Chapter 5 Chapter Four

Rabinowitz came back in an old truck full of daily necessities, followed by two tank trucks filled with fresh water and diesel.This arouses enthusiasm for work, from dusk until late at night.The Jews shouted and laughed and sang as they passed the cargo up the gangway, across the deck and down the hatch—sacks of flour and potatoes, net sacks of wormy cabbages and other things that didn't grow. Good, lumpy vegetables, bundles of dried fish, and boxes of canned goods.The ragged Turkish crew moved the oil and water pipes to the ship, and saw the pipes kept bumping, jumping, and groaning; Swearing, hitting with a hammer, running around.The old ship creaked and swayed as if caught in the excitement of the imminent departure, straining the mooring ropes.Despite the wind gusts and swells swelled over the breakwater, gleeful passengers crowded the wobbly deck to watch the preparations.By the time they went down to dinner, the wind was getting stronger under the dazzling half moon, and it was almost eight degrees.

Natalie, in a purple silk dress, with some rouge and lipstick on her face, stood hesitantly on the rickety deck outside Rabinovitz's cabin door.Wrapping tightly around her shoulders was Ellen's gray scarf.She sighed and knocked on the door. "Hi, hello, Mrs. Henry." Yellowish rectangles appeared on the dirty bulkhead where the pictures of naked girls had been nailed.Otherwise, it was as smelly and untidy as ever: unmade beds, cluttered piles of papers, swirling tobacco smoke, and the labourer's smell of clothes dangling from hooks.He said as he closed the door, "Isn't that Sara. Elowski's dress?"

"I bought it from her." Natalie steadied herself against the door. "I hate that brown wool dress I'm wearing. I hate it." "Selah always wears it when we go to talk to the authorities in Nice. She's good with the French." "I don't know her at all. I don't know all of you 2" "How is your doll?" "Sick. He keeps scratching his right ear, and he has a fever." "Did you take him to the infirmary?" "Went. They gave me some pills for him to take." "Hmm. Are you going with us?" "I haven't made up my mind yet."

"It's not difficult." He gave her the chair in front of the desk and squatted on the iron deck. "What is best for you is what you decide to do." "Why on earth did you bring us on board? You're only making trouble for yourself!" "On a whim, Mrs. Henry." He smoked hard. "We didn't intend to stop here when we sailed from Nice. The generator burned out. I'll have to get an armature for a generator in Rome, and some money at the same time. I've got in touch with Herb Ross, who Tell me your uncle is there. I admire him so much—"

"Are all your passengers from Nice?" "No, neither. They were the vanguard of Zionism, and now refugees, mostly Poles and Hungarians. They were going to go from Constanta on the Black Sea - usually this route —but the Romanian who helped them out took their money and ran away. They were passed around by the Jewish agency for months, and finally ended up in the Italian-occupied part of France. For the Jews, that was Not a bad place, but they're going to go on to Palestine anyway. That's what I'm going to do, send the Jews to Palestine. Look, that's it." "Did you go directly to Palestine, or did you go through Turkey? I have heard two stories."

"I can't tell. I'll get a radio signal at sea about that." "If you go through Turkey, you'll have to take your men illegally through the mountains of Syria, won't you? Hostile Arab country?" "I've done it before. If we could go straight home, of course we would." "Does your engine fail at sea?" "No. I'm a ship mechanic. The boat is old, but it's French. French-built boats are fine." What about overcrowding?Those bunks piled upon one another underneath—it's like a long open trough in a toilet!What if there is another storm that lasts for three days?Doesn't the disease have to spread? "

"Mrs. Henry, these people are often trained in harsh conditions." "Haven't you thought of it," she twisted the scarf in her hand. "Can't you sail this ship? Maybe it's just a trap to go through the departure procedures, in order to sneak away my uncle? Just after Werner Baker showed up, you got your documents. What a coincidence." Rabinovitz grimaced incredulously.She went on quickly. "One thing comes to mind now. If we leave the Savior - I'm not saying we'll leave - but if we do, Ellen can insist on going straight to the Turkish consulate. We'll wait there for you to pass the Coast Guard The relay signal says you've crossed the three-mile line. If there's no signal, we're asking Turkey for asylum and—what are you laughing at?"

