”
I did.”
Did anyone give you a gift or a package or any item to deliver when you arrive?”
No.”
You’re sure about that?”
Yes.”
Do you have any relatives in Israel?”
No I’m not Jewish.” I want him to believe me. He looks at me like he doesn’t.
For your information, there are non-Jews living in Israel. There are Christians, Muslims, Greek Orthodox, Druse do you want me to continue?” He doesn’t wait for my answer.
He looks at me, lifts the suitcase, turns it around, sees the yellow security sticker, puts it down. Do you speak Arabic?”
Arabic? No, of course I don’t know Arabic!”
All right. I’m just asking.”
Well, I don’t know Arabic and I don’t know Hebrew. I speak German, like we’re talking now, right? And English.” By now I’m sure I’m not going anywhere. In an hour I’ll probably be back home. The people in line behind me are staring at me. Like I have a rash, like they’re going to catch something from me. No one’s missing a single one of his questions or my answers.
And then suddenly he hands back my passport, my ticket, and the kibbutz letter. Doesn’t smile, just says, Okay, you can go.” It’s over. He starts questioning the person in line behind me. Whatever he thought of me, of my passport, of what I looked like, it’s history now. I can get on the plane.
* * *
5:45 AM Thomas Wanninger El Al flight 01: SXF TLV (Berlin Tel Aviv)
The seat belt sign blinks red, the airplane engines start to roar, the plane begins to taxi. The flight attendants are walking down the aisle, chatting with passengers, adjusting overhead bins, checking seat belts. Somewhere in the front of the plane a baby is squealing and then beginning to cry. I see the mother start to get up, but the flight attendant points to the lit seat belt sign. She sits down again.
I’m watching and listening to everything, I’m hyped up. Everything around me looks like it is in fluorescent lights, and sounds are funneling through me on high volume. I’m going to a place I don’t know, to find out something that no one at home knows, and if anyone thinks I’m calm, they’re wrong.
I’ve flown only once before, on a school ski trip. But it isn’t the same this time, I’ll be entering a war zone. And I’m alone. There are flight announcements about the altitude of the plane, the weather, and perfume and cigarettes that will be sold duty free. Maybe I’ll buy Mutti a bottle of perfume my mother likes scent. Then the pilot announces the estimated time of arrival.
The plane reaches the end of the runway and lifts off, tilting away from the ground slowly with almost no angle. It’s six o’clock in the morning. Four more hours and I’ll land in Israel. The announcement continues: Local Israeli time is one hour ahead.” I change the time on my watch. I’ve left German time behind. I have the whole row to myself. I stretch my legs and stare out the window.
The plane is cruising over the city. Berlin is concealed behind a thin veil of rain. Through the morning darkness I can see the dots of highway lights and the snaking line of traffic. Mutti must be in her car, driving in one of those lanes leading away from the airport. She probably won’t go back home she hates an empty house. If I know her, she’ll go to the office, or travel to one of the branches of Hanseatic Insurance, or schedule a meeting with her boss. Mutti has to be busy. She says, When I work, I forget.”
The plane starts a steep climb, moves through clusters of clouds, and then pulls out into clear sky. Past my own reflection in the window it’s all blue air, the color of early morning. Beyond the wing the blue is beginning to lighten. Somewhere the morning has started. It will be late morning when I arrive. The engines become a monotonous drone.
I unzip my backpack and take out the pamphlet. I don’t bother unfolding it. I’ve read it and stared at the pictures a hundred times. The green rolling Judean Hills, the distant outlines of Jerusalem, the orderly row of red-roofed kibbutz houses, the auditorium, the guest hostel where I’ll be staying. To myself, and only to myself, I am willing to admit I’m scared out of my mind. Not to Mutti, not to Rudi, even though he’s my best buddy, and certainly not to Christina.
The time off from school wasn’t tough to get. The principal is really hot on us going to Israel. No generation of Germans should forget is his motto. The real reason I’m going is my business. And I can’t be a coward.
So here I am, about to land in a country where bombs go off every five seconds. Why am I doing this? Because I’m looking for information about a Nazi.
My grandfather.
One more time I read the letter I showed the security guy:
"Shalom, Thomas! Welcome to the SEEK program (See-Explore-Educate-Know) at Kibbutz Broshim, located outside Jerusalem. Our mailing address is Kibbutz Broshim, Doar Na 832, Jerusalem, Israel. Since you indicated an interest in agricultural work, we have arranged for you to work in the hothouses and plant nursery. Kibbutz Broshim exports flowers, and your help will be greatly appreciated. You will be instructed by Baruch Ben Tov, a very experienced gardener."
I reread the instructions for what I’m supposed to do when I land, though I know them by heart:
"After landing and passing through Passport Control, look for someone holding a SEEK” sign. This will be Vera Brodsky, who lives at Kibbutz Broshim and will be your buddy” during your stay. Vera will be waiting for you inside the arrivals terminal of the airport. In case of any change, call 02- 994-3242."
