* * *
The aroma of eggs and toast greeted Eli as he opened his eyes. He sat up in bed and listened as Adinah and Izzie carried on a spirited conversation in the other room. When he entered the kitchen, he saw Izaak devouring a plate of scrambled eggs.
“Hi, Papa!”
Eli leaned over to give him a hug and noted that his forehead was cool to the touch. “How are you feeling this morning, my boy?”
“Pretty good. My throat’s still sore, but I’m not so tired today.”
“That’s his second plate of eggs,” Adinah said with a smile.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Eli said, but she waved him off. “It’s nothing. You are doing more for me than I am doing for you.”
“She taught me some songs, Papa. We’ve been singing together, except for when my throat hurt.”
“Adinah, you’ve been a godsend. You can say it’s nothing, but Izzie and I know better. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Yes,” she said. “You can sit down while I make a breakfast for you.”
Eli patted his son on the back and said, “I can’t turn that down, can I, Izzie?”
Izaak answered with his mouth full. “No, she’s a good cook.”
As Adinah stood at the stove frying eggs, Izaak leaned over and whispered, “Papa, can Adinah stay here with us? She lives in a little room in another lady’s apartment.”
Eli shook his head and returned the whisper. “We don’t have an extra bedroom.”
Izaak was not about to give up. “Papa, she sleeps on the couch in our front room and she doesn’t mind. She told me it was comfortable.”
Eli watched as Adinah spooned the eggs from the pan onto a plate. “We’ll talk later,” he whispered.
Setting the plate before Eli, Adinah said, “How was your trip to Landsberg?”
“I think it went very well, but our business is unfinished. I’m afraid I’ll have to return next Wednesday.”
“I will stay.”
Izaak’s eyes brightened. “Can she?”
“I feel like we’re imposing on you, Adinah.”
“I have no plans. But even if I did, I would cancel them for Izzie.”
“That’s very kind, but…”
She took a step forward and spoke with emotion. “Listen to me. I have nothing. I have nobody. I lost everyone I ever loved. Now I sit alone in my room in yet another camp for Jews thinking only of the unfairness of it all.” Tears formed in her eyes. “Why was I given a life to spend in such a way? Why was everything I loved taken from me? I am full of self-pity, and I hate myself for it.” She looked at Izaak. “But I have made a friend, someone to care about, a wonderful boy who also cares for me. For the first time since I was taken from Zamość, I have a reason to look forward to the next day.”
Eli put his arm around her. “Never again say you have nobody. You have us; we are your family. You can stay with us as long as you wish.”
Adinah’s lips quivered. She tried to answer but turned her head and left the room.
* * *
After breakfast, Eli went to visit Bernard, anxious to report on the progress made at Landsberg. A nurse halted Eli at the sanitarium door and gave him a surgical mask. “He’s not doing well today,” she said. “There’s a lot of fluid in his lungs and he’s having protracted coughing spells. It’s hard for him to talk. Please don’t stay long, and when you leave, throw your mask in the receptacle and thoroughly wash your hands.”
Bernard lay on his back with his eyes closed. His breathing was labored. Eli stood beside his bed, and the nurse said, “Bernard, there’s someone here to see you.”
His eyes slowly opened and a smile came to his lips. With intermittent whispers, he said, “Did you catch him?”
Eli looked from Bernard to the nurse, but Bernard said, “She’s okay. You can talk.”
“With any luck, we’ll have him next Wednesday. The exchange is set inside Landsberg. We’ll have the major and the MPs, and we intend to arrest him as soon as he hands over the visa.”
“Next Wednesday?” His question was expressed in little more than a whisper.
The sight of his friend in such a state was hard to take, and a knot formed in Eli’s throat. “God willing.”
Bernard started to wheeze, and it progressed into a violent, racking cough from deep within his chest that lifted his body off the bed. The nurse took Eli by the elbow and led him from the room. “That’s enough for today,” she said.
* * *
Izaak was napping when Eli returned. “Is he all right? He doesn’t usually take naps.”
“I told him to lie down,” Adinah said, “he’s been a pretty sick boy. I’ve been giving him his medicine, and I think it’s working. I wouldn’t make much out of the fact that he takes a little nap.”
Eli checked on him and returned to the kitchen, where Adinah had brewed a pot of tea. “He looks good,” he said. “He’s not warm. I know I’ve said this before, but I can’t thank you enough.”
Adinah sat down next to Eli. “Izaak is a fine young man, and we have formed a friendship. Although he’s asked me not to tell you, he’s been opening up to me.”
Eli raised his palm like a stop sign. “Then don’t tell me. I don’t want you to betray a confidence. If he told you things that he wants kept private, then that’s where they should remain.”
Adinah had both hands around her steaming cup of tea. She stared straight ahead. “There are times when he feels a need to talk about his feelings, and he brings those to me. I think it is because he does not want to appear weak in your eyes. I listen, and I am accepting of his sadness, his vulnerabilities and his fears.”
Eli’s jaw dropped. “Does he feel that I am not? Does he feel that he can’t talk to me?”
Adinah wagged her finger. “Please do not take this the wrong way. I am not his father. You are a god in his eyes. You represent everything he aspires to be: strength, wisdom, leadership. I am a woman, and I awaken memories of someone warm, gentle and safe. Perhaps in my eyes he sees similar fears, and we relate. One cannot know. There is a matter that sits heavily on his mind, and it is my judgment that you should know, both for your sake and his.”
Eli seemed confused.
“It concerns the time your wife left him with the Catholic woman in Lublin. In his mind, you are carrying guilt of abandoning your son, though he doesn’t express it quite that way. The matter remains unspoken between the two of you. He says you’ve never discussed it, but he needs for you to know that he doesn’t fault you or your wife. At the time he was taken to the church, he didn’t understand what was happening and he was resentful, but now he honors you and your wife for what you did.”
Eli swallowed hard. “Esther delivered him to Lucya on my instructions. We felt we had no choice.”
“Please understand: he doesn’t blame you or his mother. He is far more mature than that. But it’s been bottled up inside of him, and I think he’s trying to find a way to tell you about it. As necessary as it was to leave him with Lucya, it was traumatic for him.”