The Full Moon Above Us

by Sarah Raz

  Jacques had been quite preoccupied with a trial that had to do with his managerial role at the Zionist organization Keren HaYesod. The non-profit organization had been accused of illegally collecting dues from its Jewish membership. Alice had feared that he wasn’t going to make it to her wedding, but having been acquitted just a little earlier, he had chosen to come, perhaps not the least because he had been spared any financial responsibility for the dowry or the ceremony itself. The aunts and Albert, all content with how things had been going for them, were also in attendance and of so, of course, was her older sister Corinne with her husband. All had been made to feel welcome. Asher had meticulously planned everything down to the last detail.

  Asher had friends aplenty, all of them of the overachieving kind. From his work came the entire management team, as well as business associates from all over Europe. The large and well-attended wedding became one of the grandest and happiest occasions in Jewish Sofia that year. The newlyweds had received many gifts, but Alice was touched the most when her father put around her neck a pearl necklace that had belonged to her mother Luna. This gesture made her feel that her beloved mother was a part of the celebrations.

  Alice never doubted her decision to go ahead with the wedding. She was at peace with her choice to irrevocably tie her fate to Asher’s.

  Alice had been swept into a fairy tale world and blossomed with happiness. Every day in the life of the newlyweds was a party. Each day, Alice looked forward to Asher’s return from work, waiting to see how he would spoil her on that particular evening. Her wardrobe was overflowing with the most fashionable clothes, shoes, and accessories. They often went out with friends and spent much time at parties and balls.

  One day upon returning home from work, Asher informed her that they had an appointment at the Iranian consulate in town. “Why must I go?” Alice asked, rather taken aback. “Everybody is doing it. Don’t you know that all the best and most fashionable balls are held at the embassies of foreign powers? It is very much in vogue today to take out a foreign passport. It can lead to many benefits. Let us follow suit, Alice, let’s take out a foreign passport. The Persian embassy throws the best holiday parties!” Alice’s intuition told her that this was the wrong move. It took her that entire evening to convince Asher that there was no need to proceed as he had suggested. “Wouldn’t an Iranian passport make it more difficult for us to achieve our ultimate goal of settling in the Land of Israel,” she asked. “It does not behoove us, as Jews, as citizens of a host nation that is treating us well, to wish to become the subjects of a foreign sovereign. It could be seen as treason!”

  Every morning, when Alice got together with her sister Corrine or with her new girlfriends, whenever they sat down in a coffee shop in town or promenaded in one of the parks, she heard many compliments directed at her husband. And many expressions of wonder how she had been so fortunate as to win the heart of such a handsome and affluent man. Could it be that a note of jealousy had crept into these comments?

  On the eve of Rosh Hashanah in 1929 a Bulgarian man from Khaskovo lodged a complaint with the local police against a Jewish man who, allegedly, had made an attempt to kidnap his ten year-old daughter. The police immediately searched the home of the accused, a cantor by the name of Baruch, finding nothing. However, the incident, which had gained much notoriety, left a considerable impression on Bulgarian society. This development prompted the publication of a pamphlet, penned by Dr. Saul Mezan, a physician and one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Bulgaria, which described in detail the origins of this particular blood libel. The Bulgarian nationalist publishing house Rodnaya Zashchita (National Defense) answered with a booklet named “In the Claws of the Jews”, which contained a diatribe against the notable Jewish banker Angel Kwamadjeiski and against other Jewish Bulgarian financiers, men who were allegedly “taking over the country”. That same year, Sofia the capital hosted a convention of several thousand young men clad in black shirts after the Italian fascist fashion, who rather menacingly paraded around the city. But Asher and Alice refused to believe that something bad had been brewing in their relationship with their Bulgarian neighbors.