I shift around in the seat and feel the bulge in the back pocket of my jeans. The airplane ticket and passport I forgot to put them back in the zippered pouch of my backpack. That’s all I need, to lose my ticket and passport. The passport is dark red, with a stiff cover and a gold embossed eagle in the center. Printed underneath the eagle emblem, in big letters, is BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND. I run my fingers over the spread wings. Eagles are birds of prey, aren’t they? Why does a German passport have an eagle on the cover? Was my grandfather a bird of prey, waiting to lunge and capture, maybe to kill?
I flip open my passport to the inside page:
FAMILIEN NAME Wanninger NAME Thomas STAATSANHÖRIGKEIT Deutsch GEBURTSTORT Berlin
The photo at the left of the typed information is me: unsmiling, brown eyes opened wide by the flash of the camera, short hair, and part of a white T-shirt. A high school kid who looks older than sixteen at least that’s what people tell me.
* * * 6:45 AM Interrogation room, police headquarters, Jerusalem
POLICE OFFICER: You understand you’re not under arrest, don’t you?
OMAR JOULANI: If you say so.
POLICE OFFICER: Of course we say so. Why would we lie? We just want information. You live in the same village as Sameh Laham, right?
OMAR JOULANI: No, in Jabel Fahm. And you know it. You know everything. But we go to the same high school. When there’s no curfew. It’s our last year.
POLICE OFFICER: Why aren’t you in school today?
OMAR JOULANI: How can I be in school if you brought me here? Anyway, I don’t go to school. Instead I work. I study at night. POLICE OFFICER: And Sameh? Does he also study at night?
OMAR JOULANI: I don’t know what Sameh does. But I study. All night.
POLICE OFFICER: Do you study bomb making?
OMAR JOULANI: No, I study history. Who did what to whom, how the Jews keep the myth of the Holocaust going while they do genocide to us.
POLICE OFFICER: Congratulations, you probably got one hundred in history. So, getting back to your best friend. You don’t know what he does . . . ?
OMAR JOULANI: I’m his friend, not his guard. That’s your job. Me, I study and I work.
POLICE OFFICER: Good, that means you’re a smart boy and a strong boy. You look strong, really strong.
OMAR JOULANI: I’m not that strong. I mean, I wouldn’t be able to do anything anything violent, that is.
POLICE OFFICER: So you’re just into books, right? You never touch knives or guns, do you?
OMAR JOULANI: I don’t touch them or see them. I swear by Allah. I start shaking, my whole body, when I even think of someone being hurt. And Sameh too, he wouldn’t harm anyone. His Jewish boss loves him like a son, like his own son.
POLICE OFFICER: Oh, he has a Jewish boss. Now that interests us. Where is this Jewish boss?
OMAR JOULANI: I don’t know. It’s illegal to hire us. Don’t think I’m stupid.
POLICE OFFICER: So you don’t know where the Jewish boss is, what his business is. Do you know where the bomb factory is? You know about bombs, don’t you? Your buddy, Rashid, said you were the best student in chemistry class.
OMAR JOULANI: Rashid is a liar and a stinking little thief. You have him in jail, and he’ll say anything.
POLICE OFFICER: He says you know how to explode bombs, Omar. He says you have a real touch with them. You get high as if you’re on drugs when you make them.
OMAR JOULANI: You’re trying to get me to say I’m one of those a shaheed. I won’t say it. I’m not. I sell vegetables with my grandfather.
POLICE OFFICER: Where is Sameh?
OMAR JOULANI: I told you, I don’t know. Go to the Jewish man who is his boss.
POLICE OFFICER: We don’t know who that is. No one ever heard of Sameh. So, Omar, it seems your best friend has disappeared. (Suspect looks at the floor and does not respond.)
POLICE OFFICER: Three days and no one knows where he is.
OMAR JOULANI: Sameh has a cousin in a village near Jerusalem. Maybe he went there.
POLICE OFFICER: What is the name of the village?
OMAR JOULANI: I can’t remember.
POLICE OFFICER: Try. Try very hard.
OMAR JOULANI: Please let me go home. I’m sure Sameh will show up today. You’ll see.
POLICE OFFICER: Why do you say that? Why are you so sure?
OMAR JOULANI: They are without food in his family. He must work.
POLICE OFFICER: We can keep you longer you know that.
OMAR JOULANI: I know that. But I know nothing. Nothing. Please.
POLICE OFFICER: Release him.
* * * 6:45 AM Baruch Ben Tov Kibbutz Broshim, Judean Hills
The boy from Germany is coming today. His arrival throws me back into the past. He’s not the first German student to come here, but he’s the first who will work in the flower fields and hothouses. The first who will be under my supervision. Of course I was consulted. Will you mind working with a German boy, Baruch? I was asked. No, of course not, I answered. I am a member of the kibbutz and will do my share. But I am uneasy. What will this Thomas Wanninger say when he sees the number on my arm? Will he foolishly apologize? Will he speak to me in German? Does he know I speak German? It is an intrusion in my life. I will speak to him in English.
The sun has risen, warming the air and making the last of the night sky very light. I hear the birds speak to each other, the dew hangs transparent from each petal, the sprinklers whirr in the still spring air. I always walk up and down the rows of sunflowers at this hour. No one is here. I can say, Rachel, Ruchele,” and no one hears me. Her name is my morning prayer.