"There is no Turkish consulate here." "You said yes." "He's an honorary consul, an Italian banker, and, as it happens, a converted Jew, very helpful. The nearest consulate is in Bari on the Adriatic." "Oh, hell!" "Anyway, consulates don't grant asylum the way embassies do." He smiled even wider. "You've had a lot of brains, haven't you?" "Oh, I've even figured out the signal." "Really? What is it?" "Well—" she said with some embarrassment—"'Next year in Jerusalem.' That's the last line of the Seid meal at Passover."

"I know what it is." His smile faded to a serious expression. "Listen, Mrs. Henry, the Italians don't need a lot of starving stateless Jews. We'll go. You should come too." "Oh, I should? Why?" The boat collided with the pier and the smoky little room shook, making Natalie want to throw up. "Just say that because your baby is Jewish, you should go to the Jewish homeland!" "He's only half Jewish." "Really? Ask the Germans." "Hey, don't you know I don't have feelings for Palestine? Not at all! I'm an American, totally non-religious, married to a Christian naval officer."

"Tell me about your husband." The question startled her.She replied awkwardly, "I haven't seen him in a long time. He's on a submarine somewhere in the Pacific." He took out a battered wallet and showed her a picture of a dark girl with big breasts and thick hair. "That was my wife. She was killed by the Arabs while she was on the bus, and the bus blew up." "That's terrible." "This happened eight years ago." "But you want me to take my children to that kind of place?" "Jews are in danger wherever they go."

