Mitla Pass - Leon Uris [174]
“Not exactly. With his family, his wife and children.”
“But, Leah, you’re a married woman and this is a married man.”
“He is a very, very unhappy person. He and his wife haven’t slept together for almost a year.”
“You believe that crap? You’ve got to watch out for dentists, especially when they give you the gas. Your Great-aunt Sylvia, God rest her soul, woke up suddenly to find you-know-what you-know-where.”
“Momma, I know the difference between love and infatuation. This is a gentleman dentist. In Brooklyn. With a three-story brownstone house in the Bensonhurst district. He has a car, a 1937 Terraplane, and he gets a new one every other year. Believe me, Momma, I didn’t do one single thing to arouse him. But when he saw me coming from the dressing room in my bathing suit, that was the finish of him. I didn’t so much as give him a ‘how do you do?’”
“Of course you didn’t. What happened?”
“Not a thing, Momma, but the man was smitten, he couldn’t help himself. I did nothing to provoke it. So, comes the love letters, the flowers. So you know ... I went for a weekend in New York. It was strictly social. My God, I had to invent such stories for Nathan, that little weasel.”
“I don’t like this, Leah. You are going to break up a home with children.”
“Momma, how can you say that! This poor man has been in utter misery for years. A little sympathy, a little understanding, is the least I could give him. He’s longing for culture. So, what’s wrong with a little culture?”
“I ... I ... can’t ... I can’t ...” Gideon cried suddenly.
“What’s the matter with the boy?” Hannah asked, alarmed as Gideon clutched his neck and gasped.
“I can’t breathe!”
“Oh my God!” Hannah screamed.
“It’s all right, Momma,” Leah said. She slipped as she stepped out of the water pan and made for her purse. “I have an adrenaline spray in my bag.”
NATHAN NEEDED a weekend at home, desperately. His eyes widened in horror as he entered the flat. Devoid of furniture, which had been repossessed, the flat looked like an old whore whose makeup kit had been stolen.
He was extremely tired. The job in Pittsburgh had been a backbreaker, the usual slavery for a cunning, lying slumlord. When he tried to collect, gevalt! He wouldn’t have wished it on that other paperhanger, Hitler! A month’s profit went up in smoke.
The anger welled up. His forehead vein grew violet. He threw open the window and screamed, “I’m going to make a scandal!” The neighbors, accustomed to Leah’s suicide threats, took it all in their stride.
A note pinned to the bulletin board indicated that Molly was still in Norfolk, at the home of a comrade, and there was a letter for him.
My Dear Nathan,
... How I have lasted until now, beyond all human endurance, only speaks for my loyalty and faithfulness as a human being. But the strongest human being sooner or later has to break... .
Norfolk was slowly draining the life from our dear son, Gideon. For his sake ... it is with terrible sorrow that I have reached a final conclusion that you are an unfit father and provider and probably are the cause of much of the boy’s illnesses. I have filed for a divorce ... if you threaten to make a scandal I shall have to take severe measures to stop you... .
Certain government authorities may be very interested in your activities, if you know what I mean. They do not fool around with undesirable aliens and I am certain you don’t want to go back to Poland. ... I tried, God knows I tried, but you have crushed the love out of a delicate flower, me.
Sincerely,
Leah
Leah had played it perfectly. The Party was Nathan’s life, but Jewish members were leaving in droves. Some, like Nathan, dreaded the thought of life away from the comrades and stayed and kept their mouths shut. Through all the Stalin purges of great old venerated Bolsheviks and intellectuals and professionals and artists, he was quiet. They had been liquidated after extorted “confessions.”
In America, the Party had become a shell of itself. It could no longer afford to expel loyal foot soldiers, like Nathan Zadok. He was transferred to a higher