Mila 18 - Leon Uris [20]
Gabriela’s voice trembled. “I don’t know why I let you get me so angry. You are very presumptuous. Try to be friendly with someone, and immediately they’ve got illusions of grandeur.”
“I know exactly what’s going on in that shrewd little mind of yours and I’ll tell you how presumptuous I am. If you annoy me again I am going to rip every stitch of clothing off your body and I am going to make love to you in exactly the way you know I can.”
She was small, but her slap was mighty.
Andrei lifted her in his arms. “Scream and I’ll blacken both your eyes,” he said.
Gabriela was too terrified to know whether he was bluffing or not. He walked in the bedroom to the big canopied, satin-covered bed.
“On the second thought,” he said, “go out and get a little more flesh on you. You’re too skinny for me to trouble with.” He flung her on the bed and left.
“Did he do that!” Martha Thompson exclaimed.
Gabriela nodded and poured tea and sliced the apple cake.
“So what did you do?”
“Do? Nothing. I was absolutely terrified. You can imagine.”
Martha sipped her tea, nibbled on the cake, and sighed. “Oh dear, why doesn’t something like that ever happen to me?”
Suddenly Gabriela pulled out a handkerchief, turned her face, and began to sniffle. “Why, Gabriela Rak, I’ve never seen you cry.”
“I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately. I’ve been so jumpy since I’ve met him. All someone has to do is look at me sideways and I start to cry.” And she bawled. “No one has ever been able to get me so angry,” she sobbed unevenly. “He’s conceited and detestable. Oh God, I hate him!”
Martha sat alongside her on the couch and offered a sympathetic shoulder.
“I hate him!”
“Sure you do,” Martha comforted, “sure you do.”
Gabriela pulled away and brought herself under control. “I am behaving like a fool.”
“Welcome to this world of fools. You took a long time joining us, but you’re making up for it all at once. You’ve had this coming to you, Gabriela. You’ve been running the show all your life.”
“He’s a complete opposite of everything I’ve ever known. Like a stranger from a foreign land.”
“You know what your old Aunt Martha always said. The only good ones are either much married or full of complications.”
“Complications! The terrible part of it is that I’m scared to death of being snubbed again. I’ve done just about everything but throw myself at his feet, and that, I’ll never do.”
“You’re going to have to. Alternative, have Tommy send you to Krakow for a long trip.”
Gabriela shook her head slowly. “I didn’t think anything so simple could be so painful. I want to see him so badly I could burst. I just don’t know what to do.”
“Well, honey, no matter what this Lieutenant Androfski is, one thing is for certain. He is a man.”
Andrei was stretched out on his bed, his feet propped up on the iron bedstead. He stared blankly at the ceiling, ignoring Alexander Brandel, who was fishing through papers at the old round table in the center of the room.
“I am against appointing Brayloff to edit the paper. He is inclined to lean too much toward the Revisionists’ point of view. What do you think, Andrei?”
Andrei grunted.
“Ideally, Ervin Rosenblum would be perfect. However, we can’t pay him what he is earning on the outside. Maybe, if we could use Ervin in an advisory capacity ... I’ll talk to him. Now, Andrei, about the Lodz Chapter—you’re going to have to give their problems your attention right away.” Alexander stopped. “I’m maybe talking to the wall tonight? You haven’t heard a thing I’ve said.”
Andrei spun off the bed, shoved his hands in his pockets, and leaned against the wall. “I heard, I heard.”
“So what do you think?”
“To hell with Brayloff, to hell with Ervin Rosenblum, to hell with the Lodz Chapter. To hell with the whole goddamned Zionist movement!”
“So now that you’ve made your great proclamation, maybe you might tell me what is eating you up. You have been uncivilized for a week.”
“I’ve been thinking. Maybe I’ll stay in the army.”
Alexander