The Day the Flowers Died

by Ami Blackwelder

  “Surprise me from behind.” Aaron wiped a drop of sweat from his nose.

  “Nervous?”

  “Is there ever a reason not to be these days?” Aaron retorted and Eli gripped the bag on his shoulder.

  “Your papers are in here?” Eli inquired while Aaron lowered his shoulder, allowing the bag to fall into Eli’s hands.

  “You think this is going to work?” Aaron’s brows twisted and the wrinkles around the corners of his mouth showed Eli he doubted it.

  “It has to. What other option is there?”

  “You could sneak aboard the ship. It has its risks, but no more than forging your own documents, and maybe less,” Aaron reasoned.

  “This can work,” Eli protested, trying to persuade the disbelief in Aaron’s expression. “If I can get an idea of what the visa documentation looks like, I can try to mimic it well enough to manage a ticket for myself.”

  “And once we dock in New York? How is a poor counterfeit going to fool the immigration offices?” Aaron demanded.

  “And how is sneaking aboard going to solve that?” Eli concluded, winning the disagreement. “I have to try something. You know as well as I that the Embassy isn’t going to process my application soon enough and, when they finally get around to it, it will likely be denied because of President Roosevelt’s quota restraints.”

  Aaron sighed at Eli’s truth and then Eli furthered the desperation, “Plus I need your papers to help duplicate my German police permit and records since I turned them into immigration months ago.” Eli tugged on the bag to open it and searched the papers to ensure it was all there. “I’ve been flagged by Gestapo and there’s no way the police will grant me a permit again.”

  “You’re right, I’m sorry. I just wish there was something more I could do,” Aaron conceded, seeing the frustration in his friend’s eyes.

  “You’ve done everything you can. We just have to hope this will be enough.” Eli pulled the bag over his shoulder. “I’ll return your documents at the end of the week.” Aaron nodded at Eli’s words. He patted Eli’s shoulder before departing to his parent’s house.

  It took Eli five days and nights of work on his spurious passport visa to address each page appropriately. He didn’t want to alarm Rebecca with his dilemma. He blamed himself for not realizing sooner the unreliability of receiving a visa through immigration and for not taking the necessary measures to procure fraudulent documentation through Mr. Reiner. He knew this worry would weigh heavily on her already fragile state of emotions. Therefore he concentrated on its conception when she was out of the apartment or sleeping.

  He went to the closet in the bedroom and pulled out the cardboard box he had packed away with the variety of office supplies he had gathered from his father’s firm before it closed. The box held a variation of stamps with black and red ink, some placing a date mark and some marking solid lines. He took out his passport, the one he never had approved at the immigration office, and turned to the first page. J for Juden. The second page had a photo of himself.

  The third page involved an artificial visa for entry into America from immigration. This page used the typewriter and various inks. Using Aaron’s passport booklet, Eli mimicked what he saw.

  The fourth page was a forged German police-approved permit for departure. Eli carefully constructed its form with the typewriter and stamp inks.

  After the pages dried, he had to finalize them with German immigration stamps and German signatures. He scrutinized Aaron’s passport meticulously to mirror the eagle like German stamp in black ink, sketching it and then creating a stencil of it to brush the black ink over his own passport. He practiced the signatures and, when he felt confident enough to forge his own, he used the black ink again with the tip of a bird feather for signing.

  When Rebecca and Eli sat for dinner at their home that evening, he faked a smile so wide, even his own mutti might have believed its sincerity.

  “What is it?” Rebecca asked.

  “I got the visa from immigration today.”

  “You mean they… you were approved?” she asked, half elated and half in disbelief.

  “I have it.” He grinned and opened his passport with all its forged documentation. “We’re on our way to a new life.” As he spoke, Rebecca sighed with relief and a tear streamed down her left eye and over her cheek. She stood and hugged Eli.

  “We’re on our way.” She nestled her face into his chest.

