“Okay, my girl. Here we goes …” Cool Breeze said as he let go of the seat. And then, as Cool Breeze had promised, Abby was flying. She was doing something she’d thought she was incapable of doing. She was riding the bike, but more importantly, she was learning to trust herself and not to be trapped in her own fears.
Mark got a job delivering papers so he could purchase records, and Haley hand-sewed clothes for her dolls out of rags that Cool Breeze brought home from the hospital.
Buddy grew fat and healthy. She was closer to Abby than ever. In fact, she no longer needed a leash; she followed Abby everywhere. By the middle of the winter of 1974, Buddy bore no resemblance to the scrawny dog who had stood on the stoop outside the Levis’ door less than a year earlier.
On Sunday nights, Ida and Harry invited everyone to dinner at the restaurant. There wasn’t much business, so they had plenty of time to sit around the table and catch up between customers.
Spring came with the budding of flowers and tender shoots of grass popping their heads out of the defrosting soil. One morning, Dovid got up before anyone else. A cold rain had fallen the night before, leaving a light layer of frost on the trees. In the winter it would have formed ice but because it was spring it would be melted by noon, the water nourishing the new growth. He prepared a cup of coffee for himself and sat quietly gazing out the window. Buddy came trotting out of Abby’s room and sat down quietly at Dovid’s side, hoping for a treat. It wasn’t ten minutes before Abby followed her dog. Then Buddy stood up and, for no explainable reason, the dog dashed down the stairs to Cool Breeze’s room. This was unusual behavior for Buddy. Abby started to follow Buddy, but Dovid told her to stay in the living room.
“I’ll go and see if everything is all right. Cool Breeze might not be dressed.”
Several minutes passed. Then Dovid came upstairs. “Cool Breeze isn’t here,” he said.
“Did he come home from work?” Abby asked. “Maybe he had to work a double shift. He’s had to do that before.”
“I’ll call the hospital and see if he had to pull a double,” Dovid said. He picked up the phone and dialed. Every time the rotary dial moved, the sound of it sent a shiver down his spine.
Something’s not right and the dog can sense it, Dovid thought. Abby sat on the sofa with Buddy beside her…waiting.
“Thank you,” Dovid said to the person on the other end of the telephone. Then he placed the handset into the receiver. “The head of housekeeping said Crawford Dell left at eleven o’clock last night. They checked Cool Breeze’s time card to be sure. And it is accurate, he punched out.”
“Punched out?”
“Yes, they have a punch clock. He has to put a card in it when he comes in and when he leaves. That’s how they know for sure that he left at eleven.”
“So where is he?” Abby said, her eyes still sleepy and her long curly dark hair a disheveled mess around her head.
“I don’t know, Abby. I hope he’s all right.”
“He has to come back home. He would never leave Buddy, right Papa?”
Dovid nodded but he wasn’t sure of anything. He was worried, confused, and had no idea what to tell the children. He just hoped that Cool Breeze hadn’t started shooting again.
How can I explain that kind of an addiction to my kids? Especially Abby, she’s so close to Cool Breeze. Dovid hoped Cool Breeze would return later that day with some viable excuse. But he feared the worst.
Dovid was right to be nervous about Cool Breeze. Weeks passed with no word from him. Dovid called the hospital again, only to learn that Cool Breeze never returned to work again after the night he disappeared.
Abby volunteered to take over complete care of Buddy but she missed her friend Cool Breeze. She, of all of the Levis except Dovid, was the closest to him.
“I don’t know why he would just leave like that? We were friends. He never even told me he was going away. I can’t believe he didn’t say goodbye. What could have happened to him, Daddy? ” Abby asked.
Dovid shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, sweetheart.”
