Falling Stars

PROLOUGE THE TRUTH

‘Screaming in the night’. I always start talking about the truth. Some people think that the truth is the most horrible thing that you can think of. Is that why we lie? Well let me tell you this. When you tell the truth it is always easier to remember your story than when you lied. The truth is not overrated. Now some people like books where the whole truth is not told because they don’t like all the gritty details and all the rubbish that some of these books have today. I will tell you this though; this book does not shy away from the brutality of anything. It’s real. So if you would prefer a book about a boy going in the woods on a marvelous and fun filled adventure, I’m sorry to say that this isn’t the right book for you. I did go on an adventure, only it wasn’t a very pleasant one; in fact it was one that if I didn’t get to the end point, I would’ve surely died. Now I’m old and I forget most things as so many old people do, but this I remember. How can one forget this? I remember every gutting detail and every word ever spoken to me. I went on an adventure; and adventure that changed my life forever.

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“Jacob? Jacob!” “What!” I screamed in my brother’s face. He was still nine years old, and me being three years his senior, I knew a lot more than he did. “Can we go to the park? Can we, can we?” He flashed a small puppy dog face. “I already told you David, we’re not aloud. Now come on! Mum wants us to wash up before she says the blessing.” David kicked the grass. “Oh, I don’t see why we have to do the stupid blessing.” “Hey!” I stopped walking and looked him in the eye, “You know that you’re not supposed to say that.” “But you think it’s stupid. I mean you stand out with all your friends.” “Shh!” The problem with David is that he really doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. Especially in public, when some people think that we shouldn’t even be on the streets, let alone talk on the streets. “I know I think that it’s sort of stupid, but I would never say it out loud. If Mum heard you say that…POW!” I smacked him lightly on the back of his head. He gave a small chuckle. “But... why can’t we go to the park anymore, we always used to go, before those ugly red signs were put all on the houses and walls.” David really used bad grammar whenever he spoke. “Look, I’ll explain some other time. Hurry! We’re really going to be late.”

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David and I tore down the street that was very wobbly due to the innumerable broken cobblestones that made even Mr. Skeitchstein’s car – Mr. Skeitchstein is the richest man in our community – wobble. We ran down two back alleyways, nearly missing two men carrying crates of oranges in bright wooden crates. We passed the old Community Center where my father used to work, before they shut it down and boarded all the windows up. We turned onto my street, my little brother panting behind me, when my friend Simon came running in the opposite direction towards me. Simon was a small, but muscular, boy with long legs and jet black hair that was combed straight down over his forehead so that, in a way, he resembled ‘Moe’ from ‘The Three Stooges’. “Can’t talk now Simon,” I said as I ran past him. I turned my head around, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow!” He waved and I turned my head round, just in time, to come face to face with my mother. “Where the bloody hell have you two been? And no lies.” Her face was boiling red and her hair was very messed up. She probably had been running her hands through her hair in anger because we were so late. “We were at the…umm.” I stammered. I didn’t really want to tell her where David and I had been for the past three hours. School ended around three and Sabbath started when the sun set. It was six’ o clock, and on a cold October night, the sun set at around six anyway. “AT THE WHAT?!?” Shouted my mother. People were starting to peer out of their curtains to see what all the commotion was about. I just hoped that no one I knew was looking out of their window and seen my mother yelling at me at maximum volume.

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“Mammy, we were in town!” David spat out, looking pleased and relieved with himself. “You…went…WHAT!” “Mum, its okay,” I stammered, “No one knew who we were. We took them off our heads and we put our jackets in an alley way.” “I don’t give a shit what you did with you yamaka or your star. You two still shouldn’t have been in town. Especially with what’s been going on. Jacob, you know better. And to take your brother in too!” She put her hands over eyes and let out a long breathe. “Mum I’m sorry,” I pleaded, “It won’t happen again. I promise.” “Jacob,” she pulled her hands down, “Just take your brother upstairs and get him ready for the Sabbath, I think it’s time your father and I gave him the talk.