  * * *

  On the twenty sixth, he and Aaron arrived at the ship dock in Hamburg to purchase their tickets. As Eli handed Rebecca’s passport and his passport to the ticket attendant, he also handed him his sponsorship letter from Rebecca’s Aunt Martha, the German police permit which he forged, and his marriage contract to Rebecca. A rush of adrenaline and anxiety surged throughout his body which he tried to conceal by rubbing his hands. The attendant glanced at Eli with his hazel eyes, whisked his fingers though his hair, glanced at the picture in his passport and then disappeared behind the counter.

  The minutes felt like hours in Eli’s mind, afraid he’d be recognized as a man wanted by the Gestapo. The attendant returned with a cup of tea and set it on the counter before handing Eli his two tickets. Eli sighed with relief. Aaron followed, purchasing two for his parents and another for himself. The tickets were contracted for the second of September.

  Friday, September 1, 1933

  Rebecca was relieved to find out the tickets had been contracted and that she and Eli would both be on the ship soon. She packed four designer suitcases which her father had bought her before leaving for University. Eli managed to fit most everything he cared to bring into two smaller pieces of black luggage.

  Clothes could be replaced easily, he thought to himself while packing the majority of his books in one of Rebecca’s suitcases. The ten day journey would be comfortable, Eli explained, showing her brochures of the liner. All the necessary amenities would be aboard, along with a few extra-curricular opportunities such as lying on deck in one of the many reclining chairs provided, playing cards, and even deck tennis.

  On September second, Eli dressed in his custard colored top with the top button undone and a pair of beige slacks and matching suit jacket.

  Rebecca wore a long crème skirt that swayed below her knees and a matching blouse whose ruffles enveloped around her neck and folded over her breasts. She tightened the large black belt around her waist, drawing in her stomach and accenting her womanly figure.

  Eli drove Rebecca early in the morning to the ship docks in Hamburg in her vehicle, knowing Robert had agreed to buy his old car during a phone call between the two of them after he had purchased the tickets. Eli left his car in the parking lot at the apartment and told them he would bring the keys to the dock.

  As Eli drove up to the large building, trolley cars moved along the roads and tall street lights governed its borders. Thick clouds hung over the building longer then the apartment building Eli and Rebecca shared and almost as tall. People scattered over the paved floors leading to the doors, rushing to and fro, carrying luggage which held their lives. Eli pulled into the parking lot and the two of them began to take their suitcases out. From the corner of her eye, Rebecca saw Robert and Rosalyn approach from the right.

  “Need some help with that?” Robert inquired from a block away in casual garb and a loud voice. Eli turned his head in Robert’s direction.

  “That would be most appreciated,” Eli spoke loudly until Robert drew close. “We have six pieces of luggage to bring aboard.”

  Robert reached his hand into the backseat and pulled out two suitcases.

  “Did you remember the keys?” Robert laid the luggage on the floor. “Here’s the cash I promised for it. I hope it helps.” Robert handed Eli a wad of money, not the price the vehicle had been originally sold for, but enough to help Eli start a new life in America. Eli took out the keys to his car, the car that had seen him through University, work at his father’s firm, and a protest rally which ended in a broken wind
shield, and handed them to Robert. “I’ll take good care of it.” Robert finished and put his hands over the luggage to help carry the bags to the ship.

  Rosalyn stood a few feet away in a pastel summer dress and a white hat that wrapped around her face, her head tilted and her eyes welled with tears, making her vision cloudy. Rebecca walked over and pulled Rosalyn into her arms for a long embrace.

  “I can’t believe you two are leaving.” Rosalyn wiped her tears, “I mean you should, it’s best for the two of you. It’s just I am going to miss you both so much.”

  “Me too.” Rebecca wiped her own tears beginning to fall at the sight of Rosalyn. “But I will write you and we can keep in touch.” Rosalyn swung her arms around Rebecca and they hugged for a second time before the two of them joined Eli and Robert and helped carry the luggage to the ship. The walk through the calm building contrasted to the outside where everyone seemed to be in a frantic frenzy. Inside, an air of structure and certainty prevailed, as if once inside, the dread of missing the ship vanished.