He hoped that something bad hadn’t happened to Cool Breeze, but there had been no call from the police. There had been no reports of an unidentified body that Dovid had been made aware of. The only answer Dovid could think of was that Cool Breeze was using again. But why? Why, when things were going so well? Dovid just had no answers.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
As if Arnie were watching over his friends, a miracle happened. A food critic came to review the restaurant that the Levis and Rosens owned. The critic wrote a post in the newspaper raving about Ida’s apple kugel. After the article came out in the food section of the Sun-Times it was impossible to prepare enough kugel to satisfy the customers. Ida made two trays, and each day they sold out so quickly that she increased the amount to four trays. And once people tasted the kugel they wanted to try everything on the menu. So not only was the bakery hopping, but the restaurant was filling up every night as well.
The bakery take-out orders grew so quickly that the Rosens converted the front of the store to a bakery and the back remained a restaurant.
Harry asked Dovid and Eidel to come back to work at the restaurant.
“We have so many customers that we could use the help now,” Harry said. “And finally, we can all live our dream. We will have our own business again.”
Dovid and Eidel discussed it. Then they talked it over with the rabbi.
“Eidel and I don’t want to leave you without any help. We don’t know what to do,” Dovid said.
“You should go and pursue your dream,” the rabbi said. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll hire people. This is what you and Eidel have been hoping for … praying for.”
“Yes, it is.”
“And if for some reason, God forbid, it doesn’t work out, you are both always welcome to come back here,” Rabbi Mittleman said.
Dovid and Eidel joined Ida and Harry and six months later the business was thriving. In fact, the restaurant was so popular that there was a two-week wait to get a table at “Ida’s Home Cooking.” The business was growing so fast that they were able to afford to expand and rent the location next door. With the landlord’s permission, they knocked the wall out, doubling the size. Now not only did “Ida’s” have a bakery, but there was a lunch counter complete with its own menu, including homemade soups and deli sandwiches.
The hours they put in at the restaurant were long, but the Levis and the Rosens didn’t mind. After having lost everything and being poor, they were elated with the progress of the restaurant and felt like they were living the American dream. There was plenty of money for each family to buy a car. The children had new shoes whenever they needed them, and clothes that fit them properly instead of hand-me-downs from the Salvation Army stores. No one, in either family, ever went to bed hungry again. Dovid went to the grocery store where he had stolen food during his bout of poverty and paid back every cent he’d ever stolen.
But most of all, he thanked the rabbi for his kindness in taking a chance on him and Eidel when they were in desperate need, by making a generous donation to the shul. Everything would have been perfect if only Cool Breeze had not disappeared. Occasionally, Dovid took long walks alone in the late evening. He did this to sort out his thoughts. And many times his thoughts turned to Cool Breeze.
If I could only find him. If I could only share our good fortune with him. He is the only missing piece to this puzzle.
But it was not to be, at least not then.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
1975
In the summer of 1975, Mark had a beautiful bar mitzvah. Dovid refused to have the party at a banquet hall or hotel. He insisted that if he was going to pay a lot of money for an affair, it was going to be paid to the temple. He wanted to be sure that it would benefit the rabbi and the congregation that had been so kind to him through his hard times. Eidel and Ida planned everything and, even though they were very busy with the restaurant, they still managed to f
ind the time to arrange a wonderful party. As everyone gathered in the shul, Mark stood on the bima, the platform where he would read from the Torah. Eidel had tears in her eyes as she looked up at her son. He looked so handsome with his father’s deep-set dark eyes. She reached for Dovid’s hand. Dovid smiled at his wife, his eyes glassy with tears of pride.
Later, at the reception, Mark sat at the head table with his parents on one side and his best friend Earl Shulman on the other. The girls he’d invited from school giggled when he asked them to dance. Dovid watched his son dancing and put his arm around his wife. He was only a few years away from fifty. It had been a long time since he had been thirteen and had stood on the bima and recited his portion from the sacred Torah. A smile came over Dovid’s face as he remembered his father.
