by Lily Brett
“He talks too much,” Edek said to Ruth.
“He can hear you,” Ruth said.
“I am telling the truth,” Edek said.
“Dad,” she said, in a stern tone, but Edek had already rushed off.
“I love this cemetery very much,” Marek said to Ruth. “My mother is buried here,” Marek said. Ruth looked at Marek. He had tears in his eyes.
“It is a very beautiful cemetery,” she said. She walked on, ahead of Marek.
The beauty of the cemetery was amplified, Ruth thought, by the contrast with the squalor and decay of what remained of the formerly Jewish homes in Lódz. And the bigotry and ignorance and indifference of the Poles. The only passion Ruth had seen among the Polish, she thought, was a passion for hatred and a passion for alcohol. She didn’t want to leave the cemetery. She wanted to stay. To sit here, with these people. To keep them company. To show them they were not forgotten.
The monument to the Jews who died in the Lódz ghetto was near the façade of the old mortuary. Approximately fifty thousand Jews who died in the Lódz ghetto were buried in this cemetery, in a section called the Ghetto Fields. Dozens of visitors had left yahrzeit candles, memorial candles for the dead, in the Ghetto Fields. Ruth had been reassured by the presence of other people’s prayers and respects.
Ruth stood in front of three identically shaped tombstones. Each tombstone had a butterfly carved across the top. She started tidying the area around the tombstones. She picked up several stones, and an old bottle.
She removed some paper and several branches. She stepped back. The tombstones looked better already. Ruth put down her bag and rolled up the sleeves of her coat. She moved some old newspapers.
She looked up and saw her father. Edek was staring at her. He looked miserable.
“You can give them money if you want to do something,” he said to Ruth. “If they have the money, they will clean up the graves.” Ruth straightened up. She suddenly felt overwhelmed. And tearful.
“You’re right, Dad,” she said. She turned away so that he wouldn’t see her tears.
[ 2 6 2 ]
L I L Y B R E T T
“Come on,” Edek said to her. “It is enough for today.”
“I’m coming,” she said.
“I did tell Marek to ring a taxi,” he said. “Marek did say there was a telephone somewhere. The taxi should be here.”
Marek and the taxi were waiting by the front gate.
“Thank you so much,” Ruth said to Marek.
“Thank you, it was very interesting,” Edek added. Ruth gave Marek some money. He refused to take it. “Please take it,” Ruth said. Marek shook his head.
“My daughter already feels bad. If you do not accept her gift she will feel worse,” Edek said. He took the money and pressed it into Marek’s hand.
“Thank you,” Marek said.
“Can we give you a lift?” Ruth said.
“I live not far from here,” Marek said. “I want to walk.” They all shook hands.
In the taxi, on the way home, they passed a large billboard advertising a brand of footwear. Across the middle of the billboard someone had written Juden Raus and, for those non-German speakers, the author had added
“Jews Out.” Ruth was shocked. She pointed it out to Edek. The taxi driver looked at what Ruth was pointing out. He said something to Edek. “I know what he’s saying,” Ruth said to her father. “He doesn’t have to tell me. He’s saying it’s only children.” She sat back in her seat. She couldn’t stop shivering.
Twenty minutes later they were back at the hotel. Edek looked at Ruth.
“You should have a rest,” he said.
“I think I’ll have a hot bath,” she said.
“Are we going to have a dinner today?” Edek said.
“Of course we’ll eat dinner,” Ruth said. “I’ll meet you in the lobby at seven o’clock.”
“Where will we eat?” Edek said.
“I thought we could try the Chinese restaurant we walked past yesterday,” Ruth said.
“Chinee?” Edek said. For years Ruth had reminded Edek to add the “s”
T O O M A N Y M E N
[ 2 6 3 ]
to the end of “Chinese.” But he just couldn’t remember. “Chinee, in Lódz?”
Edek said.
“I thought it would be interesting to see what they served,” Ruth said.
“I am not having any of those worms,” Edek said.
“They’re not worms,” Ruth said. “They’re prawns. In America they’re called shrimp.”