  Alice was a great opera fan and particularly enjoyed Madame Butterfly in its new and particularly luxurious production. She had been so impressed with the Japanese motifs on the opera stage set that she decided to embroider them on a quilt. She went out to the city center and purchased a length of white silk. From there she proceeded to the yarn merchants where she had bought several lengths of colorful thread. On the staircase coming down she met one of her neighbors. “What is this smile on your lips,” the neighbor asked, “have you received some good news?” Alice giggled. “You have no idea what kind of gift I am going to spoil myself with! A story of a Japanese geisha embroidered right on my bed covers.” The neighbor couldn’t help thinking that Alice’s mind was playing tricks on her. “This is how things are when the husband makes good money and the wife has nothing to do. You’d better plan on becoming a mother soon, so you can find something useful to do with your time!”

  On each corner of the fabric, Alice had drawn, with a blue pencil that needed wetting before it could be used, a scene from the opera. On one of them, a Japanese woman wearing a kimono was holding a parasol decorated with flower blossoms. On another, a girl was fanning herself. The third corner boasted a lady seated on a bench playing the shamisen and the fourth had a gorgeous cherry tree in full bloom with a woman standing under it. For the border, she drew a motif of rickshaw drivers pulling their passengers along winding country roads.

  The center of the quilt was reserved for the landscape that she had seen on the opera stage. A tall mountain capped with snow, a river flowing at its feet crossed with many wooden bridges, each making a perfect arch. Her sketch wasn’t much to look at, but in her mind’s eye she could see it blossom in all its colorful glory. She began working on the female characters. For each one, she had designed a kimono with different, but equally stunning, color combinations. As her work proceeded, she let herself become ever more enchanted with its exquisite detail. Her characters sported classic Japanese coiffures, their jet black hair piled high and held in place with a multitude of ornamental pins, decorated combs, and lacquered sticks. Each petal on each flower on each hair pin was executed to perfection. Each flower had both petals and leaves, each had its own unique color. She had imagined Japan as a land of lush blooming waterscapes, nobility, grace, and beauty and she had allowed her imagination come to life on the quilt surface.

  When Asher came home from the office, he understood that until Alice completed her work she should not be disturbed. He helped her wind the colorful threads from the large spindles upon which they had been delivered to smaller ones that she could use in her work. While this tedious but necessary chore was being done, he played classical music tunes on the gramophone, leaned back in his chair and pretended to focus on the thread, while looking at her with true love and admiration. Occasionally, he would read to her news items from the papers or tell her about some new developments at work, but she never stopped embroidering. Once she was happy with the needlework, she completed the quilt by adding two internal layers and stitching them together in a crosswise pattern. The end result was stunning. She knew that had her aunts been able to see it, they would have approved of their student!

  Asher had a brother by the name of Leon who lived in Marseille. One day, he received a letter from Leon, inviting him to come visit him in Marseille and expand his business by becoming his partner. Leon explained that the millinery industry had been expanding and gaining in popularity as French women were buying many new hats with every whim of a rapidly changing fashion. Leon added further that his wife and he were partners in a business called “Fabrique de Chapeaux” and that they had more orders than they could fill. That was why, Leon said, he was inviting his brother to come, invest in the business and manage it together with him so they could all make good money.

 
By the time the second letter had arrived, Asher had become quite taken with the proposition. That same night, after dinner, he raised the topic with Alice and asked for her opinion. She was supportive, but asked Asher to consult with her brother Jacques. Both of them together wrote him a letter, spelling out the business opportunity and asking for his opinion.

  Jacques showed up on their doorstep sooner than they had expected. He tried his best to dissuade them from this new adventure. He set out all the arguments against it. It seemed that he had thought deeply about it, analyzed it as a lawyer would, an attorney who was doing his best to defend his client from a heavy sentence just as the final judgment was about to be passed upon him.