Papa, you were beaming at me from the crowd on the day of my bar mitzvah. I saw the joy in your eyes. It was many years ago. But that much I do remember. Are you here with us tonight, Papa? Is Mama here too? Tonight, your grandson, your namesake, has become a man in the Jewish religion. And just look at him Papa, he is so handsome. When I look at him, I see you in his face, in his eyes, Papa. And I know how much you would have loved him. You too, Mama. I watch him dance and talk to his friends and I wonder what his future will be. Will he be a doctor like you, Papa? I hope so. I brought him here to America where he would have the opportunity to make choices. Here he could decide what he wanted to do, what he wanted to be. I didn’t have that luxury as a boy. You sent me away to save my life. And I am forever grateful. Because if you hadn’t Mark, Abby, and Haley would not be here. But I will never forget the Nazis in their uniforms with their swastikas who shot you both dead for no reason at all. They knew nothing about you. They had no idea that you had a son who loved you both, or that you, Papa, were a kind and generous doctor. Or that Mama made the best chicken soup in all of Kiev and when anyone in the neighborhood was sick, she brought them a pot. You called it Jewish medicine, Papa. If I close my eyes and try hard enough I can still taste the rich broth, the perfectly textured matzo balls. Ida’s soup is very good, but it’s not yours, Mama. Nothing has ever been as special as yours. I believe that I can feel both of you here tonight and I know you are proud of our boy. I only wish you could be here in the flesh with us. I wish you could share your wisdom with Mark …
“Dovi?” Eidel squeezed his hand. “Are you falling asleep?”
“No, I was just reminiscing about my parents.”
“Your eyes were closed, and I was concerned. Are you feeling all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. I feel blessed. We are, you know? We have a fine family, good health, and now even prosperity again. Who would have thought that would ever happen? Our lives are so much better than the lives of our parents, they should rest in peace, and with God’s help our children’s futures will be even better than we could ever imagine.”
“Mazel tov!” Harry said, as he and Ida walked over to the table. “So your son is a man tonight. You should be proud, Dovi.”
“I am so very proud.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
The restaurant was open six days, Sunday through Friday. It closed early on Friday night and remained closed all day Saturday in observance of the Sabbath. Although Dovid had worked on plenty of Friday nights and Saturdays, he was enjoying the Jewish law of observing the Sabbath. It forced the family to take a day off and spend time together. Dovid even went to shul on Saturday mornings. And most Saturdays, the rest of the family accompanied him.
Early on a Saturday morning in the winter of 1976, the phone rang at the Levi house. Abby answered it. She had just gotten back from walking Buddy and was in the kitchen giving the dog a treat while everyone else was still getting ready for temple.
“Papa,” she screamed. “Papa, come quick.”
Dovid heard the panic in Abby’s voice and came running to the kitchen with his shirt unbuttoned. “What is it?”
“It’s the police. They’ve found Cool Breeze’s body. He’s dead. They want you to come and identify him.” Abby handed the phone to her father. Her body was trembling.
“Oh no…” Dovid said as he took the phone. He felt his palm sweating against the receiver.
Abby stared at her father wide-eyed as he spoke to the caller, giving short answers.
“Yes.” Pause. “No.” Pause. “Yes.” “Yes.”
“Yes,” Dovid said again. Then a few minutes passed. “I’ll be right over there.”
Dovid sank into a chair. “Eidel,” he called out. “Eidel, come here.”
“Be there in a minute.”
“Eidel, I need to speak to you now.”
Eidel came into the kitchen fastening a strand of pearls around her neck. “What is it?” she said, looking from Dovid to Abby then back to Dovid again.
“You two look like you’ve seen a ghost. What’s going on?”
“I have to go down to the city morgue. They think that they have Cool Breeze’s body.”
She looked at him in disbelief. “Oh, Dovi…” She cleared her throat. “Would you like me to go with you?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe the news either.
“Maybe you should ask Harry?”
Dovid shook his head.
“Take me with you, Papa. I want to go.”
It was Abby.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Please, Papa. I was closest to him. Buddy was his dog, now she’s mine. Take me…”
“You’re just a child. I’m going to the morgue. This could be very traumatic for you.”
“Take me with you, Papa.”
Dovid looked down at the floor. Then he looked up at Abby. “Go and get your coat.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Dovid’s heart sunk when the coroner removed the sheet from the dead body. There was no denying it. It was Cool Breeze.