“To me they are worms,” he said.
“You don’t have to eat worms,” Ruth said, with more irritation than she had intended. “You can have chicken.”
“Okay, okay,” Edek said. “For me it is not so important what I eat. I can eat anything.”
“Except worms,” Ruth said.
“That is right,” Edek said. “I do not like worms.” He paused. “You are sure you want to eat Chinee in Poland?” he said.
“I just want to see what it’s like,” Ruth said. “You can have some chicken soup. You love Chinese chicken soup.”
“Chinee chicken soup is very good,” Edek said.
“And so is Polish chicken soup,” said Ruth. “So the combination should be wonderful.”
Edek looked more cheerful. “I think I will stay downstairs, here in the lobby, for a few minutes,” he said.
“Good idea, Dad,” she said. “See you later.”
She was just about to walk off when Edek grabbed her arm.
“What is our agenda for tomorrow?” he said.
“I didn’t know you knew the word ‘agenda,’ ” Ruth said.
“Of course I know this word,” Edek said. “I been using it for a long time. You are not the only one in the family what knows plenty of words.”
“Sorry,” Ruth said. “Tomorrow we’re going to the Lódz ghetto, and then we leave for Kraków.”
“Is it necessary for you to go to the ghetto?” Edek said.
“I’d like to,” she said.
“There is nothing there,” Edek said.
“I know,” she said.
“We are visiting one nothing after the other,” Edek said.
“I guess that’s true, Dad,” Ruth said. “You could stay at the hotel.”
[ 2 6 4 ]
L I L Y B R E T T
“No,” Edek said. “I am going where you are going.”
“You’ve just reminded me,” Ruth said, “that I won’t be here for breakfast tomorrow.”
Edek looked startled and wounded. “I’m just going for a run, Dad,” she said. “I really feel the need to run.”
“I will wait for you and we will have breakfast together,” Edek said.
“I want to have a long run,” Ruth said. “I probably won’t be back before ten o’clock. That’s too long for you to wait for breakfast.”
“I can wait,” Edek said.
“Dad, just have the buffet breakfast we have every morning,” she said.
“You love it.”
Edek looked morose. “If you are not going to the buffet I won’t go, too.”
“Okay,” she said. “You can have breakfast in your room.”
“I do not need a breakfast every day,” Edek said.
Ruth had had enough. She wanted to go up to her room and read. “See you later, Dad,” she said. She didn’t like lying to him. But she was really not up to a conversation about why she wanted to go to Kamedulska Street and buy the china.
There were no other customers in the Chinese restaurant on Al.
Kosciuszki. There was nobody Chinese, either. The lack of anyone Chinese bothered Ruth. The waiters were Polish. The chef was probably Polish, too, she thought. A large buffet of prepared hot dishes ran down the center of the restaurant. This was a bad sign. Chinese food was meant to be cooked and served immediately.
“Do you have à la carte?” Ruth asked a waiter.
“What?” the waiter said.
<
br /> “Do you have a menu, or is the buffet the only choice?” Ruth said.
“All of our customers are very happy with this buffet,” the waiter said.
“You can eat as much as you wish for the same price.”
“So this is all that you serve?” Ruth said.
“It is plenty, madam,” the waiter said. Ruth looked at the buffet. The food had probably been sitting in its heated bains-marie for a long time.
“I do like a buffet very much,” Edek said. “What is wrong with a buffet?”
T O O M A N Y M E N
[ 2 6 5 ]
“It’s probably okay,” she said.
“You was the one who did want Chinee,” said Edek.
Ruth chose a table. Edek was already at the buffet. The decor was Chinese. Well, Chinese-ish. Chinese paper lantern and scrolls with Chinese cal-ligraphy, mingled with floral Polish curtains and floral Polish carpeting.
The napkins, Ruth noticed, were also floral. A different floral from the curtains.