  The four of them waited on a long bench for the announcement to board. Aaron and his parents approached from the other door and, as they walked into the building, Eli and Rebecca stood at the sight of them in the distance. Aaron and his father preferred dark suits to Eli’s beige colors and Aaron’s mother clad herself in a sky blue chiffon dress. The delicate sleeves of the dress covered her thick arms and her lioness grey blond curls fell around her face, pinned up only over her forehead. Her sea grey eyes became apparent as Aaron and his parents approached. Eli outstretched his hand in a proper handshake with Aaron’s father before sitting back down.

  Rebecca greeted Aaron’s mother with a warm smile and kiss on each of her cheeks and then made room for her to sit before finding another seat opposite Eli. Aaron introduced his parents to Rosalyn and Robert, the only two who had not met them yet. Eli and Rebecca had shared conversation with them on occasion at the synagogue in Munich and out of social decorum, Rebecca felt the weight of keeping the dialogue lively between Aaron’s parents and her friends.

  “This is my mama, Rachael, and my papa, Elijah,” Aaron said and Rosalyn smiled while Robert shook their hands.

  “Now that everyone is here, I should load Rebecca’s car onto the ship,” Eli said and departed in dutiful hurry. He made his way back to the parked car and drove it to the ship where deckhands secured the car behind a few others. Upon his return, Rebecca, Elijah and Rosalyn were laughing wildly at something Elijah said.

  Rebecca whisked her eyes up at Eli and in a flirtatious gesture of her outstretched hand, wrapping itself around his and pulling him to her, Eli imagined the conversation was about him. Before he could ask Rebecca about it, the announcement for the boarding of the Hamburg American Liner echoed through the hall. The group made its way from inside the building to the ship.

  Rosalyn grabbed Rebecca in an embrace again and tears welled in her eyes. “I keep telling myself to not cry, but I can’t help it.”

  Rebecca wiped one of the tears rolling off Rosalyn’s cheek onto her own. “I love you. You are like my sister. I will miss you so much.” Rebecca started crying more.

  Robert threw his arms around Eli and, in masculine expression, refrained from tears, but the genuine pull on his emotions could be seen in his sudden somber disposition. “Take care of yourself. Take care of Rebecca.”

  “I will,” Eli promised and they released from their hold. Rebecca and Rosalyn soon let go of each other and Eli grabbed Rebecca’s hand to walk up the gangplank to the ship that held their future. Aaron hugged each of them, the only two friends from his firm who remained true to him after he was fired, and then he boarded with his parents.

  Eli, Rebecca and Aaron waved goodbye from the deck. The ship horn sounded and the vessel drew away from Hamburg on the Elbe River and toward the North Sea, then onto the Atlantic. As Eli and Rebecca left Germany, they wondered if their fatherland would ever become new again like freshly grown spring flowers, untouched and full of promise.

  They found the ten day journey comfortable between dining, deck tennis, strolling along the decks and an occasional game of cards. There were a few other Jews like themselves fleeing Germany in the hopes of reaching a country with a better promise for a future. Some still considered German citizens did not agree with the new politics and laws of the country.

  Beside a tussle that broke out at one of the card tables, the journey was for the most part uneventful. Rebecca enjoyed tea in the dining hall with Rachael while Eli, Aaron, and Elijah preferred to play cards with the other men. Some days the rains from a storm pelted against the ship’s sides. Other days provided a canopy of warmth from the sun.

  Somewhere in the middle of the journey, Eli found Rebecca gazing over the railing into the sea. Her crème skirt with all its heavy ruffles blew up from a passing breeze. He caressed her shoulders and drew his mouth to the lace of her blouse just over the nape of her neck. He rested for several minutes still and quiet in her essence. Rebecca could feel the light discharge of air from his nostrils over her blouse. She slipped her hand into his and passed him a small box with a white lace ribbon.

  “Happy Early Birthday,” she whispered. “I couldn’t wait.” Her smile widened, “And on this boat, viewing the ocean is the perfect place.” Eli glanced down at the ship’s wooden decks as he opened the box and found inside a pin plated in silver with a red rose and green petals. It shimmered under the sun and Rebecca helped him attach it to his shirt.

  “I’ll always wear it,” he said and kissed her cheek.