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I folded my napkin and placed it neatly on my clean plate. David was slouching in his seat and staring at his unfinished plate of food. I stared at Mum and Dad who looked at me and then at David and then back at each other. Dad cleared his throat. “David?” David looked up. “Son, your mother and I have given this a lot of thought, and we feel that it is right that you should know what is going on at this point in history. David you are nine years old now, and your mother and I both feel that you are at the age when you can comprehend things better than you would have a year ago.” David continued to look at father who looked back at him, not breaking eye contact. “Now listen David, what I am about to tell you is the complete truth. I am not going to tell you anything false. I am going to be straightforward with you, and I am not going to refrain from telling you any detail. Are you ready?” David nodded. “Listen David, as you know there was a war before you were born. The war left Germany and most of the Germans bankrupt. They really had no money at all. But of course, we had some money saved up. We, as Jewish people, had the money saved, and at that time we owned a lot of the shops. Well a man named Adolf Hitler and some other men who were poor at the time needed someone to pick on because they were feeling down.

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“So what they did was they told everyone that it was our fault that they were bankrupt and that it was our fault that they had lost the war. We were blamed for everything. So they formed an army called the Nazi’s, and they’re sole purpose was to stop all Jewish shops and ban Jewish people from everyday rights. “Son, that’s why we can’t go to the park anymore, because the Nazi’s say so. That’s why our Community Center got shut down, because the Nazi’s said so. Son, that’s even why you can’t go to your old school anymore and why we aren’t aloud to do certain things anymore. Son its really hell we are living, but, if we obey the Nazi rules, which I’m sure you all do, and we stay out of their way and let them do their job, nothing bad will ever happen to you. You’ll see, in a couple of years this will all be over and then everything can go back to the way it was.” It wasn’t the same speech father had given to me about two months ago. David’s was a more hushed up version of the crisis. The whole truth was a whole lot worse.

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Nighttime was unbearable. David wouldn’t stop talking in his sleep and the thought that my father hadn’t told him the whole truth was a pain, no not a pain, but an irritation inside my whole body. Why had my father held out on David? I mean he was nine years old for Cripes sakes. The other thought that was racing through my head was about what Simon had wanted to tell me. I know tomorrow was Sabbath and I really wasn’t supposed to leave

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the house, but maybe I would just sneak out, I mean Simon had done it before, and it didn’t really seem that hard to do. I mean whatever he had to tell me seemed to be pretty important. David was now tossing and turning in the bed across the room from me and was now groaning about something that really hurt. Could he be having a dream about the time he fell from our front porch when he was seven and knocked two of he back teeth out? He had cried a lot that day and his mouth was a bloody mess. David shot bolt up right and sweat was falling from his short black hair on to his freckled face. He was shaking slightly and his white beater shirt was stuck to his skin as if glue was holding it there. His bottom lip was trembling and he was wringing his hands together like he was about to take a beating from father. “What’s wrong?” I asked as I got out of my own bed and sat on the side of his bed and brushed his hair gently, “Bad dream?” He whimpered and nodded frightenedly as he looked up at me. “It was about them!” he whispered. “I had a dream… well it was more of a nightmare. I dreamed that they raided our community and killed everyone. It w-was h-h-horrible.” “It’s okay.” I said, as I rocked him back and forth, “It was only a dream. It wasn’t real. `Member what dad said? It’ll all be over soon. No one will ever hurt you David, not as long as I’m with you. I won’t let anything happen to you.” David looked up at me and smiled slightly, then lowered his head and rested it on my shoulder. “Jacob?” He whispered. “Yeah?” I replied.

