Another Breath, Another Sunrise: A Holocaust Novel (Michal's Destiny Book 4) Read online

  CHAPTER 11

  Alina NY City, 1945 June

  Alina went into town on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. There was a slight breeze on that spring morning and she felt light in her step. There were cigarette burns in the sofa and Maybeline had offered to reupholster it if she got the fabric. There was a lovely fabric store right outside of Chinatown. The prices were reasonable. So, she’d taken a streetcar and was going through bolts of fabric trying to decide which one would work best in the living room.

  The hair stood up on the back of her neck as she felt someone’s hot breath steaming behind her. She tried to turn to see who was standing so close to her. But as she moved, her assailant moved as well, and she could not see his face. Then quietly, but threateningly, Trevor whispered in Alina’s ear. “You’re embarrassing me all over this town. I won’t have it. How dare you leave me the way you did. You stole money from me too. I can’t prove it, but I know it. And make no mistake, Alina, I am not a man to be toyed with. I will hurt you, more than you’ve ever been hurt before. For the rest of your life, you’d better be looking behind you, because you just won’t know when I am going to strike. But, believe me, I will strike and you will be sorry for this. Very sorry.” He didn’t touch her, yet Alina could feel the heavy heat of his body against hers.

  “Are you threatening me, Trevor?” she asked. But when she turned to look at him, he was gone. His words unnerved her. She was shaking. Her mouth was dry. How was she going to get away from him?

  CHAPTER 12

  Alina

  It was late afternoon before Alina returned to the house. The day had started so beautifully, but now, the sun was overshadowed by a cluster of soft gray clouds, and a light drizzle began to fall. Alina put her handbag on the living room sofa and dropped down beside it. Klara came in from the kitchen.

  “Did you buy some fabric?” Klara asked.

  “No.” Alina shook her head. She was spent.

  “Mommy!” Joey said as he limped into her arms. Alina lifted her son onto her lap. He was so light, so weightless that it frightened her.

  “You look pale, what is it?” Klara sat down on the sofa next to Alina. “Are you feeling alright? Do you want me to get you some water?”

  “No, I am fine,” Alina said.

  “You’re not fine,” Klara said, getting up. “Come Joey.” She lifted him into her arms. “You go off to your room and play, your mama and I need to talk.” Klara turned to Alina. “Let me get him settled in his room and I’ll be right back.”

  Alina nodded. “I’ll see you in a little bit, Joey? Alright.”

  “Yes, Mama.”

  He was such a good child, and because he was, his physical weakness was even more painful to Alina. She was still unnerved. The meeting with Trevor had shaken her to the very core. Now, she felt like she might never leave the house again, and even worse, she was terrified to let Joey out of her sight for even a minute. It was almost like a prison she’d created for herself in her mind. Trevor had hurt her before; what would keep him from doing it again? And he knew that Joey was her heart. If he wanted to destroy her, he would hurt Joey. That was her greatest fear. She would rather die than see Joey hurt.

  Klara came down the stairs. “I went out to buy food today. You remember that you gave the cook the day off?”

  “I forgot,” Alina said.

  “It’s alright. I knew you would forget so I went shopping. Come sit in the kitchen while I put the food away. We should talk. You look terrible,” Klara said.

  Alina followed Klara and sat down at a chair by the work table. She lit a cigarette and watched as Klara opened the door to the ice box. The block of ice was in place. The ice man had made his delivery today. Klara put the perishables, the milk, the cheese, the chicken inside. The bread would be fine on the counter.

  “I bought chicken. I am going to try to fry it,” Klara said, “for dinner tonight.”

  Alina smiled. “I’m sure May will be jealous of your cooking.”

  Klara laughed. “So, I’m not as good as May, but I’ll try.” Klara dried her hands on a dish towel and sat down beside Alina. “Alright now tell me, what’s going on with you.”

  “I saw Trevor today. I was in the fabric store. He snuck up on me. He threatened me. I am scared for Joey, Klara.”