  “Are you going to read to me tonight?” Rebecca asked in a loud whisper and he lifted his head to see her eyes.

  “Tonight and every night, my dearest.” As Eli said those words, a tear fell from his left eye and he discreetly hid it from Rebecca with a tuck of his head returning to her chest. Rebecca raked her fingers through Eli’s hair as his head gently rested on her breasts. She smiled, gazing into the wide ocean, and thought about her life in America.

  “I can take up nursing when we arrive. American must need nurses.” She grinned and her left brow quirked. “Will you find work as a lawyer?” she asked and Eli’s eyes met hers with his tear dried against the fabric of her dress. A wrinkle furrowed between his brows and his chin lowered.

  “I’ll try,” he said. Taking her hand into his, he guided her over the wooden deck. Other couples relaxed in lounging chairs, soaking up the light when it peeked out from behind thick clouds. Women flipped pages in magazines and chatted about the exquisite dining aboard the ship. A few women wore large hats, keeping their delicate pale complexions from the rays of the sun. Men closed their eyes on the lounge chairs or smoked cigars.

  That evening, Eli and Rebecca lay on the bed in their private room. Rebecca’s hand dangled over Eli’s chest in playful strokes before he drew her fingers to his lips and kissed them several times as he contemplated names for the baby.

  “If it’s a girl, we can call her Sarah. I’ve always adored that name,” Eli stated.

  “We should name her after your mother. It would be an honor to her,” Rebecca corrected.

  “Deborah? I don’t know. It sounds too old fashioned for our daughter. She would need a modern name, a strong American name,” Eli debated.

  Rebecca mulled over the suggestion. “Maybe you’re right.” She hesitantly agreed. “We could name her… ”

  “Bernard,” Eli said.

  “Bernard?” Rebecca’s eyes darted to his and her brows furrowed.

  “I mean if it is a boy.”

  “Oh.” The name echoed in her mind and returned unpleasant memories. She shook her head. “I detest that name. I cannot and will not call my son Bernard.”

  “Ok, ok.” Eli stroked her arm. “We won’t call him Bernard.” As Eli finished his counsel, Rebecca’s eyes widen.

  “If it’s a boy, I know exactly what I’ll name him.” The name sat frozen on her lips and she did not divulge it, but let it reside in secret, untainted, and unused.

>   “You aren’t going to tell me?” Eli pouted.

  “I don’t want to spoil the surprise in you eyes. He will be a boy. I just know it.”

  Eli grinned at Rebecca’s thought. “We’ll have a big two story house with a white picket fence, two boys and one girl to keep us occupied,” Eli dreamed.

  “Yes, that would be lovely, just lovely.” Rebecca rested in Eli’s words and on his chest. Eli wrapped his arms around her, feeling that, if he let go, she might just float away.

  * * *

  As the ship drew near the shores of New York harbor, spectators filled the dock to watch its arrival. Floods of people awaiting their friends or relatives pushed forward to greet the passengers disembarking the ship. The passengers queued and took out their passports and immigration papers to await approval at the immigration office before passing on to American soil. Sounds of the crowds on the shore grew loud in anticipation and excitement.

  Aaron and his parents stood in front of Rebecca and Eli and when it was his turn, Aaron handed his documentation to the elderly immigration officer. After a couple of minutes of page turning and eye scrutiny, the officer waved him and his parents through. Aaron let out a breath which he had been holding during the inspection, and his parents grabbed hold of their son in gratitude and relief.

  Rebecca handed the officer her passport and, upon glancing over her American citizenship and facial features, the officer took no more concern of her and waved her through. Eli braced himself as he supplied his passport and documents. The officer glanced over his papers once, looked away and then looked over them again. He inspected the black eagle German stamp and then the signatures created by Eli’s own hand.

  Rebecca stood in anxious desire to see her Eli cross the immigration line, a line separating them, and into her arms on America soil. She stood for five minutes until the officer waved a guard over to his booth to pull Eli away. Rebecca couldn’t understand, readjusting her eyes in disbelief. Then the weight of it hit her and she fell to the floor at the sight of two guards forcing Eli away from the immigration booth, away from her, away from America.