White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner

Author:Susan Meissner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307458339
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2009-10-25T11:00:00+00:00

Plates of sweet and sour chicken sent pungent, tangy odors spiraling around the dinner table. Neil offered a quiet table grace, and they began to eat.

After a few moments of silence, Amanda cleared her throat. “Neil, those men at the nursing home that Chase and Tally have been interviewing knew an Aron Bachmann in the Warsaw Ghetto. He was a doctor.”

Neil looked up from his food. “Really? Not your grandfather, though?”

Amanda shook her head and glanced at Chase. “Well, I don’t think so. This one had a wife who died right after giving birth to a baby girl. So…” Her voice trailed off.

“Interesting, though. That there could be two Aron Bachmanns in the ghetto who were both doctors. I wonder how many people lived there.” Neil took a sip of water.

“Four hundred thousand,” Chase said without looking up from his plate.

“Really? That many?” Neil set his glass back down. “Well, then maybe it’s not so odd that there could be two of them.”

“It could’ve been him.” Again Chase spoke without looking up.

“Pardon?” Neil said.

“No, it couldn’t,” Delcey chimed in.

Chase lifted his head. “It could’ve been him.”

“Well, I don’t see how,” Amanda began, looking from son to husband. “I mean, the Aron Bachmann your friends knew had a wife who died in the ghetto. So it couldn’t be.”

“But what do you really know about your grandmother?” Chase replied. “I mean, the woman who said she was your grandmother. You told me she never wanted to talk about the war, the ghetto, her life before the war, not even her dead first husband. And Grandpa didn’t either.”

“That doesn’t mean she wasn’t really your grandmother and that there weren’t two Aron Bachmanns in the ghetto, Chase.” Neil placed a forkful of food in his mouth. The cashews made a crunching sound.

“Both doctors?” Chase continued. “Both smuggled out a young son? Both sent to Treblinka? Both died there? That sounds a little too coincidental.”

“But… but who would that woman be, then? The woman I knew as my grandmother?” Amanda frowned.

“I don’t know. A neighbor, one of your grandmother’s friends, or a cousin, or a sister. There were probably lots of people who would’ve taken your father in. He was just a little kid. Six or seven years old, right?”

Neil leaned forward on his elbows. His fork dangled. “And so you think your grandpa didn’t remember his real mother? And that this other woman just let him think he hadn’t lost both his parents?”

Chase shook his head and lifted a piece of pineapple to his mouth. “No. I don’t think that at all. I think he remembered who his mother was. That wouldn’t be something he’d likely forget. Just because he was a little kid doesn’t mean he wouldn’t remember.”

Next to Tally, Amanda coughed. She reached for her water glass and nearly knocked it over. Chase didn’t seem to notice.

“He probably had to go along with it because of the war and the danger of being labeled Jewish,” Tally said.

“Okay, but what about after the war?” Neil said.

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