  “Yes, he is just the type of bastard who would do something to a child. We have to be very careful.”

  “I can’t even allow the girls to take Joey to the park to play anymore. Trevor could do something to him. But how can I stop Joey from going outside? He has such a tough life as it is,” Alina said, shaking her head. She took a long drag on her cigarette. The smoke filled her lungs and calmed her.

  “I have to agree with you. You can’t let Joey out of your sight. But you have to be careful too.”

  “Yes, and I will. But more importantly, I’m going to have to have Sid and Earl keep an eye on Joey. I want him watched at all times. I don’t care how much extra they want me to pay them. Joey’s safety is worth it. I’ll have one of them go along whenever one of the girls takes Joey to the park.”

  “I think that is a good idea.”

  Yes, Alina thought. This is what I will do. For now it would give her some peace of mind. Not complete peace of mind, but at least some.

  CHAPTER 13

  Berlin

  When the Nazis surrendered, Berlin was divided between the Allies: a sector went to France, another to Britain, one to the US, and then another to the Russians. It was a race to see which of these countries would set their flag in Berlin first. Stalin made sure it was Russia, and before anyone else arrived, Russia planted roots in the broken city. As each of the Allies took its share, Russia still kept a stronghold and stood guard over her conquest.

  And then … nine weeks after the fall of Berlin and the surrender of the Nazis … the Americans arrived.

  CHAPTER 14

  Lotti Berlin Summer 1945

  Lotti and Berni lived in a sector of Berlin known as Kreuzberg, in the American-run section of the city. The Americans weren’t perfect by any means, they too were angry with the German women for the friends they’d lost in battle, but they were not nearly as brutal as the Russians. And for the first time in a long time Lotti had hope for the future. The food rations were still low, but she had gotten used to living that way. After all, the Germans had endured rationing since Goering had imposed it on them in 1939. It was true that the Russians still policed the area, and their presence was always a part of her life, but Lotti’s natural optimism began to emerge again. Life would never be joyous the way it had been when she was happily married to Lev, but it was getting brighter. The cinemas had opened and so had the public pools. There had even been a philharmonic concert in late May. At the time, Berni had still been too weak to attend, but it was a good sign that the people of Berlin were coming back to life. Lotti was relieved to see the return of some sense of normalcy. But with the return of civilized living, she couldn’t help but think about Lev. If only Lev would have survived she would be happy, even with rations, even with the threat of the Russians, no matter what...

  A couple of months earlier, in June, she and Berni had been rounded up with a group of other German women. They had been bused for twenty-two miles to Sachsenhausen, where they were forced to walk through a concentration camp in order to witness what the Nazis did to prisoners. This was to be their punishment for being German, and it was a terrible day for Lotti. Lotti watched as so many of the women wept. How could the soldiers not know that not every German woman had agreed with Hitler? Many of them went along with the Third Reich out of fear for themselves or their families. But for Lotti this trip to the concentration camp was even more terrible. No one understood how personal all of this was for her. She’d never sanctioned the doctrine of the Third Reich, yet they considered her a part of all that had happened. And walking through that camp, all she could think of was her friends. Had Michal or Alina, or even Taavi after he’d come to see her that last time, ended up in one of
those places? Had any of them survived? Were they murdered? Did their bodies lay in a pile somewhere like the bodies she now saw? These people that lay dead were once mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends. Vomit rose in her throat. Dear God, how could anyone do this to a fellow human being? As she walked through the camps and saw the terrible conditions, the murderous gas chambers, the heaps of skeletal dead bodies, she was glad in a strange way that if he wasn’t to have survived at least Lev had died quickly. After the women left the confines of the camp, they were all silent as the bus that brought them rambled along for twenty-two miles back to Berlin, back to the safety of their homes. Lotti and Berni did not speak, but Lotti felt queasy as she whispered prayers for her lost friends. It was then that she decided she must begin looking for them as soon as possible. With God’s help, Alina, Michal, or Taavi might still be alive. She’d already sent a letter to Gilde in Britain, but it had come back to her with no known address. When Lotti thought about little Gilde she felt guilty. Gilde had disappeared. Was she alive? Lotti had no idea. How could Lotti not feel guilty about Gilde. After all, she had been the one to convince Alina to send Gilde off with the Kindertransport. But with the bombings of London it was hard to say whether Gilde had survived. And how about her brother? Where was Johan? The last she’d seen him, he and Alina had moved in together in Munich. Then without warning, and very suddenly, both of them were gone. And she’d never heard another word from either of them. Were they murdered, God forbid? Would she ever see either of them again?- On trees, on the sides of buildings , everywhere she looked—people had put up posts with the names of their missing family members or friends who they were searching for. She would put up a post too. Not that deep in her heart she truly believed it would help, but it couldn’t hurt. If she gave up hope then there would be no reason to go on living.