Rachel was wonderful with her hands. She would have planted sunflowers and dahlias, petunias, daisies, everything. Even in the room under the roof she painted flowers on the enamel plates we ate from. Her hands were like the wind and her imagination endless. She turned the attic into our palace. What she would have made of this solitary place, this small house I live in! And books goodness, how she loved books. She would smile to see me now, not the professor of anthropology I wanted to be but a simple gardener. If she were here, she would lead me by the hand to my shelf of poetry books and she’d recite the poems of Goethe, the German poems we both learned in school. Remember, she’d certainly say, and laugh if I couldn’t remember some lines or the teacher who taught us.
But she’s not here. She was buried fifty feet from the wall that closed us in, surrounded us, in the old cemetery of the ghetto. The Germans bulldozed it, looking for tunnels. God only knows where her body is now.
All of us who hid in the attic that night had to run for our lives. I wrapped her body in the flowered down comforter, her and the baby together.
Vladek and I timed the German patrols, waiting for them to pass through our street. When we heard the steps of their heavy boots fade away, we dared to creep out of the attic and down the stairs.
We dug the grave in the muddy soil between the sewer pipes and the wall. There was almost no time to hold her and the baby, seconds only. No time to recite the words of Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. Only time enough for those six words I’d known since I was a child: Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Ehad.”
Thomas Wanninger will arrive this afternoon. I will be polite and considerate to him. After all, I have not lost my senses. He’s a young man, he’s not to blame for my past.
* * *
6:45 AM Sameh Laham Zebedeid, Palestinian Authority When I’ve got my hands in the grease and food scraps of the stinking sink full of dishes, I talk to myself. This is what you will be doing when you’re twenty-three, Sameh. And twenty-four. Forever, probably. You’ll be washing the floor, scrubbing the marks left by soldiers’ boots. Is this what you will be doing, Sameh? No, Sameh, you will not be doing this. You will do something brave and heroic. You will save your mother’s life, and your sisters and your brothers will remember you forever.
I know the fields that lead back to the diner. I know them like the narrow streets of my village. I could be blindfolded and still find my way to Zebedeid, to the intersection, to Jerusalem. My mind is a map of bushes I can hide behind, gullies I can drop into, holes in the barbed wire I can squeeze through, boulders I can roll to cover a cave. I know all of these. I am the lord of this territory. It is mine, no one else’s.
Om...
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherClarion Books
- Publication date2006
- ISBN 10 061869174X
- ISBN 13 9780618691746
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages192
- Rating
Buy New
Learn more about this copy
US$ 4.31
Shipping:
US$ 4.25
From Canada to U.S.A.
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Stock Image
Real Time
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Paperback. Publisher overstock, may contain remainder mark on edge. Seller Inventory # 9780618691746B
Buy New
US$ 4.31
Convert currency
Stock Image
Real Time
Published by
Young Readers Paperback
(2006)
ISBN 10: 061869174X
ISBN 13: 9780618691746
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 061869174X-11-14328953
Buy New
US$ 9.89
Convert currency
Seller Image
Real Time by Kass, Pnina Moed [Paperback ]
Published by
Young Readers Paperback
(2006)
ISBN 10: 061869174X
ISBN 13: 9780618691746
New
Soft Cover
Quantity: 10
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780618691746
Buy New
US$ 9.90
Convert currency
Stock Image
Real Time Format: Paperback
Published by
Harper Collins Publishers
(2006)
ISBN 10: 061869174X
ISBN 13: 9780618691746
New
Softcover
Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 061869174X
Buy New
US$ 7.02
Convert currency
Stock Image
Real Time
Published by
Clarion Books
(2006)
ISBN 10: 061869174X
ISBN 13: 9780618691746
New
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition. Seller Inventory # bk061869174Xxvz189zvxnew
Buy New
US$ 11.35
Convert currency
Stock Image
Real Time
Published by
Clarion Books
(2006)
ISBN 10: 061869174X
ISBN 13: 9780618691746
New
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-061869174X-new
Buy New
US$ 12.12
Convert currency
Stock Image
Real Time
Published by
Houghton Mifflin
(2006)
ISBN 10: 061869174X
ISBN 13: 9780618691746
New
Soft cover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # USC-9780618691746
Buy New
US$ 9.61
Convert currency
Stock Image
Real Time
Published by
Clarion Books
(2006)
ISBN 10: 061869174X
ISBN 13: 9780618691746
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_061869174X
Buy New
US$ 21.09
Convert currency
Stock Image
Real Time
Published by
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt USA
(2006)
ISBN 10: 061869174X
ISBN 13: 9780618691746
New
Softcover
Quantity: 2
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. 2006. Reprint. Paperback. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9780618691746
Buy New
US$ 17.19
Convert currency
Stock Image
Real Time
Published by
Clarion Books
(2006)
ISBN 10: 061869174X
ISBN 13: 9780618691746
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard061869174X
Buy New
US$ 26.74
Convert currency