Mendelevski's Box

by Roger Swindells

  Van der Meer smiled and once again Simon saw the face of the unscrupulous rule-bending lawyer he had seen when they first met.

  ‘So tell me what you want me to do.’

  He outlined his plan for his and Maaike’s final destination and what he wanted van der Meer to do for him after their departure in respect of a property to be arranged through his account at Rabobank.

  ‘You want me to have the power to make those arrangements for you, and to have access to your account to finance it?’

  ‘Yes, and to take your fee from the account as well.’

  ‘That’s very trusting of you, are you absolutely sure?’

  ‘Completely, I trust you implicitly. The arrangement I want you to make is very important to me, and I know you won’t let me down.’

  ‘Thank you, I will be proud to represent you as your lawyer and there will be no fee. We need to draw up an authority to the bank for me to make payments from your account. I will ensure it has a clause that you must also agree to any withdrawals before I make them, so I will need to know your address, and we need another document to say I am acting for you in respect of the other business.’

  ‘That sounds acceptable, I hope you can complete most of the arrangements while I am still at the Friesland address. I will give it to you when I have it and I will need to give it to the bank as well.’

  ‘Hmm, you may not wish to do that until you get a little further away than Friesland, just in case the Amsterdam City Council somehow gets hold of it. Banks are sometimes not as discreet as they ought to be. As I am your lawyer, it is quite in order for you to use my address here as your official address. Any correspondence will come here and I will of course be bound by client confidentiality regarding your whereabouts now I have officially taken instructions from you.’

  ‘If you think that would be best then yes, I agree, you’re the expert after all.’

  ‘Yes, I am rather, aren’t I?’ He laughed at himself. ‘Excellent, I’ll have Joke type up the necessary paperwork now while we have coffee. Then I really must get back to my brief, I am defending in a big trial starting in a week’s time and I’m not ready. I don’t think it will last long, and I will make your matters my first priority after that.’ He reached over and rang the bell for Joke.

  The necessary paperwork completed and only his Friesland address still outstanding, he made his way back to the Jordaan via Nieuwe Spiegelstraat. To his horror, his father’s painting was no longer in the window of Berger’s shop. In a panic he went to the door only to find it locked, the blind drawn and the ‘closed’ sign showing. Distraught, he rushed to work to talk to Jos, who was behind the bar serving two customers as he burst in.

  ‘Jos! It’s gone! The painting’s gone, Berger must have sold it! I knew we should have gone back sooner.’

  ‘Steady lad, slow down.’

  ‘It’s Berger…’

  Jos interrupted, his voice strangely anxious. ‘What about him?’

  ‘He’s sold the painting. I went to his shop but it was closed so I didn’t see him, but the painting was gone from the window.’

  ‘Calm down.’ He breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Get a beer and come downstairs, these two are alright for a minute or two.’

  ‘But the painting, it’s gone! We should have done something.’

  ‘Not here, get down the cellar.’ Jos almost pushed him down the steps and slumped into his chair.

  ‘Are you alright?’ Simon asked Jos. ‘You’re shaking.’

  ‘Nothing, nothing at all. I must be getting a cold or something.’

  ‘We’ve lost the painting, we left it too long.’

  ‘We haven’t, it’s in your box with the other one and the gold watch your father made for Berger is in there too.’

  ‘What? How?’

  ‘I went to see Berger yesterday. You were right, he recognised Gerrit that day at van der Meer’s. He’d seen him coming and going from the house when he was visiting his store in the stable. He had a key to the house and he simply went in and met your father. He guessed you were Jews who were in hiding, and he demanded money and a watch from your father. When your father stood up to him he told the bloody Nazis about you. It was just as you and Maaike said, the first invoice was fake and was just to cover the money. When your father handed him an invoice for the watch, Berger got angry and decided to turn you in after your father said there would be no more payments.’

  ‘And he confessed all this?’

  ‘Yes, with a little persuasion. I think he was glad to get it off his chest, clear his conscience you might say.’