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“You know what dad said this evening at supper?” “Yeah.” “Was that the truth?” He now picked his head up from my shoulder and looked me in the eye. His bright blue eyes shone in the darkness. He was the only one in his class who had bright blue eyes. All his friends called him ‘bug eyes’ because of it, and that’s when I would have to step in and handle things before he would start to cry and embarrass himself. I sighed at his question, not knowing if I should tell him or not. Ah, what the heck, the kid’s going to find out sooner or later. “Listen David.” I said in a strong voice. My voice had not changed much yet and I was not even sliding into that point in a boy’s life when odd things start to happen. I mean my voice was lower than my brother’s but not at all as low as some of the other kids in my class who had already turned thirteen. I didn’t turn thirteen until July sixteenth, so I would have to end my seventh grade year as a twelve year old and return to eighth grade as a thirteen year old, hoping to be sliding into the stage of obscurity of a boy’s life. “David, you have to understand something.” “What is it?” he asked, in his squeaky unchanged voice. “Look, whatever anyone tells you, even some of out own kind. You are not lower than any other person. Do you know what I mean?” “Sort of…not really. No.” I let out a breath. “Never mind, I guess you’re still a little too young. Look everything dad said about Hitler is true. He really thinks that we are scum and all that crap, and that we aren’t even humans. But David,” I said in a hoarse voice, and I could

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feel a hot lump in my throat approaching, “the thing he said about it getting better and no one getting hurt, that part wasn’t all true.” “What do you mean?” He asked, his eyes widening and a look of terror uprising on his small freckled face. “Look I hope it does end soon. Wait, you do know that we’re in war don’t you. Well not us, but, the Germans?” “’Course.” David answered me. “Okay, good. Now listen, the thing he said about no one getting hurt, that part wasn’t true at all. Look I know for a fact that in Demark and even in Hungary and especially in Germany, they’ve raided all the Jewish communities and they’ve forced all of the Jews there out. It’s just a matter of time before Poland gets raided.” “But why?” cried David, but not too loud so that mother and father wouldn’t hear him. “Because of what dad said. Hitler, and all the other Nazi’s, and most Germans, think that we, the Jews, aren’t really people at all. And they think that we shouldn’t be allowed certain rights as regular people would.” “But that’s stupid!” cried David again. “What did we do? We’re only Jewish. We d-didn’t d-d-do anything wrong!” Tears swelled up in his eyes and a single tear dropped fell out of his eyes. For the first time ever my brother, my little nine – year old brother, actually made sense. I never really stopped to think about it. We really didn’t do anything at all. And then suddenly the finger gets pointed on us. The people who actually saved money and spent it wisely. The people who had the money and the people who owned the shops.

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“David… I really can’t tell you that.” I stammered, and like my brother, I let my emotions flow out of me like a river flowing into an ocean. “Jacob?” David asked. His face was now red and stains where the tears had run down his face were clearly visible from the crescent moon shining through the curtain drawn window. I looked at him to let him know that I was listening to him. Before he began I swiped my arm in front of my eyes to wipe away any of the tears that had fallen and I grabbed a tissue from our bedside table and wiped away David’s tears. “Jacob, are people dying?” He looked up at me again, and you could still see the stains of the tear marks, but no drops were visible on his face now. The question that he asked was, again, not a question that I wanted to answer. I knew the answer, but I really didn’t know how he would take it. I looked over at the clock and the hands showed that it was three o’ clock in the morning. “David,” I sighed, “I’ll tell you in the morning. In fact Simon knows a lot better than I do. Can you wait until tomorrow?” He nodded his head and his face showed a hint of disappointment. But I had expected that. “Night then, David.” And I ruffled his hair and jumped to my feet. I walked over to my own bed where I got in and pulled the sheet under my armpit and threw my arms upward over my pillow. I just laid there for a moment thinking. And then in about five minutes I fell into a deep sleep.

