Too Many Men (47 page)

“I’m sorry,” she said to Edek. “I shouldn’t have inflicted all this on you now.”

“You did not do anything,” Edek said. “The things that was done was done by other people.”

“But I shouldn’t have brought all this up now,” Ruth said.

“When would be a better time?” Edek said. “Never.” He straightened himself up. “I am sorry I did cry,” he said to Ruth. “A man my age should not cry.”

“Dad, you’ve got a lot to cry about,” Ruth said.

Edek wiped his eyes, again, and sat up. He spread the photographs out

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on his knees. “This is my sister Fela,” he said. “And her husband Juliusz, what I did just tell you about.” He handed Ruth the photograph. Ruth looked at Fela and Juliusz. What a good-looking couple they were. They were looking at each other, in the photograph. It was a look of love. Ruth thought that they must have been madly in love. Or at least quite in love to be still looking at each other that way. They had obviously been together awhile. They had two children.

Ruth wondered if it was possible to be quite in love. Or was quite in love, too mild to be love? Was anything less than madly in love, not really love? She looked at the photograph again. Fela and Juliusz looked madly in love, to her.

“Here is Tadek,” Edek said, handing Ruth another one of the photographs. “Next to Tadek is Tadek’s wife, Maryla.” Tadek looked like Edek, Ruth thought. A very young, handsome Edek.

“He looks like you,” Ruth said.

“Everybody did say that,” Edek said.

“You can really see the resemblance,” Ruth said. “You were both very handsome young men.”

“You can recognize me from this photo of Tadek,” Edek said.

“Yes,” Ruth said. “Tadek looks like the photograph of you, after the war, before I was born.”

“Of course,” Edek said. “I did forget about those photographs.”

“You were so handsome,” she said.

“I am not so bad now,” Edek said. He smiled at Ruth. His smile cheered her up.

“You’re not so bad at all, Dad,” she said.

“I do not know why Tadek’s two boys was not in the photographs,”

Edek said. “Maybe they was somewhere else at the time.”

“The photographs look as though they were all taken on one day,”

Ruth said.

“You are right,” Edek said. “Maybe Tadek’s boys was with Moniek’s children that day.”

Tadek’s children. Moniek’s children. Juliusz, Maryla. All these people she had never heard about. All related to her. All family.

“Who are those two girls?” Ruth said, pointing at the photograph Edek was holding.

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Edek looked at the photograph. “They was such lovely girls,” he said.

“Quiet, and good at school. Very good at school.”

“Who are they?” Ruth said.

“They are nobody anymore,” Edek said. “They are dead.” He looked morose again.

“Who were they, Dad?” she said.

“They were Fela’s daughters,” he said. He looked as though he was going to cry again. “Liebala, the older one, was my favorite. Always smiling.

Always talking. She did love to talk. ‘Uncle Edek,’ she called me. ‘Uncle Edek, can I come on the
doroszka
? Uncle Edek, can I walk with you? Uncle Edek. Uncle Edek!’ ” Edek put down the photograph and wiped his eyes.

“Are you all right, Dad?” Ruth said.

“I am all right,” he said.

“What was the younger girl’s name?” Ruth said.

“Hanka,” Edek said. “Hanka was very nice, too. A bit more quiet than her sister, but very nice.” Edek sniffed and wiped his eyes again. He put his handkerchief back in his pocket. The handkerchief looked very wet.

“Don’t you think Hanka and Liebala look like me?” Ruth said.

“I always did know this,” Edek said. “So did Mum.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ruth said.

“What for?” said Edek. “To tell you the truth,” Edek said, “I did try myself not to think of it too much. It is not so easy to have a child who reminds you so much of other children. Children what are dead.” Edek looked as though he might start crying again.

“Of course, Dad,” she said. “I understand.”

“They was clever girls, both of them,” he said.

“I’m glad they were clever,” Ruth said.

“Especially Liebala,” Edek said. He held his mouth together, in an effort to stem any more tears.

“Let’s put the photographs away now,” Ruth said. “I’ll have copies of them made in New York and give you a set.”

“Probably they do such copies, in Poland,” Edek said.

“I’m not giving these photographs to any Pole,” Ruth said.