Edek was calling her. “Ruthie, Ruthie,” he called. She looked at him. He was gesturing at the buffet. “It does look pretty good,” he called out across the restaurant. Ruth walked over to him. He looked excited. “This is really Chinee,” he said, pointing to something that was labeled, in English,
“Wonton.” Ruth looked at the wontons. These wontons weren’t Chinese dumplings. These wontons were half-pound Polish meat loaves wrapped and encased, like pierogi, in boiled pastry. They were enormous. Edek had put three of them on his plate.
“I thought you were going to have chicken soup,” Ruth said to him.
“Ach,” he said. “The chicken soup does not look so good.”
Ruth looked at the chicken soup. It was a clear, unfatty broth with a few scallions floating in it. It looked, to Ruth, like the most appetizing of all of the items on display. Ruth took some chicken soup.
“Why do you take the soup?” Edek said. “You need to eat. Have some sweet and sour beef. The Chinee do a very good sweet and sour meat.” The sweet and sour beef had enormous cubes of beef floating together with cubed potato in a brown gravy.
“It looks more like goulash to me,” Ruth said.
“This is not goulash,” Edek said. “This is Chinee.” Edek added another wonton to his plate and walked back to the table. He looked so happy.
Ruth decided to keep her culinary criticism to herself.
“They got fried rice, too,” Edek called out.
Ruth looked at the fried rice. It looked more like cooked coleslaw sitting on a bed of gravied rice. Thick slices of fried kielbasa sausage decorated the fried rice platter. Ruth started to laugh. It really was very funny.
She laughed and laughed. It was good to laugh. She hadn’t laughed for what felt like a long time. She was still laughing when she got back to the table.
“What are you laughing at?” Edek said.
[ 2 6 6 ]
L I L Y B R E T T
“The food is not really Chinese,” she said.
“Why not?” he said.
“It’s Polish,” she said.
“It looks Chinee to me,” Edek said. “And I did eat a lot of Chinee in Melbourne.”
“The Chinese food in Melbourne doesn’t look like this,” Ruth said.
“No, not exactly like this,” Edek said. “The pieces here are a bit bigger.”
Ruth started to laugh again. Her laughter was contagious. Edek joined in. “It is good to see you laughing, Ruthie darling,” he said through his own laughter.
“It’s good to laugh,” she said, wiping her eyes. She started to eat. “This chicken soup is really delicious,” she said.
“My wonton is very very good,” said Edek.
Ruth finished her soup. She felt better. She decided to have another bowl of soup. A bowl of boiled noodles was on the buffet, next to the soup.
Ruth added some noodles to her soup. The noodles were very thick. They looked more like spaghetti than noodles. This trip was proving to be a dietary aid, she thought. She had been worried that she would gain weight in Poland. The government could probably revive the whole Polish econ-omy if they advertised weight-loss tours of Poland for Jews, Ruth thought.
She felt the waistband of her skirt. It was definitely loose.
“I did speak to my lawyer,” Edek said when Ruth returned to the table.
“Your lawyer in Australia?” said Ruth.
“My lawyer in Australia is the only lawyer what I got,” said Edek.
“Did you ring him?” she said.
“Of course,” he said. “Do you think that I am such an important client that he should ring me in Poland?”
“You rang this afternoon?” she said.
“Yes,” he said.
“What time was it in Australia?” Ruth said. “I hope it wasn’t in the middle of the night.” She did some quick calculations. She was relieved. It could have been morning in Melbourne.
“I do not know what was the time in Melbourne,” Edek said.
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t wake him up,” Ruth said.
“He was in his office,” Edek said. “Of course I did not wake him up.
You want to hear what he did tell me?”
T O O M A N Y M E N
[ 2 6 7 ]
“Yes, of course,” Ruth said.
“He did say that all the talks with the Swiss banks for a settlement for the Jews are kaput,” Edek said.
“Kaput?” Ruth said.
“Finished,” Edek said. “The Swiss did take away their offer.”
“That small, piddly offer that was a fraction of what they took from the Jews?” Ruth said.
“The Swiss do not want to negotiate anymore,” Edek said. “They say that the Holocaust survivors and other Jewish groups was trying to get more money from the banks with threats of bad publicity for the Swiss.”