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4

“Simon!” I was standing outside with nothing on but my boxer shorts and David was standing next to me in his briefs and his white beater shirt. The sun wasn’t even out yet considering the fact that it was still five in the morning. Well, this was the only time that I could sneak out without my parents catching me. Simon was one of the few people in our small community that actually had a house; it was a small house. I on the other hand live in an apartment type building with four other houses stretching sideways to the left and upwards. In the center of everything was a fountain with a statue Moses holding the Ten Commandments. I looked down and my flat chest and at a tiny critter scurrying into a crack in the sidewalk. I felt actually jealous of this small insect. He was free to do whatever he wanted to do. We weren’t. Simon’s window opened and Simon’s head popped out. He looked down and when he saw me he smile. “Romeo, oh Romeo. Where for art thou Romeo!” He laughed. “Cut it out!” I screamed up. “Can you come down? I need to ask you something!” “I don’t know?” He screamed back down. At this rate, we’ll have the whole neighborhood up at five in the morning. Simon usually gets up at four anyway so I knew that he would be up no matter what. “Let me see if I can without my mum catching me.” He smiled, “If you hear any yelling make sure you just run, and keep on running!” His head disappeared and his window was shut. I could hear him stomping down the stairs. And when I say stomping I literally mean stomping.

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I didn’t hear any yelling and before I could comprehend any further Simon’s small body slid out from behind the door, which he closed gently so as to not make a sound. As I’ve said before Simon was a small boy, but very muscular, which made up for his tiniest. He must have only been about four foot two or maybe even one and he was already thirteen. His birthday had been a month ago on the twenty – first, so he was a quite bit older than me – ten months to be exact. He had a head of jet black hair which he always kept combed straight down over his forehead. His eyes were a grayish sort of green and as my brother had, he bore a lot of freckles on his face. His legs were very long, which was very weird considering that in comparison to his arms, his legs looked like huge pieces of timber. As I myself, he had not gone through hardly any changes either, so even though he was the oldest in the class, his voice may have been almost the third highest. I would end up in second, even though my voice was not as clear as his was; my voice held a slight grit to it whenever I spoke. The highest voice in our class, well within the range of boys that is would have to be Joseph Peckinger, who sounded like Rosana Cohen, the youngest girl in our class. Simon was already dressed in a gray shirt and long khaki pants. My brother and I must have looked pretty weird compared to him given the fact that we looked as if we had just jumped out of bed, which we had. “So what’s up?” asked Simon, “What’s so important that you had to tell me?” “Well,” I began, “It’s not that I want to tell you anything really. I actually want you to explain something to my little brother.” “Yeah,” he asked, “What’s that?”

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I walked over to him and whispered what David had asked me the night before. Simon stood there afterward looking at David in both amusement and bewilderment. “Oh,” started Simon, putting his hands on his hips and running the down his thighs as he let out a small breath. “That.” “Yes,” I answered him, “That.” He looked at David again and then at me not knowing if he should answer it or not. I spoke up, knowing that David wasn’t going to leave Simon’s sight until Simon told him. “Well,” I said, “Are you going to tell him or what?” Simon let out an even bigger breathe, “I guess so.” David sat down on the curb and Simon and I sat on either side of him. “Ok David,” Simon began, “Look the question you asked your brother was a big question wasn’t it?” He looked at David and David nodded his head in agreement. “Look, I really don’t know how to answer you except just to give you the answer. And the answer is yes David, people are dying. In fact about fifty people die everyday.” David looked at me in utter horror. Simon mouthed the words, “Did I say too much?” but I just shook my head and looked back at David who was now starting to cry a little. “David, what’s wrong” I asked. “All the people,” David piped up, “All those people. And, and, and they could be us! In a matter of days that could be us!” He wailed and put his head on my shoulder as he had done the night before. “I think I said too much.” Simon said, and he put a hand on Simon’s arm and rubbed it gently. “Sorry David, I didn’t know that you would get this upset.”

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David looked up at Simon and said, “It’s not your fault.” He swiped his naked arm over his eyes and then looked up at Simon once more. “It’s just the truth, right? There’s nothing wrong with that. But…how do they kill all these people like that. Do they just shoot them all?” Simon looked at me once more giving me an apprehensive look. I gave him an okay and Simon began to speak. “Well they have this thing called a chamber, and well I really don’t know what happens to you in there, but, anyone who goes in there, well, they really never come out.” I wasn’t about to ask Simon how he knew this, but it seemed something that they would do. David looked up at me again and rested his head on his forearm and gave a long sigh of worry. “David listen to me,” I began, “I already told you, I won’t let anything happen to you, okay? You don’t have to be worried about anything. Even if they do raid our community, I won’t let them take you; I’ll hide you somewhere, and then if that happens you wait until the next day and then just run and run and run.” “And I’ll help to. If those German but heads come near either of you, I’ll give them something to remember!” He swung his fist into his open palm and laughed. “Thanks Simon.” said David raising his small blue eyes upward at Simon in gratitude. “Hey, anything for you kiddo.” He then turned to me, “He’s grown up a lot since the last time I seen him.” “What was that, three days ago?” I laughed. “Yeah! What happened to him?” Simon asked.

