IN HONOR OF THE WWII VETERANS: RIMKA - repost

MEYER

     "Well, if I get blown to pieces, at least it'll be in paradise". Meyer looked around him in wonder. The approaching dark of the Moldovan evening has thrown blue haze on the hills and the valleys. The tiny silver ponds shivered in the breeze. The alabaster lillies danced on their surface under the clouds of gnats. The heather and the grasses gave off a head turning aroma. The frogs, the cicadas, just began their nightly song. And thousands of stars looked down at the Earth with consternation. Even the mud on the road, where the soldiers walked, was glistening with unerring beauty.
     The two soldiers plodded on, Meyer carrying the spool of telephone wire, about four feet in diameter, his comrade, Wolfzon - loaded with the tent, tools, wooden poles and the cooking utensils. He was also unreeling the wire from the spool on Meyer's back, laying a communication line for the approaching army. Usually, Lt. Serov would stride unburdened in front of them, giving instructions and feeling important. Today he walked a quarter of a mile back, and the soldiers knew why.

Red Army soldier

     Meyer heard the crash behind him and instinctively stooped down, covering his head with his hands and dropping the spool. Wolfzon swore and Meyer rose up, to see his comrade take a joint out of his pocket and light it up with shaking hands. For once, Meyer didn't blame him.Three days ago, he was shining Serov's boots, while the lieutenant sat in the chair and tried to sharpen a pencil with his pocket knife. The knife slipped and cut into Serov's thumb. Spitting curses, Serov jammed the thumb into Meyer's cheek, smearing blood all over his face. That was too much even for a meek Jewish boy. He punched Serov and sent him to the floor. Serov flew at Meyer, shouting that he'll see him court-martialed for striking the superior officer. Nothing came out of it, though, because Serov was known as someone who abused his soldiers and a raving anti-Semite, embarrassing even for the Russian army. Today, Serov chose Meyer and Wolfzon, the only two Jews in his unit, for this mission. They figured out why, when he refused to walk with them. The Germans had time to lay mines somewhere in the vicinity, and Serov tried to use this opportunity to get rid of the hated men.

     Meyer and Wolfzon helped each other to pick up their loads and set off walking again, Meyer praying to God in whom he didn't believe and Wolfzon getting quietly high. In addition to smoking pot, he also dug out a bottle of hooch, and Meyer heard the musical sounds of the alcohol pouring into Wolfzon's mouth. No one could find drugs or booze better than Wolfzon. No matter, where the telephone unit was: how far in the countryside or in the most ransacked city; Wolfzon would lay his hands on anything that he could sniff, snort, take, drink or cook that would bring him the desired oblivion. It was a testament to the desperation of the Soviet government that a known drug addict and a flat-footed, 18 year old boy, chronically suffering from severe sinus infections, were drafted at all!

WWII field
radio

     Twenty minutes later, and Wolfzon crushed to the ground again. He sat in the middle of the road, laughing and slapping mud on his face and uniform. Meyer sighed and dropped the spool. He yelled to Serov to catch up with them quickly. Serov approached, swearing. He calmed down though and his eyes took on a sly expression, when Meyer explained his idea. He would walk ahead by himself, laying the wire on the ground and come back for them after he reached their destination and left the empty spool there. They would then be able to manage Wolfzon and the things he carried, as well as set the poles for the wire that Meyer had laid earlier, so that it would be out of the way of the traffic. The lieutenant, obviously, thought that Meyer might get blown up anyway, and, if otherwise, they'll be able to complete their task.
     As Meyer walked off, he heard the thuds of the lieutenant's fists smacking into Wolfzon. Wolfzon just grunted and giggled in response to the blows.

     The night became darker. Walking backwards with a heavy spool and unreeling the wire was hard work. Even so, from time to time Meyer looked up at the stars and mouthed prayers that his grandfather taught him.