  The trip was long and treacherous, the place was foreign to both of them, the risk of leaving a good position that provided for both of them very nicely indeed was both excessive and unwarranted. Right now they were lacking for nothing, leading a happy and peaceful existence. Commerce always had its ups and downs and he did not want them to become trapped in a situation wherein they had no close family around to come to their rescue. France was not Bulgaria… they would always feel like strangers there. And in any case, if they had wanted a true adventure, they should go to the Land of Israel; everyone knew that sooner or later all Jews would end up there anyway. Jacques’ pleas fell on deaf ears; in spite of all the doubts and the concerns the young couple’s mind was made up – they would take the risk and start a new life.

  With their departure now imminent, Alice and Asher sold all of the contents of their house. They had decided to take with them no possessions outside of their finest clothes and of course Alice’s jewelry box and Asher’s shaving kit. Asher said that they had enough money to purchase all that they needed when they arrived in their new home. He cashed in all of his savings in the bank and purchased for them two train tickets to Genoa, where they would board a steamship and sail to Marseille.

  Marseille 1928

  The train ride was supposed to take ten days because the Orient Express laid its leisurely winding tracks around Bulgaria taking great care not to miss any point of possible interest to travelers. It began its Bulgarian journey in Varna and made its first stop in Sofia the capital. Asher joked with Alice that the Belgian businessman Georges Nagelmackers who first envisioned the grand Orient Express experience did so with her in mind and made its length two thousand seven hundred and forty kilometers just so that she could arrive at her destination well-rested. The train was essentially a luxury hotel on wheels. It had sleeper cars and restaurant cars, all equipped with plush red velvet furniture and mosaic floors in the hallways. The cars had striped wallpaper and embossed leather ceilings. The furniture was mahogany and the floors were covered with Persian carpets. There were cars dedicated to smokers and to ladies traveling alone. The library car had books in every language and a car devoted to guest entertainment had many shows throughout the day and the night.

  Alice felt that this would be the trip of her life; perhaps all the Levites have wanderlust in their blood. Her father had made the journey from Turkey to Bulgaria, her brother Yitzhak had tried his luck in the Land of Israel, and now she was on her way to the edge of the West. Alice was confident that their new journey together would be a successful one.

  Leaving Sofia, the Orient Express was full with people making their way westward. The ticket price had been very high, which meant that they were destined to meet the crème de la crème of Eastern European society. It was possible to travel by other, less expensive routes, but that meant frequent changes of trains and cabins, while here, on the Orient Express, they had been guaranteed the use of a single cabin for the duration of the voyage, all the way to the Adriatic. Soon, the train crossed the Yugoslavian frontier among magnificent vistas of majestic mountains, lakes, forests, and rivers.

  From Belgrade they continued to Zagreb and Ljubljana, where they were joined by travelers making their way from Vienna and from Munich on their way to Trieste. It was here that Asher and Alice had met two German couples making their way to Italy. They were musicians who had been invited to play in Venice. From this point on, the journey had become a wonderful cultural experience. One of the cars in the train was equipped with a grand piano and the two couples gave wonderful piano and singing recitals every night. Alice and Asher, who loved singing, never failed to join them and people lined up in the narrow corridors to listen to the music.

  Each night the couples changed their costumes and presentations. From traveling gypsies to medieval troubadours, from haughty society ladies to Adonis-like pearl divers. One night they were haughty princes of the Hungarian Czardas and the next sultry queens of the Parisian nightlife. In each role, Asher and Alice never failed to perform their parts with harmony and precision.

  At breakfast, before they were to part ways in Venice, the couples talked about music. They talked about how it could bring total strangers together, bridging gaps in language and culture and how it was always conducive to fostering a warm and friendly atmosphere. Alice was becoming convinced that gaining knowledge across many different disciplines was key to putting people in control of their own lives.

  She was excited about their Venetian layover. Venice, the pinnacle of all the great Italian painters and sculptors, the scene of all the great love novels. Asher had promised her a gondola trip along the famous canals. At the station she said tearful goodbyes to her new German lady friend, took down their new addresses, and promised to write. The men took leave of each other too, exchanging handshakes and wishing each other well in their new endeavors.