Edek laughed. “Maybe that was not such a good idea,” he said.

“I’m going to have the coat altered so it fits me, in New York, too,”

Ruth said. Edek shook his head at her. “It’s going to look great,” Ruth said.

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Edek laughed. “You are crazy,” he said. Ruth was glad that her craziness was making Edek laugh. Edek took one last look at the photographs before he handed them over to Ruth.

It must be so strange for him to look at these photographs, Ruth thought. He hadn’t seen these people for so many years. So many decades.

And, here he was, looking at an image of them. An image that had preserved them, perfectly, looking exactly the way they had looked when he last saw them.

“I’m happy we got these,” Edek said. “Better to remember my mother and father and Fela and Tadek like this than how they was in the ghetto.”

Of course, Ruth thought. How stupid of her. This wasn’t how he had last seen his mother and father and sister and brothers. His last view of them hadn’t been like this at all. Not one of them had been well dressed when he had last seen them. Not one of them had been well fed. Fela’s high cheekbones wouldn’t have had a coating of flesh when Edek had last kissed her. They would have been sharp and angular. Probably protruding a long way out off the rest of her face. And what had happened to the girls in the ghetto? To Hanka and Liebala? Ruth didn’t dare ask.

“Make me two copies of the one with my mother and father,” Edek said. “The one which is only my mother standing next to my father.”

“Okay,” Ruth said.

“I want to send one to Garth,” Edek said.

“To Garth?” said Ruth. “What do you want to send it to Garth for?”

“I want to show him what my mother and father did look like,” Edek said. “He will be interested.” Ruth dropped the subject. She didn’t want to agitate her father. She had put him through enough this morning.

“How much did you pay for all this stuff?” Edek said. This was the question she had been hoping to deflect. She didn’t answer. “How much did this stuff cost you?” said Edek.

“It’s not stuff,” Ruth said.

“It is stuff what is important to us,” Edek said. “But it is stuff.”

“Quite a bit,” Ruth said.

“How much is such a bit?” said Edek.

“Three thousand two hundred and fifty dollars for the set of china and the silver bowl,” Ruth said.

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Edek whistled. “Oh, brother,” he said. “Three thousand and two hundred dollars for some china and some photographs.”

“No, the photographs and the coat were extra,” Ruth said.

“Extra?” said Edek. “Three thousand two hundred and fifty American dollars was not enough?” He paused for a second. “It was American dollars what you was talking about, not Australian dollars?” he said.

“They were American dollars,” Ruth said.

“Of course,” Edek said. “Everybody wants American dollars. How much was the coat and the photographs?”

“Another thousand dollars,” Ruth said.

“Another thousand,” he said in disbelief. “Those bestids.”

Not even the way he pronounced “bastard” could cheer up Ruth.

Edek’s version of “bestid” usually lifted her spirits. She felt appalled at how much she had spent. She could see that her father was appalled too.

“Those bestids,” Edek said again.

“It’s not such a huge amount of money for me to spend,” Ruth said. “I could spend it on a vacation or on a piece of furniture.”

“It is not the four thousand dollars,” Edek said. “It is the fact that you did give this four thousand two hundred and fifty dollars to those Polacks.”

Her father was right, Ruth thought. It was not the amount of the expenditure that was the most bothering aspect of this, it was who the money was handed to. It was given to people who had already profited from the death of his mother and father and sister and brothers and nephews and nieces.

“Those bestids,” Edek said again. Ruth thought that one day she should teach Edek a few more obscenities. He was stuck on bestid. There were several more potent profanities. Bestid seemed too timid to Ruth. There was a string of much stronger words for cursing.

“They did get what they wanted, those bestids,” Edek said.

“We got what we wanted,” Ruth said.

“I did not want this,” Edek said.

“I did,” she said. Edek was quiet.

Ruth put the photographs back in the envelope. She folded the coat and returned it to its new home. A Saks Fifth Avenue shopping bag. Edek slumped back against the back of the sofa. The price that Ruth had paid for the coat and the china and the photographs seemed to have deflated him.

He looked depressed.

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“What use is it to pay such a lot of money?” Edek said. “What use is these photographs? I already did know what my mother and father did look like.”

