Mila 18 - Leon Uris [108]
To answer your question candidly—I do dance with girls. However, I play the accordion most of the time for them while they dance.
Most sincerely,
WOLF
Dear Wolf,
Hanukkah has passed. The holidays in the ghetto were terribly gloomy. Everyone spoke of the old days when the Tlomatskie Synagogue was jammed with people in fancy dress and there was an air of gaiety everywhere. Now we can’t even see the Tlomatskie Synagogue. Hanukkah seems almost like a mockery. Silly, celebrating the Maccabees storming into Jerusalem, throwing out the tyrants and rebuilding the Temple, when we are cowered in a ghetto.
I think the worst of all was Yom Kippur, earlier. We were all sitting and meditating and atoning for our past sins. The stillness this year was horrible. There was no breath of movement anywhere. Everyone was really asking God what we have done so terrible as to deserve this punishment.
Sony to be so glum.
RACHAEL
Dear Rachael,
I worry about things in the ghetto all the time. Tolek keeps telling us we are front-line soldiers and how important the farm is. I try to make myself believe him.
I think about you often.
With affection,
WOLF
Dear Wolf,
I think about you, too, but I guess you’re really not too lonesome with all those girls out there. If you know what I mean.
Also, with affection,
RACHAEL
Dear Rachael,
I will be frank with you.
I have had offers (not exactly offers) to kiss and play around, but I am not interested. Most of the girls like to neck. I think one or two even will do more (so it is rumored).
I don’t know how you will take this, but I miss you more all the time. I didn’t think I would, but I do. This sounds awful, but I think mostly about those four different times we kissed and held each other. You’ll probably stop writing to me and I won’t blame you.
WOLF
Dear Wolf,
You didn’t write anything bad at all. I wish you were here right now so I could kiss you.
With deepest affection,
RACHAEL
Dear Rachael,
I sure don’t know why anyone would want to kiss me. Especially someone like you, so beautiful. I never said it, but I have always thought so. You are very beautiful.
I look at your picture every chance I get and I memorize your letters. The once or twice they didn’t come in I was pretty miserable.
Candidly speaking, I am pretty certain I am in love with you.
Love,
WOLF
Dear Wolf,
I am not certain what love is, so I can’t be sure. I do know that I have a funny feeling inside me when I think about you and that is almost all the time. I know, too, that it hurts me to be apart. I didn’t know anything could be so painful. I cry at night sometimes. That’s because I’m a girl, I guess.
Isn’t it curious? I liked you very, very much before you left (I wouldn’t want you to think I’d kiss a boy I didn’t like very, very much), but since you’ve been away I guess it must be love or something very close to it.
RACHAEL
Dearest Rachael,
If two people feel the same way about each other and are forced to be apart and nothing was decided upon before they parted, then they find they miss each other more and more all the time, I think an understanding could be reached.
I would like you to be my girl, candidly speaking. I promise I won’t have another girl or fool around until I see you. I wouldn’t impose the same conditions on you except to ask you to promise you will let me know immediately if you feel seriously inclined toward anyone else. Then, when we see each other, we can decide how we really feel.
WOLF
Dearest Wolf,
I think your idea is wonderful, but you can be sure that I am not and won’t be interested in anyone else. The thought of any other boy than you touching me makes me shudder.
Love,
Your girl,
RACHAEL
A great deal of that calm and witty shrewdness that was the mark of Dr. Paul Bronski’s personality had vanished. It seemed as though he was worried all the time. At home he was often irritable and many times he snapped at the children for trifles. Deborah tried hard to compensate