Yakov and Hannah,
Meyer's parents

     His mind went from praying to thinking of his family. His parents emigrated to Russia from Poland sometime after the World War I. His mother was an orphan, but she made a life for herself by taking on the cleaning and sewing jobs. She had more money than her groom and even bought him a suit for the wedding! He was a happy man once, a loving husband and father. Yakov often played violin for his family and the guests. Anyone in need, even if they were complete strangers, were always welcome at his home for a meal or the shelter. Life beat the happiness out of him, but could not take away his charitable heart or the unique creativity with which he approached every task. Meyer moaned, thinking of how he wasn't allowed to go home to say goodbye to his dying father. A few months after, he received a notice: his brother, Samuel, was missing in action. Meyer shuddered to think what his starry-eyed poet and a bookworm

Lev later in life.

brother went through in the war, before he disappeared somewhere in the bogs near Leningrad. At least Lev, his other sibling, was out of danger. He had a cushy posting in the supply corps. Meyer's mother lived in Moscow with her only daughter and the grandchildren. Meyer's mind flinched away from thinking about them. He couldn't do 

anything to protect them. 

Meyer's family later in life. He is the third
from the left in the back row.

        
     As he worked, the fear gradually dissipated. The spool was getting lighter. Meyer saw a crumbling wall of the abandoned village. He took a short rest in the club building, left everything there that he wouldn't need on the way back and set out to help Wolfzon and Serov. They had to drug Wolfzon between them, while Serov kept on a steady stream of dire threats and racial slurs. He insisted on putting unconscious Wolfzon in a separate hut for the few hours before the dawn.
    In the morning, he wasn't there. Usually, after drinking and doing drugs, Wolfzon would be miserable and limp as a noodle, in withdrawal. They went out of the hut and looked around. The morning was quiet and ordinary. They saw Wolfzon, moseying toward them through a small apple orchard, chewing on an apple. He was weak but unharmed. Wolfzon finished the apple, spat the seeds and made a show of throwing the uneaten core back into the trees. 
     The blast of the explosion flung all of them to the ground, the earth clods and the pieces of the tree pelting them as they writhed in mortal fear. Afterwards, they sat there, digging the dirt from their eyes and trying to hear through the ringing in their ears. Wolfzon was pointing at what used to be an orchard and stuttering: "I w-w-walked through there j-just n-now!" Serov's pants were wet and sagging in the back and he smelled like shit.

The Soviet Army walking through Europe

Copyright protected

. 

A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE FUTILITY OF MAKING PLANS, BUT - THERE IS STILL HOPE!

     As soon as the plans are made, the Universe likes to yank the rug from under the feet and show us, who is the boss...  
     After a Skype conversation with Hanah, I began to feel, like the trip began to become clear in my head. I called around her area and found us a suitable motel. The only foreseeable problem with it could be that, Roberta will have to climb some stairs to the second floor. She assured me: that was not a problem. I found out, where the graduation will take place, and some more details about it. 
     I shouldn't have declared then that, everything was shaping up and looked surprisingly easy...
     On that same evening Roberta summoned me to her room. She was in terrible pain. Her knee bothered her before, but now she couldn't even lift her leg without screaming, and standing on it was out of the question. 
     In the morning yesterday, the situation improved only marginally. I started to have serious doubts in my mind, whether

Roberta with her friend, Chickie.

