Billy Straight

All in all, forty-five Ganzers and Leibovics had been rounded up by the Ukrainian police and handed over to the occupying nazi scum. Sam and Emil, muscular young men- Emil a lightweight boxing champ at the Kovol gymnasium- were spared and enslaved as forced laborers. Eighteen-hour workdays on thin soup and sawdust bread. Midnight escape through the snow, living in the forest on leaves and nuts, nearly starving till they'd been taken in by a saintly Catholic woman. When her son came back from the war, he wanted to turn them over; the Ganzer brothers ran again, walking till the brink of death, finally making it to Shanghai. The Chinese had been decent. Sam sometimes wondered what it would have been like to stay, marry one of those gorgeous porcelain girls. Instead, liberation, Canada, Detroit, L.A.

For years he hadn't thought about any of that crap. Lately, the memories had been returning, uninvited. Probably some kind of brain damage. His body was strong, but names, places were fading, he'd walk into a room, forget why. The ancient stuff, though, was as clear as day. All that anger- he could feel it pounding in his ears, bad for the blood pressure.

He turned off the Lincoln's engine, got out. On Friday night and Saturday, he assumed sexton's duties, had since Mr. Ginzburg died. With the unpaid position came maintenance obligations. Why not? What else did he have to do besides play the mandolin and sit outside his house getting too much sun- he'd already had four precancerous lesions cut off his face and one on his bald spot. Had to wear a stupid cap, like an old guy.

He took the hat off, tossed it into the Lincoln, locked up, enjoyed another look at how he'd parked. Better than leaving room for some drug addict to slump in a stolen car and inject himself. That had happened more than once. This neighborhood, always a little nuts, had become a crazy mix of gawking tourists on weekends, lowlifes crawling out of the woodwork at night.

Most of Ocean Front was one big gyp-joint now. Fly-by-nights selling cheap junk, weekends so jammed you couldn't take two steps without bumping into some yutz.

For forty years Sam and Emil sold hardware and plumbing fixtures from their store on Lincoln Boulevard, things you could use. Both of them knowing how to install as well as sell, pipe a house from scratch. You got to be handy, living on your own, never depending on anyone else. Leaving Shanghai, he'd vowed never to depend on anyone else. Maybe that's why he'd never married. Though the ladies loved him. He'd had his good times. Even now he once in a while got between the covers with soft-ski

He felt for the shul key in his pocket, found it, opened the back door. Not noticing the screen from the bathroom window lying on the ground, because it was partially blocked by his right front tire.

Moments after he got inside, he knew someone had broken in.

The silver-plated pushke was sitting atop the platform where the Torah was read, shiny against the blue velvet coverlet, right out in the open. The charity box hadn't been used since Friday night, when it was passed around before services. Sam had put it away, personally, in a cabinet beneath the bookcases. Just a cheap combination lock, no reason to make a big deal- all it contained was a few dollars in coins.

But someone had tried anyway. And, look- food had been taken out of the same cabinet. Snack stuff for the handful of Saturday-morning regulars. Tam Tam crackers and a pink box from a bakery on Fairfax- sugarcoated kichlen shaped like bow ties. Sam had bought them last week. No preservatives, had to be stale; he'd forgotten to get rid of them.

Crumbs on blue velvet. A quarter and a dime had fallen out of the pushke. Hungry thief. What else had he taken?

The only things of value to a junkie were the silver finials and breastplates that graced the three Torahs in the ark. Sam started toward the carved walnut case, ready to draw back the blue velvet curtain, afraid of what he'd find.

Then he stopped himself, raised his heavy arms instinctively. Maybe the crook was still here. All he needed was some junkie jumping out at him.

No one did. Silence; no movement at all.

He stood there and looked around.

The shul was four rooms- small entry hall in front, gents' and ladies' lavs at the back; in between, the main sanctuary- rows of walnut pews, seating for 150.

A double-sided dead bolt protected the front door- you couldn't get in or out without a key. Same for the back. So how…

He waited a few more minutes, convinced himself he was alone, but made sure by inspecting. Then out to the front room. Still locked; no damage to the door.

In back was where he found it, the window in the ladies' lav. Closed, but the screen was off- there it was, down near his tire. Some white chips on the sill where dry paint had flaked off.

Closing the window after he'd left? Considerate thief?

He returned to the sanctuary, opened the ark, examined the Torahs. All the silver in place. The bottle-shaped pushke hadn't been emptied either, and the lock didn't show a scratch. Only Sam and Mr. Kravitz knew the combination, and they took turns emptying the weekly take and delivering it to the Hadassah thrift shop on Broadway. Once upon a time Congregation Beth Torah had proudly contributed fifty dollars a week to the poor; now it was down to ten, twelve. Embarrassing, so Sam augmented it with twenty of his own. What Kravitz did, he had no idea; the guy was a bit of a cheapskate.

He inspected the pushke, rattled it. Still full. Except for the quarter and the dime. Strange.

Several kichlen were gone and, from what Sam could see, quite a few crackers.

Hungry gonif. Probably some bum, too doped up to know what he was doing, one of those nuts who lurched up and down the walkway. Sometimes Sam gave them money, other times he wanted nothing to do with them.

A ski

Schnapps for the regulars. A nearly full bottle of Crown Royal, and a half-empty Smirnoff's vodka.

A junkie with one vice only, no taste for booze?

Next to the bottles were some folded prayer shawls. A bunch of small silk ones, striped blue, but also the big black-striped woolen tallis worn by the prayer leader. That one belonged in the compartment under the platform- how had it gotten there?

Had he put it there? Had Kravitz? He strained to remember, damn his memory… last shabbos… yeah, yeah, Mrs. Rosen hadn't felt good and Sam had left early to take her home, he'd left Kravitz in charge. The guy had no eye for details.

Removing the woolen shawl, he saw that Kravitz hadn't folded it properly, either. A klutz. He'd clerked for the Water Department all his life, what could you expect from a desk jockey.

Refolding the shawl, caressing the thick wool, Sam carried it to the platform, bent down and opened the compartment door.

Inside was a boy.

A small, ski

Breathing hard. Sam could see his chest moving, and now he could hear it, fast, raspy, like he had asthma or something.

Such a look on the face.

Sam knew that look. His siblings; faces through train windows.

Laborers in the camp who didn't make it.

Even tough Emil's face the time he got pneumonia; thought this was it.