“Is this Crawford B. Dell?” A police officer standing at the coroner’s side asked Dovid.
“Yes,” Dovid said in a small voice.
Abby was trembling.
“The only thing that Mr. Dell had in possession was this envelope in his pocket with his full name, next to your name and phone number written on it, Mr. Levi. It says right here that in case Mr. Dell is found dead, you are to be given this letter.” The policeman pointed to the crude writing on the envelope.
Cool Breeze had someone write this for him, Dovid thought, holding the paper in his hand and feeling chilled.
“Can I please have a few minutes alone with his body? I would like to have a chance to read this and then say goodbye,” Dovid asked.
“Sure. Why don’t I take your little girl out of the room and keep an eye on her for a while so you can do what you have to do?” the officer said.
“Thank you.”
Abby looked frightened as the policeman led her away. “It’s okay, Abby. Go with him. I’ll be right there.”
Once Dovid was alone, he opened the envelope. The penmanship was poor, hard to read, but Dovid began.
“If you be readin’ this Mister Dovi, it mean that I be gone on to greener pastures. I had to ask one a the men’s here at the shelter to write this fer me, but it all be my words, cause I tol’ him exactly what I want him to write. And, I tol him don’t change nothin’ I says. I know how you hates when I calls you Mister Dovi. You thinks it makes me feels like a slave. But it don’t. I always calls you that outta respect, because outta everybody I ever knowd you was my true friend. And you earned my respect every day I knowd you. You stood by me no matter what kinda trouble I be getting’ myself into. And that’s why I’m writtin’ this. Because you be deservin’ some kinda explaning as to why I left your house that night that I didn’t come back home after work. I left you all cause I was shamed. I be messed up on the needle again. I know how this gonna sound but truth be I can’t even say how it happened. And I sure do knows that there aint never any good reason for startin’ up again. Hell, I musta gone on and off the junk a hundred times
in my life. The only time I actually believed I mighta been able to stay straight fer good was when Glory and me be together. After she gone, nothin’ was never the same. I’d be off the stuff for a month or two then back on. I gets caught stealin’ so as I can get me some more junk and I ends up in prison. I comes out straight, but for too long, I’s usin’ again. Don’t make no sense. I knows it. Well, sure ain’t no use goin’ on about it now. I just be writin’ this so as I can say thanks to you for bein’ a real true friend in my life. And you oughta know that I likes your kids a lot. They be good kids. I sees a lot of you in them, Mister Dovi, and that sure should be makin’ you feel proud. I want’s to take a minute to tell you what I sees in your kids. Specially Abby. She gots a heart big as Texas, but she be timid. She gots fears of life. You be her Papa, it be up to you to show her she strong enough to do whatever she want to in her future. Abby be needen this so badly so as she can grow into the strong woman I knows she can be. Now, this be important, don’ you forget to tell her that she needs to take care a that dog. Although I gots to say, I already knows she gonna care for my pup. Buddy love Abby from the first time they seen each other. And Buddy sure be one good mutt. Now, Haley, she your pretty one, just like her Mama. The two of them is best friends. She gonna be all right. She always gonna be close to Mrs. Eidel, and that gonna be the way it is with her for her whole life. They like two peas in a pod. Now, as far as Mark is concerned, you gots a big problem with Mark. And you gonna find out that either you gotta love him as he is Dovi or you gonna lose him. You might not want to admit it, but you knows what I mean. You knows it deep inside your own self. Your boy, he got a lot to offer, he sure ‘nough do. He be smart, and got talent too. But he also be different than the other boys. And he be different from you, Dovi. Remember my words as Mark come up and if you smart and you wants him to feel like your son, you gonna have to accept him for bein’ just who he is. Well that’s all I got to say. See you when your time is up, Mister Dovi. Maybe then it’s gonna be the right time for us and we gonna build another juke joint in heaven, all of us, Arnie, you, Harry and me. All of us together.”
New Life, New Land Page 15
