Where Butterflies Go by Debra Doxer

Author:Debra Doxer [Doxer, Debra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: novel
Publisher: Debra Doxer
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Music filtered through the air as the sky turned a dark shade of violet. It was Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 in G minor, another slow, haunting piece that caused a lump to rise in my throat.

No puppies played in the park tonight, only children walking hand in hand with their mothers and fathers, and babies in strollers being pushed by parents who had to get home to make dinner. At least, that’s where I imagined they were going.

Mr. Diamond joined me on the bench. “You look pensive, Meira.”

“It is the music you are playing. It puts me in a pensive mood.”

“That’s all it is?”

I smiled at him and noticed the cookie crumbs caught in his beard again. Mr. Diamond had a sweet tooth, and it was fortunate that his tailor shop was located right next to a bakery.

“I was fired from my job.”

He turned toward me. “Why?”

“My boss could not keep his hands to himself.”

“What happened?”

I told him the story, and then went on to describe what Max had done in response.

“I like this Max,” Mr. Diamond said, folding his hands on his lap and smiling at me.

“It was an odd thing for him to do. To stand in for my husband, or even assume that Avrom would have done something like that.”

“Would Avrom have done that?”

I thought for a moment. “No. I do not think so. Avrom was much too calm and reasonable.”

Mr. Diamond didn’t comment. Instead, he waited patiently, seeming to sense I had more on my mind.

I glanced at him and rubbed my palms over my skirt, wiping off the perspiration. “A boy I knew in Poland was asking after me at the USNA office. I thought he was probably killed, like everyone else, but he is alive. Just hearing his name made my heart hurt.”

Mr. Diamond frowned. “Why hurt? This is good news, isn’t it?”

“Yes, of course it is.”

“But you’re upset?”

I turned to him with guilty tears pooling in my eyes. “I have his number and his address, but I have not called him or been to see him yet. I cannot think of him without thinking of Tovah and Avrom. In the ghetto, he tried to convince Avrom to hide in bunkers they had dug below the ghetto streets and fight the Nazis, but we thought it was a suicide mission. It was a suicide mission. The ghetto was completely destroyed in the end, and I cannot imagine how he survived. But maybe Avrom and Tovah would have survived too if we had listened to him. But we were afraid. We were always so afraid.”

The tears I couldn’t hold back any longer spilled down my cheeks.

“Oh, Meira.” Mr. Diamond took my hands and held them tightly in his. “You can’t blame yourself for everything you did or didn’t do.”

“I am always so angry. I find myself lashing out at people who do not deserve it. The woman at the USNA office suggested I take a seamstress job to make more money, and I made her feel terrible for even suggesting it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.