  CHAPTER 15

  Alina Manhattan July, 1945

  Alina’s whorehouse was a booming business, earning more money than she had ever dreamed possible. Alone in her room she worked the numbers every week and marveled at the money men were willing to spend for companionship. During the week, it was slower, but on the weekend, it was full. Even with so many of the younger men off fighting in the Pacific. The ones still in the states always found the money to pay for whores and liquor. Klara had told her this before she opened. Klara had said that even during the depression, when food was scarce and jungle camps filled the parks, somehow men found a way to fulfill their carnal needs. At the time she hadn’t believed it, but she had come to see that it was true.

  Sometimes Alina worried about how growing up in a brothel would affect Joey. Everyone was kind to him. In fact, Alina had never seen a single person, client, employee, or prostitute treat him with anything but kindness. However, Alina knew that he also saw a lot of things she wished he’d never been exposed to. She tried to protect him, but it was impossible to shelter him completely. He was to stay in his room at night, but sometimes he wandered downstairs for a glass of water or something to eat. Once the evening fell, the women walked around the house very scantily clad as the clients drifted in and made their nightly choices. Joey never said a word about what he saw. But Alina wondered how much he knew and understood and what he was thinking, watching all of it. She never turned a single trick. Before she’d opened the house she’d made a vow to herself, which she shared with Klara, that she would never become a prostitute. And so far, she’d been able to keep that promise. Most of the time she tried to stay up in her rooms with Joey, reading to him or telling him stories. But even as they lay on his bed, Alina reading him a bedtime story, they sometimes overheard vulgar language and loud laughter coming from downstairs or from one of the girl’s rooms. There was no doubt in Alina’s mind that her parents would never have approved. Although, even now, she could remember that her mother was no innocent. She’d been young during the time when Taavi and Michal had separated. She’d never known the reason why they broke up, or what brought them back together. She’d been too young to understand at the time. But she had hated Michal so many times, for so many things. She’d been so unforgiving and hard on her mother. First she was angry when Michal took Otto as a lover. Then she was angry when Michal’s lover died and Michal sent his sister to live with his family. Alina had become so close with Otto’s sister, and then just like the snap of a finger, Bridget, Otto’s sister, was gone. And then again, Alina had been angry when Michal had brought Taavi back into their lives. That was at first, anyway. Then Alina had come to truly adore her loving father. With all that Alina had done in her life to survive, she wished she could have one more chance to tell Michal that she understood how life’s path could lead one in so many confusing directions. Well, at the time she had been a child, and so much for what children understood. When he grew up what would Joey say about his childhood? Would Joey ever understand what she had done and why? Would he forgive her? When he was old enough to understand, she would tell him about his father. Someday Alina would tell him how much Johan had loved her and how they couldn’t marry in Germany. The hard part would be to explain Hitler and the cruelty of the Nuremburg laws that kept them apart. But she would explain when the time came. Then she would tell Joey how she and his father, had planned to marry when they got to America. But things went bad when he’d died on the ship, leaving her alone to fend for herself. Because of the Nazis she’d been unable to get an education, so it had been difficult for her to find a job, leaving very few options open to her. She would explain to Joey how she had married Trevor hoping that he would take care of her and her child. But Trevor was a terrible, violent, and abusive man. That was when she knew she had to earn her own money. Alina would do her best to make her son understand how she’d tried to get work, but without success. So, she’d opened the brothel in order to make enough money to take care of him and herself. Would she be able to make him understand? Well, it didn’t matter right now, because at least she was able to put a roof over his head and food on the table. And for now, to hell with anything else.