"Not in America." "There you are also a stranger. In Palestine you are at home." Natalie produced a small color photograph of Byron in his uniform from her purse. "This is my husband." As Rabinowitz looked at the photo, frowning, Byron's image came back to her memory. "He looks young. When did you get married?" For months, she'd put her marriage on the back burner -- bewildered by foolish decisions and ended up lying alone in a foreign hospital giving birth, delirious with pain, surrounded by unfamiliar faces, listening to What I got was medical terms spoken in Italian that I didn't understand.Despite the wonderful love that filled her heart at the sight of the red wrinkled skin doll, she thought her life had been ruined.She more or less still thinks so.But when she briefly recounted the past to the Palestinian, Byron.Henry's magic and aggressiveness, his quick-wittedness, his boyish appeal, all came back to her; and, however rash things were, the short honeymoon in Lisbon was sweet.She thought—though she didn't tell Rabinowitz that much—that it was worth it to have such a pleasure, even if it didn't bring her back to health.Besides, she had Louis again. Rabinowitz listened, then lit another cigarette after the one he had just finished filming. "Have you never met a Jewish boy like him?" "Yeah. The only people I hang out with are aspiring doctors, lawyers, writers, accountants or college professors." "The middle-class type." "yes." "Take your son to Palestine. He'll grow up to be a practical man like his father." "What if there is an accident?" Natalie was afraid that she might get seasick by the pier here.Rocking like that makes me want to vomit.She stood up from the chair and leaned against the bulkhead. "I hope this boat can cross the Mediterranean, but what happens next? Ends up in a British concentration camp? Or takes a baby through the Arabian mountains and gets shot or killed after being captured?" "It would be dangerous for Mrs. Henry to delay him to Siena." "Then I don't know either. My uncle called and spoke to our chargé d'affaires in Rome while we were having lunch with Baker. The chargé d'affaires advised Ellen to go to Siena. He called the voyage an unnecessary adventure for us." .” "Did your chargé d'affaires convince him of a Hitler bureaucrat?" "He said he knew Beck well. He wasn't a Nazi. Our own diplomatic service respected him. Beck offered to drive us back to Rome tomorrow, straight to the embassy. I don't know what to believe, and, to be honest— !” The deck of the small cabin shook violently.Natalie lost her balance and he jumped up to hold her, she fell on top of him, her breasts hitting his chest.He held her upper arms tightly, and then gently pulled her away. "Steady." "Sorry." "It doesn't matter." He let go of her.She forced a smile.Her arms and breasts ached. "The wind keeps turning. The weather report isn't good. But we'll sail at dawn." "That might solve my problem. Maybe Baker won't come so early." "He will, and you'd better make up your mind. It's a troublesome question for you though, I can see that." Ellen.Jastrow, in a blue bathrobe and with his thinning gray hair blown tousled, knocked on the door and opened it. "Sorry to bother you. The doll moves in a strange way, Natalie." Her face changed with horror. "Don't be afraid, just take a look." Rabinovitz grabbed her arm and they walked out together.They scurried across the windswept deck in the moonlight, blowing Natalie's hair to pieces.Louis was lying in a basket on the bed, eyes closed, clenched fists waving from side to side. "Louis!" She leaned over him, her hands resting on his writhing little body. "Boy, boy! Wake up—oh, why doesn't he open his eyes! What's the matter? He's writhing around like this!" Rabinowitz picked up the blanket-wrapped child. "It's a fever-induced spasm. Take it easy. The baby's spasms will be fine soon." Louis's head jerked off the blanket, eyes still closed. "Let's take him to the infirmary." Natalie followed him and ran to the lower deck where the light was dark and stank--the stench of the toilet, the stench of bodies and clothes that had been crowded together for a long time without washing, the stale stench of people's breath Mixed into a stench.Rabinowitz pushed his way through the long line blocking the passage outside the infirmary door.In the cramped, white-painted cabin, he handed the baby to the doctor.It was a haggard gray-bearded old man in a dirty white coat.The doctor unwrapped Louis with a sad face, looked at the writhing body, and agreed that it was a convulsion.He has no medicine to give.In a hoarse, weak voice, in German Yiddish, he reassured Natalie; "It's this inflamed right ear that's causing, you know, the fever complication. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the brain. You can count on him to be very It'll be all right soon. There won't be any bad consequences." He didn't look as happy as he said it. "How about a hot shower?" Rabinowitz said. "Okay, it's good, but there's no hot water on this boat, only cold showers." Rabinowitz picked Louis up and said to Natalie, "Come on." They hurried down the passage to the galley of the ship.Even though the kitchen had been tidied up at night and the door closed, it was still smelly and greasy as it is now.One piece of equipment, though, a gigantic barrel, gleamed in the flickering electric lights.Soup is a staple of refugee meals.Rabinowitz got this restaurant boiler from somewhere and installed it here.He quickly opened the taps and valves.Water poured into the vat, and steam burst out from a spout at the bottom of the vat. "Try it," he said after a few seconds. "Is it too hot?" She dipped one hand. "No." She rolled up her purple sleeves, stripped the writhing baby naked, and dunked the little body in warm water up to its chin. "Get some water on his head too." She did.Louis' stiff back soon relaxed.Rabinowitz added some cold water.The spasms eased, her son softened in her hands, and she glanced at Rabinowitz with excited hope. "When my little brother has fits," he said, "that's what my mother always does." The blue eyes opened, and the baby's gaze was