“I didn’t,” Ruth said.

“I suppose so,” Edek said. “But nobody else does want to see them.

There is no grandchildren. There is nobody.”

Ruth was surprised. Edek didn’t usually dwell on her lack of children or his lack of grandchildren. It must be the effect of looking at the photographs. Seeing how truncated, almost eradicated, the whole Rothwax family was, that was getting to Edek. Ruth felt bad.

“I guess I could still have children,” she said.

“You will not,” said Edek.

Ruth felt cold. She could feel herself shivering. She knew it was warm in the lobby. She was shivering because she was overwrought. There was too much to deal with. Why did Edek have to bring up children now? It made sense. They had just been looking at two of the beautiful children who were lost. Lost to their mother and father. Lost to their grandparents. Lost to their aunties and uncles. Lost to Edek, and lost to Ruth. Two of the many beautiful children who’d been lost, in Lódz.

“I am happy you did get what you wanted,” Edek said to Ruth.

“The photographs mean so much to me,” she said. Edek nodded his head. “Maybe you’re not up to a visit to the ghetto,” Ruth said to Edek.

“Maybe you should stay here and have a rest.”

“I am coming with you,” Edek said.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll put these things upstairs and then we’ll get a cab.”

“Maybe I will call Stefan to drive us to the ghetto?” Edek said.

“We’re going to be on the road with Stefan for hours, driving to Kraków, this afternoon,” Ruth said.

“He is not so bad,” Edek said. Ruth groaned. She wasn’t ready to face Stefan yet.

“I’d like a break from Stefan,” she said. “Unless you’d really like to see him sooner.”

“Are you stupid?” Edek said. “I did only suggest it to be more convenient for you.”

“Oh, good,” Ruth said. “We can get a Mercedes though. I’ve become a convert to the benefits of driving in a Mercedes.”

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“A Mercedes is such a good car,” Edek said. “One of the best.”

Ruth started to relax. They were on to more comfortable territory. The glories of a Mercedes car were something they could both, now, agree on.

“Stefan’s Mercedes is a specially good one,” Edek said. Ruth was just about to tell Edek to call Stefan when Edek said, “Ah, forget about it, I will find another Mercedes.”

“You arrange the Mercedes,” Ruth said. “And I’ll meet you back here in ten minutes.”

Ruth took Israel Rothwax’s coat out of the Saks Fifth Avenue bag. She didn’t want any of the staff to think it was a valuable coat. That was ridiculous, she thought. Most of the staff of the Grand Victoria, in Lódz, would never have heard of Saks Fifth Avenue. Still, the Saks bag looked classy.

And it was best to be safe. Ruth hung the coat in the closet, next to the rest of her clothes. She realized that everything she owned would soon smell of mothballs. She didn’t mind. These mothballs had a different connotation from most mothballs.

She put the photographs inside a guidebook to Poland. She didn’t think anyone would want to steal a guidebook to Poland. She went downstairs.

She found her father standing in front of what had to be the biggest Mercedes in Lódz. He was smiling. Ruth walked up to him.

“This is a big Mercedes,” she said.

“It is the biggest model what Mercedes does make,” said Edek.

“I’m impressed,” Ruth said. “Where did you find it?”

“I did ask the doorman,” Edek said. “He did tell me he has a friend with a very big Mercedes. So I said, book him for us, please.”

“What are we paying for this car?” Ruth said, although she felt that the question was superfluous next to her expenditure this morning.

“This Mercedes is the same price as any other Mercedes,” Edek said.

“A bargain,” she said. Edek laughed.

“This whole trip to Poland,” he said, “is one big bargain.”

They got into the car. “Tell the driver we’ll only be about an hour,”

Ruth said.

“I did tell him already, half an hour,” Edek said.

“I’m sure he won’t mind if we take a bit longer,” Ruth said. Edek bounced himself up and down on the backseat.

“This Mercedes is very comfortable,” he said.

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“It sure is,” she said. She sank back into the seat. She was so tired. She hadn’t realized how tired she was.

Edek reached into the pocket of his parka. He pulled out some dried apricots. “I did take these apricots from breakfast,” he said. “Have some of them. You will feel better.” She must look as tired as she felt, she thought.