Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 55 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week. Click here for previous chapters.
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On a page torn out of a notebook:
Dear Naomi,
Good morning.
I’d like to speak to you about a certain problem regarding Dror but without him knowing about it. So it’s better if we don’t meet in the classroom but rather in another quiet place. Where and when can we speak privately? I prefer the mornings, obviously.
Suzy Elkovitz
Response on the other side of the page:
Dear Mrs. Elkovitz,
I think we can speak in my house tomorrow at ten. If you don’t send me a different note with Dror, I’ll understand that this works for you.
Naomi
“Fine,” Rivku said. “So I’ll leave an hour earlier today, on account of the time you want me to spend with them alone tomorrow.”
“Don’t the children’s parents get annoyed?” Katy pressed them loudly. “The frum ones want Naomi and don’t know that sometimes, only Rivku is with them, and the Reform want Rivku and don’t know that sometimes only Naomi is with them.”
“But she’s not teaching them anything during that time,” Rivku said impatiently, ignoring the fact that sometimes, even when she was in the classroom, the children in her group were riveted by Naomi’s stories of Tanach. And she didn’t work too hard to distract them or keep them busy with anything else.
Naomi did not respond at all; her mind was focused on what Suzy Elkovitz might want from her. What kind of problem could there be with Dror?
The child was thriving; he didn’t seem troubled by any type of problem. On the contrary, he had learned the aleph-beis and the kamatz and pasach vowels beautifully. He participated in games with the children, laughed, and ran around, all age-appropriately.
It had to be some kind of problem that did not present itself at all in school.
Or—it was an excuse.
“It’s an excuse,” Suzy confirmed the next morning, in a whisper, once they were both in Naomi’s house, behind a locked door.
“I understand,” Naomi replied. “But what if the others ask me what kind of problem there was?”
“Tell them that he’s jealous of his baby sister, and that I wanted to ask you to give him special attention in school.”
“O-okay,” Naomi said, trying to remember the last time she’d had a one-on-one conversation with this woman. When had she ever heard Suzy utter such a long sentence?
As usual, Suzy was wearing a coat with thick, fur-trimmed sleeves. She stuck her right hand into the left sleeve and pulled out a strange-looking, large, thick metal rectangle.
Naomi stared at it. “What is this?”
Now only Suzy’s lips were moving. “It’s a telephone.”
“A telephone?”
“Yes. I put together another handset for Wangel’s cordless phone. We are now connected to the manor house’s phone line.”
Naomi wasn’t sure she understood. “And we can talk on it?”
“Yes.” The older woman was in a hurry. And frightened. But at the same time, there was something very tranquil in her tone.
“I can call out to any phone on this?”
“Yes. There’s only one problem.”
“Which is?”
“That if they try to use the phone at exactly the same time, on one of their handsets, they will hear us speaking.”
“So how can we use it?” Naomi was pale. “Now…now they can also hear us?” She stared fearfully at the strange device that looked very different from the phone Katarina always carried with her.
“No, only from when we press the button that opens the line.”
“This is unbelievably dangerous.”
“That’s right. But the Hauptmann and the two gefreiters left this morning for Vienna. Bernard also left at the beginning of the week, so right now, only Hauptmann Joseph is here. He’s in the factory with their cordless phone. But in the next few minutes, one of the men will try to hide the phone from him for a short time.”
“In the next few minutes?”
“Yes.”
“So…that means I should try to call very soon?”
“Yes.”
“B-b-but…who will do it?”
“Not me,” Suzy said, moving toward the door. “And I don’t have to warn you, Naomi, that if something happens, remember that you put together this device yourself, and the whole idea was yours, do you understand? I…I have children.”
“I hope to also have children one day,” Naomi whispered. She stared at the telephone as if it would leap at her.
Suzy murmured something, perhaps “amen,” or perhaps saying that regardless, right now there was no comparing the two of them. “I’ll be back in twenty minutes,” she said in a low voice.
“But I didn’t plan what to say!” Naomi cried desperately. “I didn’t speak to my husband or brother about it…I didn’t know that I was going to be the one to call!”
“A woman is less suspicious,” Suzy said. “And what’s there to plan? Ask if this is the spices factory, and find another random question, and from the answer you’ll figure out if there are other Jews there or not.”
“What kind of random question?”
“I don’t know, maybe if you can speak to their Jewish worker.”
“That can be so dangerous! Think about what would happen if Wangel got a random phone call from a stranger, asking if she could speak to the Jewish worker!”
Suzy shrugged. “I’m not good with ideas,” she said. “Do you want to call now, or do you want to push it off for another time? The problem is that the men are going to be hiding the Hauptmann’s phone, and they won’t be able to do that again so fast. I also won’t be able to come to you again with the excuse of a problem with Dror. As it is, we’re speaking far too long about a child who just needs a little extra attention.”