  ‘And he gave you the painting and the watch?’

  ‘Not exactly, I pointed out to him they belonged to your father, although he still said he bought the painting from a woman right to the end.’

  ‘End? What do you mean, ‘end’?’

  ‘To the end of our conversation, of course. He saw the sense in returning the painting and the watch to you, my argument was obviously a good one.’

  He opened the box and took out the paintings. Holding them side by side he looked at Jos. ‘How can I ever thank you? I already owe you everything but now this. The paintings are reunited. I am forever in your debt.’

  ‘Don’t talk rubbish, boy, I’m just glad to have finally sorted out the Berger question for you. He’s admitted everything, you know who betrayed you and your family, so it’s over I hope. You can now go off with your Maaike without that hanging over you. The watch is there too, have a look.’

  ‘But the gold chain is still attached to it, that wasn’t from father, so it’s not really mine, is it?’

  Jos spoke angrily. ‘Please, don’t start that holier than thou, honest little boy routine again. You’ll want to give the bloody thing back next. Just leave it, will you.’

  ‘I just think I’d like to face him, to look him in the face now I know for sure, tell him who I am and tell him what happened to my family.’

  ‘No! Absolutely not. It’s over, leave it! He knows who you are, he knows what happened because of him. I told him all about you and what you’ve been through,’ he lied. ‘There’s no more to be said to him about it. Keep the bloody chain as some sort of compensation, God knows it’s worth nothing compared to what he did to you all. Please, for me, put him behind you now, it’s over, my last favour to you. I told you I’d sort it and I have.’

  Simon had a strange feeling and he asked, ‘You didn’t hurt him, did you, Jos?’

  ‘Now would I do that? Let’s just say I was at my most persuasive, the odd bloody nose maybe. He deserved a bit of pain after what he did.’

  ‘Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.’

  ‘Just get upstairs to work, it’s after four.’

  Jos poured himself another drink and clasped his hands together to stop them shaking. His wife always said he was an awful liar, he just hoped and prayed the boy hadn’t noticed and that he would never find out what had really happened.

  He told Maaike as soon as she arrived at six. She was delighted that at last his search was over and his question answered, realising what a difference it would make to him. She was also rather smug as it appeared that the dealings between his father and Berger had been virtually as she had predicted.

  ‘Thank you Jos, you’re a wonderful man.’ She kissed him. ‘Simon couldn’t have done this without you. Perhaps now he can forget.’

  Jos was lost in thought, wondering if he could ever do the same. He headed to the cellar.

  ‘Simon, I must tell you some other good news, Aunt Nel’s reply has arrived and she says we can go as soon as we want. They’re all looking forward to meeting you and uncle’s little house is all ready and it will be rent free! It’s been standing empty so they’re just pleased someone will be living in it.’

  ‘That’s marvellous news. We’ll tell Jos later, I don’t want to leave him in the lurch so we may have to work a few more days. We’ll have to tell Grietje too. I think she is quite pleased for us now, but when we say we are a
ctually going and tell her the date I expect she might be upset again.’

  ‘As long as she’s not angry, about us I mean.’

  ‘We’ll have to tell your aunt and uncle our long-term plans as well and that we will only be with them for a few months or so. I hope they’ll understand.’

  ‘I’m sure they will, especially after they’ve met you and know I’m in safe hands.’

  ‘Maybe so, but what we have planned is a big move and I don’t know how it will sound to them.’

  She laughed. ‘Possibly, I’m afraid my family do tend to think the world ends at the border of Friesland and Groningen.’

  ‘I hope they won’t mind if we just stay there temporarily, I don’t want them to think we’re using them.’

  ‘Don’t worry. They just want the best for me and when I say we’re starting a new life together they’ll be delighted.’

  ‘Assuming they like me.’

  ‘They’ll love you, after all I do.’

  ‘We need to finalise what we’re going to take. I want to leave father’s box with most of the remaining things in it here for Jos to ship to us when we reach our final destination. I want to take the two paintings, father’s prayer shawl, and the cash from the box, and I’m going to ask Jos to dispose of father’s tools. I’m not going to need those, I don’t see myself as a master watchmaker somehow, do you?’