we'll have to revise the plans for the trip. How is this 82 year old lady going to endure a six-seven hour ride in a cramped car with such pain in her extremity? How is she going to enjoy her two day stay in a motel? How is she even going to get to the second floor of that motel and down from it? And if she decided to stay at home, I would also have to do so!
     Besides all that, the intense pain started so suddenly, I was afraid, Roberta had some acute problem in her leg. I convinced her to go to the Emergency Room.
     It's not like I enjoy the ERs. I took my dad to that particular hospital, when he fell, and he died there. All of the above thoughts had to be firmly put out of my mind, though. I knew, we had a long day ahead of us, and mulling over such things would not help.
     To my relief, things in the ER of Eden Hospital in Castro Valley progressed quite rapidly. I didn't expect any miracles. When the doctor, after Roberta had an x-ray done, said, she only had an arthritis flair up in her knee, I mentioned (despite really wanting to get out of there as soon as possible) that, I worried about the possibility that, Roberta had a clot. She spent many hours, sitting in the same position in bed, before the pain started. It looked like the doctor had same thoughts, because he immediately suggested for her to have an ultrasound. 
     Just a couple of hours later we we speeding away from the hospital. The ultrasound showed no clots of any kind, and we were quickly discharged. Hurrah, it only took five hours!
     Roberta and I didn't have anything to eat, besides, at some point, the nurse grudgingly supplying her with some crackers and peanut butter. After Sonny picked us up, my charge announced, she was going to take us to a restaurant. It seemed, her leg felt much better, because she now could walk, holding on to my arm. In the morning before we could hardly get her into a wheelchair! 
     So, fingers crossed, we might be able to take the trip, as we planned. A few prayers from all of you would be appreciated! Today is another day. Whatever tidings it will bring, we can adjust and go from there. Love and best wishes to you!
     
   

ELECTRONICS

     Ugh, the whole day was full of phone calls and misbehaving electronics!
     Actually, the phone stopped working yesterday. There wasn't         any signal, and, although, sometimes it rang, there was no one on the other end! Then the internet began to switch off and on. The TV followed the suit. I began to feel, I was in a Dr. Who episode, with the machines sabotaging my life!
     Sonny hit some button on the Internet modem, and everything returned to normal. The TV and internet still kept on glitching, but all we had to do was, wait a little bit, and they'd start working again.
     Today the phone doesn't function. Thank the Heavenly Power for the mistake made by my cell phone company, who added 6,000 minutes instead of 600 to my device, I was able to use it to make the calls of various degree of crankiness to every possible office. 
     And still, the signal on my land line is absent...
     Plus to all that, I can't use the app that lets me play Wordausor (a Scrabble-like game) online! I usually like to watch a little circle, turning in a tab on top of my screen, indicating that, some program is loading. Today it just keeps on turning, and some icons flash on and off, until I feel nauseous, but nothing else happens!

     It's on days like this that I miss the times in our lives, when we sat around the table, eating snacks and playing board games, or went out to the movies with our friends instead of worrying, whether or not they can reach you on one device or another! Then I grab a cell phone and the desire to live simpler life disappears, leaving me grateful for the advances in technology, which allow us to have various ways to communicate with each other. 
     Life goes on!
                                             
   

COMMENTS

Comments, Comments, please, leave your comments!

CHECKING UP AND CHECKING IN

Here he is, not under sedation yet

A few hectic days came and passed. Taka went for a routine colonoscopy exam. It became so much easier now that, the patients get light sedation at such procedures! For my poor dad, colonoscopy was more difficult to endure than a heart bypass surgery! 
I took Taka to the hospital in the morning and stayed with him, until my presence there was no longer needed. When he goes to doctor even for just a check-up, Taka lies down on a narrow cot in the office, folds his arms on his chest and closes eyes with a look of being resigned to his doom. Here, at the hospital, he also did that, but I had my camera and got him to shake off the gloom for a little bit!
     In a few hours I came back to pick him up. The nurses told me, they were looking for me. I found out that, I managed to leave a wrong phone number, so they couldn't reach me! Well, why should today be different?!
     The most serious question we had to discuss all evening yesterday and also all day today was: what can Taka eat? I don't blame him, he had to fast for a day and a half before the procedure! 
     A miracle happened: Hanah Skyped me in the evening! I wanted to sulk a little because she doesn't have a habit of keeping in touch, but she looked too cute, and my heart melted. 

                                           

Cute Cockatiel Sing My Neighbor Totoro