“In any case, if you are seen outside now, it will be strange,” Naomi whispered. Her head ached. “If you came to speak to me about Dror and we finished talking, why did you leave and I stayed here?”
“Maybe you didn’t feel well,” Suzy suggested, trying valiantly to come up with something. “Naomi, listen, I don’t want to be part of all this. Even what I did now was too much. Please!”
“But why wasn’t I told ahead of time, so that I could discuss it with my husband and brother? And we could plan it properly?”
“Because they didn’t know earlier.”
“What do you mean? You sent me the note yesterday.”
“Because I wanted to set up with you a day and time when the phone would be ready, and to teach you how to use it.” Suzy glanced at the door. “But last night, very late, I discovered that Katarina and her two daughters would be leaving today, and that hardly ever happens. So my husband and I decided that this was our chance, and I sat for half the night putting the phone together from old parts that I once found in the Wangels’ storage room.”
Naomi was silent for a long moment, and then she glanced at the phone. “Basically, you press the buttons according to the numbers written on them, right? Wait, but I don’t have the note that has the factory’s phone number on it!”
“Here it is.” Suzy pulled it out of her pocket. “It was given to me, and now it’s going back to you. But first, you have to press this button on the top to turn the phone on, okay?”
“Yes.”
“And you listen to hear that the line is open.”
“How do I know that it’s open?”
“You’ll hear a long, steady tone from here.” She pointed to the end of the handset. “You put this part on your ear, okay? And this part, with the little hole, has to be near your mouth.” She moved the handset closer to Naomi’s face in the right position, and Naomi recoiled.
“They’re going to hear me!” she whispered fiercely.
“No one will hear you before you call. After you hear the tone that shows you are connected to the line, you press the digits in the order that they are written on the paper— from left to right, of course—and wait to hear a tone that shows you it’s connecting to the factory.”
“How do you hear the connecting tone?”
“It’s a bunch of short tones. Something like, tooo…toooo…tooo.”
“Like shevarim or teruah?”
“Neither one. The tones are longer.” She looked at Naomi. “And then you should hear someone answer. It’ll sound very close, like it’s in your ear. Don’t get scared.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I’ve checked the line for Wangel twice, and had to call someone to make sure it was working well.”
“Who did you call?”
“I called the number they gave me; I don’t know who it was. I just heard that someone answered, I asked him to wait a minute, and then I gave the phone over to Katarina, who was next to me.” She thought for a moment. “Oh, and make sure that when you finish talking, you press that big button again, so the battery inside doesn’t get used up on nothing.”
Hesitantly, Naomi reached out to take the heavy device. “Not that I understand exactly what you said about the battery…but it doesn’t matter, I guess. I just have to turn it off at the end, right?”
“Yes. And it’s also so they shouldn’t be able to hear you on the other side of the line.”
She took a deep breath. “I have to think of a good idea for what to say… You say now is my only chance?”
“I don’t know if it’s the only chance, but it’s an excellent opportunity, and I have no idea when such a good chance will return. Especially because, like I told you before, if the men hide the phone, they won’t be able to repeat that too soon.”
“I hear.” She ran her fingers gently over the buttons, studying the note.
“So, are you calling?” Suzy glanced at her watch; she was one of the select few in the camp who had one. “If everything went according to plan, Wangel doesn’t have the phone anymore. In any case, if you hear a strange click in the middle of the call, then hang up—that means to press the big button—right away.”
“I understand,” Naomi said. “Do you think…that my husband and brother know about this?”
“Of course they do. My husband told me he’d talk to them today, and if they would object to the idea of you doing it, he’d run home and tell me not to talk to you. But he didn’t come, so that means,” she smiled a small, very Sherer-like smile, “that they are giving you their best wishes and that they trust you.”
“I hope so,” Naomi said, and closed her eyes. She stood that way for a moment or two, and then opened them and said, “Pray for me, Suzy, okay?”
“I hope G-d will accept my prayers.”
“He will.”
“If you say so, I’m ready to try.” She smiled again and turned to the door. Naomi waited a moment, but Suzy didn’t leave. She just stood there, holding onto the knob.
“I’m calling,” Naomi said.
“Fine. Just remember to speak quietly and don’t sound too frightened.”
“Tell me, there’s such a thing as a lady reporter, right? It’s not only a job for men, is it?”
“Right. That big article about Wangel’s factory, which they were so proud of, was written by a woman journalist who visited here. Do you want to pretend you’re a reporter?”
“I think so.”
“Good idea.”
Naomi closed her eyes again, and then opened them. Then she pressed on the top button of the telephone.
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