  ‘All I’ve really got are clothes and the odd small item from Rotterdam, father’s picture, letters and a couple of trinkets. I think all my things will go in one suitcase.’

  ‘Clothes-wise I don’t have many things to take either. I have less than you, so mine will probably fit in your suitcase too. What I do want to do is buy new clothes for us both, plus some basic household items to fill father’s box for when Jos sends it on. He can hardly send an empty box, the only contents being in the false bottom can he?’ We’ll go shopping tomorrow morning as soon as I’ve done the brewery delivery.’

  ‘I can’t wait, I’m so excited. I’ve never had money to spend on new clothes and things. Can I choose things for our new home?’

  ‘Of course, that’s your department not mine, make a list of what you need to buy and I’ll do the same.’ He laughed. ‘You’ll be the one in the kitchen wherever we end up.’

  ‘In your dreams.’ She laughed too and swung a crutch at him. ‘You can ring van der Meer and give him Aunt Nel’s address as your contact point for now.’

  ‘We’d better get to work if we’re going to ask Jos how soon we can leave.’

  Friday 23rd November 1945

  ‘You’ll ship the box to us when we get settled?’

  ‘Of course, just let me have an address when you have one and leave it to me.’

  ‘I’ve put all our new clothes in there and the kitchen and household stuff, crockery, cutlery and things that we bought. Can you refit the false bottom for me, so it can’t be seen? I’m taking the cash and the two paintings to Leeuwarden but I want the coins, stamps, two watches, photos and letters and mother’s jewellery all to go in there. I think it would be safer than trying to take them on our journey. Do you think it will be alright or is it too risky?’

  ‘Simon, Simon, trust me. No one will ever know it’s there, don’t worry.’

  ‘I don’t want to keep father’s watchmaking tools, I have no need of them. I’ve got the photos and the jewellery and his prayer shawl, so I have some memories of my parents. Do you think you can dispose of them for me?’

  ‘I’ll try.’

  He laughed.

  ‘I think I know someone. They are very good quality technical tools and hard to come by, if I can find a buyer they should fetch a good price.’

  ‘I hope so. I want you to give whatever they make to Theo’s sister as a thank you for what her husband did for my family. I’d like to give you something too.’

  ‘There’s no need for that, I don’t want anything from you. You’ll need all your money and more when you reach your destination.’

  ‘But you did so much for me and for Maaike, we owe you a lot.’

  ‘You owe me nothing, I just helped where I could and you both worked damn hard for me.’

  ‘Please, I’d like to give you something. Would you take Berger’s watch? You know it’s solid gold.’

  ‘No, no.’ Jos looked horrified. ‘I don’t want it. I don’t want anything in any way connected to that man. Please don’t insult me! You keep it, sell it when you need money wherever you end up. You’ve got that other watch as a memory of your father’s work.’

  ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.’

  ‘I know, lad, I know. Now get yourself back to Maaike and finish your packing and don’t forget these.’ Smiling, Jos handed him the paintings and all the cash. ‘Just get your arse back here for your last shift, but make it a six o’clock start, the same as Maaike.’

  Back at Slootstraat Maaike was still trying to pack their clothes into a suitcase while keeping Irene entertained at the same time. ‘Can you finish this? Irene wants a story and this is the last time I’ll be looking after her. I’m going to miss her so much.’

  ‘I’m going to miss you too, Maaike. Mama says it’s a long way to Freezingland.’

  ‘Maybe you can come and see us there, darling.’

  ‘Yes, please, Maaike. I love you both so much.’

  Simon carefully wrapped the photograph of her father in a pair of his trousers, put the paintings in-between the clothes and closed the suitcase. ‘Jos says I don’t have to be at work until six, so we can go in together.’

  ‘I’m going to miss him terribly, he’s been so good to me ever since my father left.’