  Their layover in Venice was to last half a day. Wasting no time, Asher had booked them a carriage for a guided tour of the famous city. The weather was scorching hot. Alice had never encountered such heat before. As soon as they got off the train, Asher bought her a great big fan trimmed in black lace, the kind favored by Gypsy dancers, so she could fan herself and get some relief from the heat. Alice’s excitement and enthusiasm for adventure knew no bounds. As they were sailing under the Bridge of Tears, the gondolier opened up with some famous Neapolitan tunes. He was perched at the very tip of the long narrow boat, holding the massive oar with one hand and tracing with it a complex trajectory through the dark waters of the canal. He wore a striped black and white linen shirt and a bright red neck kerchief and sported a short black beard. In short, he was exactly the kind of postcard gondolier one would expect to find in Venice. This was just how Alice had imagined it and she got the sudden feeling that she had done all of this before. They sat down in one of the many cafes lining San Marco square, opposite a street theater troop that was enacting some sort of complex allegorical play upon the square’s famous cobblestones. Apparently, they were rehearsing for the traditional masque festival that was supposed to take place later that summer season. A tuxedo-clad waiter with a serious and even haughty expression on his face brought them their drinks and Alice wondered how it was possible to live a normal life in a place such as this, a place that was more an elaborate theater set than the real world. Asher interrupted her daydreaming. It was time to go back to the train.

  From Venice, the train proceeded to Padua and then to Verona of Romeo and Juliet’s fame. Here, Alice thought, she was destined to spend the most romantic time of her life. The passengers were given five hours to explore the city before they would have to board the train again at nightfall. Alice asked Asher to arrange a guided tour through the old city’s narrow streets and alleys and she gawked at the balconies that overhung the street, wondering which one had been Juliet’s and from which exact place under it Romeo had confessed his love to her. Asher played along, allowing himself to be carried away on the wings of her imagination. He could quote from Shakespeare and on each alley corner that had seemed suitable, he addressed her with Shakespeare’s immortal words of love.

  His own Juliet was exceedingly beautiful. He thoroughly enjoyed every moment when his words made her laugh. The carriage driver mumbled into his mustache; he had
encountered strange people before, but what language were these people muttering to themselves in and why were they asking him to make such frequent stops? No matter, he thought, if they had agreed to his price, double the usual going rate, they could amuse themselves to their hearts’ content.

  Alice enjoyed every minute. She felt that her love for Asher was growing with each passing day. In the short while since they had begun living together, she experienced more adventure than in all of her previous life at home. She discovered that in Asher she had found a good and reliable friend with whom she would be willing to travel to the ends of the Earth. Nothing could beat them while they were together. In this, the happiest moment in her life, she raised her eyes to the heavens as if the time had now finally come to report on her progress and get a blessing for the rest of her journey. Moonlight flooded the narrow alleyways, coloring them in a bluish hue. Happy in each other’s arms, they made their way back to the train station. The Orient Express continued to Milan and from there to Genoa, their final overland destination.

  In Genoa, they went down to the harbor, where a steamship had been waiting to take them to Marseille. Their journey, which until now had passed among luxurious appointments and in the company of genteel folks, now continued on board a steamer full of noisy and common people. They could find refuge in their cabin, but with the heat being as it was, Alice had spent most of her time on deck. The strong salty wind offered no respite from the horrible sea sickness with which she had become afflicted. The motion of the ship upon the waves caused her dizziness and nausea and for the entire duration of the voyage she could not bring herself to put anything in her mouth beside a type of weak lemonade that Asher had prepared for her and into which he would add a pinch of drinking soda just before he served it to her. Asher felt sorry that he had not taken advantage of the opportunity to continue to Southern France by train. He thought that the ocean cruise would be another pleasant experience for Alice. Had he known how things would turn out, he would have definitely given it a pass. The steamship crossed the bay of Genoa and proceeded along the French coast to Marseille, the oldest city in France and the most important Mediterranean port of the French Empire.