“So it’s the Jews who are behaving badly again,” Ruth said.
“It is always the Jews,” said Edek. “My lawyer did say that the gold what the Swiss did get from the Nazis would be today valued at nearly three billion dollars.”
“And it’s still the Jews who are behaving badly,” Ruth said. “We don’t need their money,” she said.
“That is true,” said Edek, “but some Jews do.”
“It’s disgusting,” Ruth said. Edek looked alarmed.
“The soup?” he said.
“No, the Swiss,” she said.
“The lawyer did tell me that finally Volkswagen is going to give some money to those people who was forced to work for them during the war,”
Edek said.
“So Volkswagen has finally decided to pay those people who were used as slave labor,” said Ruth.
“Yes,” said Edek. “The lawyer did tell me Volkswagen did admit that they did employ fifteen thousand slave laborers during the war.”
“Most of the people who were used as slave labor would be dead by now,” Ruth said.
“Of course,” Edek said.
“I wonder if Volkswagen has agreed to a settlement because they’ve just bought the Rolls-Royce Company,” Ruth said. “They’re also buying Lamborghini, the Italian sports car company. The Lamborghini is an incredibly expensive car.”
“I do know what is a Lamborghini,” Edek said.
“I wonder if Volkswagen suddenly worried about its image,” she said.
[ 2 6 8 ]
L I L Y B R E T T
“I wonder if the discrepancy between their refusal to pay for the slave labor they used and the luxury of the cars they produce seemed embarrassing?”
“That’s very clever,” Edek said.
“I don’t think Volkswagen was really concerned about the Jews,” Ruth said. “I think they were concerned about their image. They’ll probably try to pay the poor slave laborers who survived the smallest possible amount of money.”
“This is probably what they are doing,” Edek said. “Ah, forget about it,” Edek said suddenly. He looked disturbed.
/> “I told you it would agitate you if you tried to get back what is owed to you,” Ruth said.
“I am all right,” Edek said. “This goulash is very good.”
“I told you it was goulash,” Ruth said. She started laughing.
“It is Chinee goulash,” Edek said. Her father should know what it was, Ruth thought. This was his third helping. “You want some?” Edek said.
“No thanks, Dad,” she said. They ate in silence.
“Oy, a broch,” Edek said loudly.
“What’s wrong?” Ruth said.
“A worm,” he said. “Here is a worm.” He was holding a small prawn on the end of his fork.
“It’s not a worm,” Ruth said. “It’s a prawn.”
Edek examined it. “It is a worm,” he said.
Ruth took the small prawn from Edek’s fork. She put it into her mouth.
“It’s delicious,” she said. Edek grimaced.
“I did ring Stefan,” Edek said. “I did want to make sure that he did arrive.”
“He’s in Lódz?” Ruth said.
“He is in Lódz,” Edek said with a beam. “He does like his hotel very much.”
“I’m so pleased,” Ruth said.
“You are being sarcastic,” Edek said. “I know you.”
“No, I’m not,” Ruth said. “I actually am very pleased that Stefan is pleased because that makes you happy.”
“It does not make me happy,” Edek said. “I did want for Stefan to drive us because it will be more comfortable for you. Why should you sit on a Polish train? Why not instead to be in a Mercedes?”
T O O M A N Y M E N
[ 2 6 9 ]
“Why not?” said Ruth.
“They have got very good cakes on the buffet,” Edek said, after a minute.
“I know,” said Ruth. “I saw them.”
Displayed at the end of the buffet, after the wontons and the sweet and sour beef and the crispy-skinned chicken, and the chow mein and chop suey and fried rice, was a selection of cakes. There was a black forest cake, a sour cherry cake, a cheesecake, an apple cake, and a poppy seed cake.
“You can have a piece of poppy seed cake,” Edek said to Ruth.
“It does look very good,” she said. “The Poles know how to make a poppy seed cake.”
“And a cheesecake,” Edek said. “Maybe I will have a small piece of cheesecake. I just finish this first.” He ate the last of his fourth helping of sweet and sour beef.