  ‘Me too, I just couldn’t have sorted everything out without him, and all his contacts of course.’

  They both laughed.

  Grietje came home before four and, finding them both still at home, announced that she wanted to cook them a farewell meal before they went to work. ‘It’ll just be pan-fried chicken and potatoes but I’ve made one of my special apple pies, I hope that’s alright.’

  ‘Grietje, that’s very kind. Really, you shouldn’t have bothered.’

  ‘Nonsense, my two favourite people are leaving tomorrow for a new life together, I have to do something. I love you both, you know that, and I’ll miss you both so much. I’m coming to the station with you tomorrow morning as well, I’m not working and I know Irene wants to wave you goodbye, no arguments.’

  As they approached the bar just before six they could see a large number of drinkers standing outside despite the bitterly cold November evening. And as they reached the door they could see the place was absolutely full.

  ‘Look at this, what on earth is going on? I bet Jos wishes he hadn’t told me to come in late. Where have all these people come from?’

  They squeezed in through the partially open door and started to push their way through the crowd to get to the bar.

  Jos and his wife, smiling for once, were busy serving drinks.

  Jos looked up and saw them. ‘Here they are everyone, the happy couple. Our Maaike and Simon.’

  A cheer went up and they recognised all their regular customers, Saturday faces and even the occasional drinkers. They were totally surrounded by well wishers, slapping him on the back and trying to kiss Maaike.

  Jos moved people away and beckoned them further in. ‘Come on you two, there’s a table here for you both. Welcome to your farewell party!’

  ‘Jos, this is wonderful, you didn’t have to do this, we’ve come here to work!’

  ‘Not tonight you don’t Maaike. We wanted to give you a proper send-off, so shut up and enjoy yourselves. Just about everybody’s here.’

  Jos’s wife appeared with trays of food which, still smiling, she offered around the ravenous crowd. Coming close to their table she stopped and bent to speak to them. ‘Thank you Maaike, and you, Simon, for your hard work here. You’ve been an absolute godsend to Jos, the old bugger couldn’t have managed without you two. We’ve had to build the b
usiness up again after the war, in fact you helped to keep it going during the war, Maaike, and I just want to say I appreciate what you’ve done.’ She looked suddenly nervous and uncomfortable. ‘I know I haven’t always been nice or helpful to either of you, I’m afraid that’s just my way, but I do thank you.’ Then just as suddenly she regained her confidence and brusqueness. ‘After all, someone has to keep control of things with that drunken lazy old devil in charge.’ With that, she moved back into the crowd, leaving them both speechless.

  ‘Well, that’s a Mevrouw van Loon I’ve never seen before.’

  ‘Nor me, Maaike, nor me.’

  The door opened and Grietje and Irene came in and, struggling through the crowd, joined them at the table while Jos brought over drinks. Irene immediately climbed onto Maaike’s knee.

  ‘Grietje! What are you doing here?’

  ‘Jos called round last night to let me know about the party. I just had to come, I can’t stay very long but it’s quite early so it’s alright for Irene to be here for a couple of hours.’

  ‘You kept it very secret earlier while we were eating.’

  ‘I was worried Irene was going to blurt it out, I had to promise her chocolate if she kept quiet.’

  ‘I like chocolate, but Mama said if I eat it all at once I’ll be sick so I’m giving you some tomorrow to eat on the train.’

  Maaike smiled and gave the girl a hug. ‘That’s very kind of you, can I give some to Simon?’

  ‘Maybe one piece.’

  The evening passed very quickly. Many of the guests drifted away around nine o’clock, leaving the regulars. All of them wanted to say their farewells, especially to Maaike, and to wish them well.

  Talk between the hard-drinking regulars inevitably turned to the report of the opening speech by the prosecution in the Nuremberg trial which had started two days before, and to the Mussert trial due to start the following week. ‘Daft’ Willem was still offering his services as executioner if required until Hendrik opened the morning newspaper and pointed out the huge number of defendants. At this point he tried to enlist Jos as his assistant.