The Ninth Day by Ruth Tenzer Feldman

Author:Ruth Tenzer Feldman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ooligan Press
Published: 2013-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The Department of History bulletin board listed a Joan Cavanaugh in Room 206. I took a breath, climbed the stairs, leaned against the wall outside her office, and practiced saying “Mainz.” Because Mainz was the key. I was still muttering to myself, when someone said, “May I help you?”

I turned to see a tall, thin woman about my mom’s age standing by the open office door. She had on a navy blue blouse, gray flannel slacks instead of the skirt I would have expected, and a no-nonsense face.

I touched my lips and cleared my throat.

”Come on in. Are you one of my students?” Her voice had a pleasant lilt to it. Second soprano, maybe alto.

I shook my head.

She raised her eyebrows. “Are you going to a Renaissance Fair?”

I shook my head again.

”Excellent!” She waved her hand toward her office. Then she extracted a packet of chewing gum from her pocket and offered me one. “I’m trying to give up smoking. Chewing helps.”

I took a stick.

She did, too. “Most of the students who show up at office hours want to know what to wear to a Renaissance Fair,” she said, guiding me to the chair facing her desk. “I send them to the theater department.” She took her regular seat behind her desk and put on the academic face I’ve seen Dad wear with his students. “So, now, what’s on your mind?”

Mainz stuck in my throat, so I started with Dolcette’s coin. I handed it to Professor Cavanaugh, licked my lips, and managed to ask her about it.

She turned it over several times. “William the Conqueror. This is an excellent replica of coins minted in England after the Norman invasion. Late eleventh century. I’ve never seen one this shiny. Where did you get it?”

I had an urge to tell the professor that the coin came in a Cracker Jack box, which would sound more credible than the truth. Instead I said, “A g-gift.”

”Very nice.” She gave me the coin. “Is that all you wanted to ask about?”

Nod yes and walk out the door. I took a breath.

”Was there anything else?”

I stared at the floor. Say it! Now!

”M-M-M-Mainz.” My cheeks burned.

”Mainz?”

I jerked my head. Yes.

”Mainz, the archbishopric and free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. It’s interesting you should ask about Mainz. I wrote my dissertation on the interrelationship between economic conditions and religious fervor as regards the Rhineland peasantry in the eleventh century. You’ve come to the right place. By the way, what’s your name?”

”Hope Fuh-riis.”

”Henry Friis’s daughter? From the physics department?”

I nodded.

”Did he send you to me?”

I nodded again.

”Well, Hope, what do you want to know about Mainz?” She waited. And smiled. And chewed her gum.

”W-were there…um…J-Jews?”

She tented her fingers. “Certainly from the beginning of the eleventh century, maybe earlier. By then Jews had migrated into the Rhineland, in the Rhine River region of West Germany today. Cologne had Jews, as did the city of Worms. And Speyer. And a few others. The larger Jewish communities in Europe at that time were in Spain, Italy, and southern France.

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