on Natalie, and he gave her a feeble little smile that made her heart ache."God bless you," she told Rabinowitz. "Bring him back up there and keep him warm all the time," Rabinowitz said. "My brother used to sleep for hours afterward. Let me know if there's anything else you need. There's a clinic on shore we can go to if necessary." After some time, he came to her cabin and looked in.Two candles were lit inside.His face and hands were blackened with motor oil.Ellen fell asleep on the top bunk.Natalie sat next to the baby.She was wearing a bathrobe with her hair pinned up, and she had one hand on the basket covered by the blanket. "how is he?" "He's fast asleep, but he's still rubbing that ear all the time." Rabinowitz took out a small flask and filled a shot glass. "Drink this," he said to Natalie. "Slifowitz, do you know what this is?" "I've had Slifowitz's, a lot." She drank it down. "Thank you. How did the electricity work?" "The generator isn't working again. I'm trying to fix it. Do you have enough candles?" "Enough. If it doesn't work, can you sail?" "It'll be fixed and we'll drive away. Any more Slifowitz?" "No. The wine is fine." "See you later." Around two o'clock in the morning, the lights flickered on and Natalie began packing a cardboard box she'd bought from a passenger.This only took a few minutes, and she continued to stay up all night babysitting.It was a long, painful night of turmoil, fruitless remorse and brooding all the way back to her girlhood, interrupted by intermittent dozes of nightmare.The baby sleeps restlessly, tossing and turning.She kept touching his forehead, feeling that it was still cool; but when the porthole began to turn white, he broke out in a sudden sweat.She had to put him in clean swaddling clothes. Herb as she carried the case to the gangway.Rose met her on the breezy deck.It was beginning to light up, a lovely sunny day.The deck was full of jubilant passengers.Some passengers were singing around a concertina player on the hatch cover, their arms around each other's shoulders.Some Turkish crew shouted loudly from the dock to the deck, and there was a noisy hoisting sound from the tackle. "My God!" Ross said. "You wouldn't really do that, Natalie? You wouldn't send yourself into the hands of the Germans, would you?" "My child is sick as hell." "It's frightening for children to have a fever, my dear, but they get better astonishingly quickly. Just a few days at sea and you'll be safe, and you'll be safe forever. Safe and free!" "You may be at sea for weeks. You may have to go over mountains and mountains." "We'll make it. Your baby will be all right. Look at the weather, it's a good omen!" It was true what he said about the weather.The harbor has calmed down, and the wind seems to have died down.Vesuvius seems to have been painted in ink on the apple-green horizon.Happiness spread like the fragrance of flowers over a crowded deck.But just now when Natalie changed Louise's clothes, he trembled again, scratched his ears, and cried.She couldn't bear the memory of the convulsions, the infirmary, the terrible night, the foul air below deck.She put the box on the ramp. "I don't think anybody's going to steal this. Still, please look at it, just for a moment." "Natalie, what are you doing wrong?" She was back in no time, carrying Louis, tightly wrapped up in a basket, and Jastrow, in his cloak and hat, behind her.Baker's Mercedes tank has a big diplomatic emblem—a big red shield, a white circle, a thick black swastika—and the car stops on the pier.Rabinovitz was standing next to Ross at the gangway, his hands, face, and work clothes soiled.He was wiping his hands with a rag. With the arrival of the Mercedes, the joyful chorus of the passengers on the deck suddenly stopped.They stared at the car and the two Americans without moving.All that remains are the hoarse cursing of the crew, the splashing of sea water, and the chirping of seabirds.Rabinowitz lifted the box and took the basket from Natalie. "Okay, let me get it for you." "You are very nice." Herb was just about to step on the plank.Rose rushed towards her and grabbed her arm. "Natalie! For God's sake, let your uncle disembark if he insists. He's had enough. You and your little one haven't!" Rabinowitz pushed the American aside and said through gritted teeth, "Don't be a goddamn fool." Werner.Dr. Baker was dressed fancy, in a tweed coat and a corduroy hat.He jumped out of the Mercedes, opened the front and rear doors, bowed and smiled.The scene swirls in front of Natalie's eyes.Jastrow got into the car by the front door while Baker loaded the two boxes into the trunk of the car's rear.Avran.Rabinowitz carefully placed the basket on the backseat. "Well, goodbye, Dr. Jastrow," he said. "Good-bye, Mrs. Henry." Baker sat in the driver's seat. "Am I doing the right thing?" she said to Rabinowitz, choked up. "Forget it." He touched her cheek with his rough hand. "Next year in Jerusalem." Tears welled up in her eyes.She kissed his stubbled, oily face and staggered into the car.He closed the car door for her. "Let's go!" he called to the crew in Italian. "Put away the springboard!" As Jastrow and Baker chat happily, the Mercedes rolls off the dock.Natalie leaned over the baby's basket, fighting back tears that made her throat twitch.As the car headed north out of Naples on a deserted gravel road, the sun came up and was blindingly white.Werner.When Baker parked the car in front of the American embassy and helped Natalie get out of the car, the afternoon sun was slanting down on Via Veneto.Louis has a high fever. The Red Cross delivers mail to detainees.Before Natalie left for Siena, she wrote Byron a letter telling him what had happened, along the following lines: Since I am back in the civilized world - if you take Mussolini's Italy Call it the civilized world—I can find myself doing a deliberate thing.We are safe and comfortable.An American doctor was treating Louis, who was recovering.That ship is horrible.God knows what will happen to those people.Still, I wish I hadn't felt so sick of the ship.I will not be at ease until I hear the whereabouts of the "Savior".