  Trevor continued to do little things that would remind Alina that he was always watching. Sometimes he left notes outside the front door that said “I was thinking of you.” Of course he never signed them, but they stunk of his cologne and she had no doubt who’d put them there. They were quiet threats. Not real enough to complain to the police, but real enough to keep her unnerved.

  Sometimes when things settled down in the wee hours of the morning and Joey was still asleep, Alina was alone, awake. She would sit at her dressing table watching the sun rise from her room. Those were the times when her mind would drift to thoughts of Ugo. He’d always been such a good friend. The very thought that he might be dead somewhere across the world was so horrible that it was unimaginable to her. And, yet, she knew that it was more than possible. The Japanese were not going to surrender. And every day there were reports of more casualties.

  News spread quickly in the house. Men talked to the girls about things they would never discuss outside the walls of the brothel. Alina had heard about internment camps where the Japanese Americans had been forced to live since the war between Japan and America had begun. The Japanese had been forced out of their homes. And from how the men who’d seen the camps described them, the conditions were deplorable. Most of the girls were in agreement with the containment of the Japanese, but the very idea of it frightened Alina. Somehow, it seemed un-American to her, more like something the Nazis might do. Yet, she couldn’t say that to anyone. So many of the clients had lost their sons in the war. Some were killed in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The hatred for the Japanese had become, in many ways, a sign of patriotism. Even though many of the Japanese had been born in America, their neighbors and friends looked at them differently. They were now the enemy because Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

  Then in early August one of the regular clients, Clifton Roberts, came in to see Amy, a girl he’d been keeping company with for several months. He was an older, educated man, a retired judge. Alina liked him
. He was soft-spoken and never caused any trouble. So, when Clifton came in talking about America having bombed Japan with some sort of nuclear bomb, Alina listened. “It’s all over the radio,” Roberts said. “There was an inscription on the side of the bomb that said ‘Greetings from the men of the Indianapolis.’ It’s a good thing that the Indianapolis wasn’t in Pearl Harbor when the Japs bombed it or it would have been lost too. This was one hell of a bomb. It was unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.”

  “Well, after what them Japs did to the other American ships at Pearl Harbor, they deserved what they got, alright,” Judith, one of the girls, said. Then she lifted a bottle and poured Roberts a glass of wine.

  “I agree with you. But, you don’t understand. This was a bomb like none before. It was mass destruction. Alina?”

  “Yes, Judge Roberts?”

  “Can you turn on the radio, please?”

  “Of course.” Alina turned the dial until the voices on the radio were clear.

  “Listen to this,” Roberts said, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

  Since he’d always been such a quiet man, when he raised his voice everyone listened. The entire crowd grew quiet as the voice on the radio began to explain.

  From what Alina could gather, President Truman had ordered that a plane called the Enola Gay drop this large nuclear bomb on Hiroshima in an effort to force the Japanese to surrender. Apparently, the bomb was equal to the force released by 12,500 tons of TNT. It had caused mass destruction. Nuclear bomb? A bomb stronger and more destructive than any they’d ever known. Terrifying news. How would the Japanese retaliate? Alina was afraid, and from the looks on the faces of the others in the room, she was sure they too were worried. And what about Ugo. Dear God, where was Ugo during all of this? She couldn’t bear to think of what might have happened to him.