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“Nothing really, my parents gave him the talk. Only it was a hushed up version of everything. I guess my father didn’t want to tell David the whole truth. I don’t see why though, I mean he’s nine.” “Oh, yea, he’s real old.” Laughed Simon. The sun was beginning to creep over the red brick houses and the statue of Moses glistened like there were at least a hundred dozen sequences all over it. Birds started to chirp and the sound of cars in the faraway towns could be heard starting to rev up for their morning drive into the market. I told Simon that I probably had to go because my parents would be waking up soon. Simon slapped my hand and then gave David a small rub on the head. I watched as he turned into his house and turn on the kitchen light. David and I walked back down the street that led to our series of complexes. When we reached it we opened our door and walked in to find the kitchen habited by my mother, father, and two other people in nothing but rags whom I had never seen before in my life.

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“Mammy, Daddy, who are these people?” said David as he spotted the people sitting in our kitchen and on our chairs. The woman was carrying a ratty old suitcase and it seemed as if she had just thrown on whatever she wanted to this morning. Her son, who looked maybe about eight or nine, around David’s age, was sitting in the chair next to her. He had a pointed chin with bright blue eyes and dirty blonde hair. The mother was a

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beautiful woman with flowing black hair and her eyes sparkled in the upcoming sun that set a new morning presence in the kitchen. “Son why don’t you go to your room for the time being, I’ll explain to you later.” Said my Dad, looking at David and pointing a finger at the hallway that led to our bedrooms. “But...” Started David. “Please son, go!” said my dad giving him a slight shove. After David had trudged to his bedroom with his head down my father turned back to my mother and I who were standing near the door. He then turned to the woman and her child sitting on our chairs and gave them a flattering smile. There was an awkward silence so I decided to break it. “Umm…dad? Who are they?” I said in a hoarse voice. “Oh, yes, so sorry of me to forget.” He said, which I didn’t understand how he could forget when they were standing right in front of him. “This is Carol and her son Sebastian. They will be staying with us for some time.” “But why?” I asked, and when I said this I saw Sebastian’s head drop and I immediately felt sorry for what I had said. “Well son, as you can see they are not Jewish.” Wow! Wait! What? Not Jewish! “They come from Germany,” my father started again, “and unfortunately they were caught…hiding Jews. They have come to Poland to escape the Nazi’s regime to find them, and they have dressed like this to make people think that they are gypsies. I hope, Jacob, that you will welcome them into our home as you would Simon or any other of your friends. Treat them as one of the family.” He turned to Carol and Sebastian, “Make

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yourselves at home, and if there is anything you need, anything at all, don’t be afraid to ask Jacob, he will be like your butler while you are here.” Carol and Sebastian nodded and then smiled shyly at me, especially Sebastian, who got up and ran over to my father and gave him a giant fleeting hug. My father patted the young boys head and then walked out of the room with my mother leaving me, alone, with Carol and Sebastian. “Umm…hello.” I said in a cheerful voice. “Umm…are you hungry?” “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” cried Sebastian putting both hands on his stomach and rubbing them frantically. “Sebastian!” cried his mother, “We don’t want to be a burden on them.” The mother looked at me and smiled and then put her head down and stared into her lap. “No, umm, it’s all right, you won’t be a burden at all. Umm, what can I get you?” I said moving toward the cupboard and the refrigerator. “Soup would be fine dear, thank you very much.” Said Carol with a grin on her face as if she had not eaten for a very long time. After I prepared their meal for them I thought that they would want some alone time together, so I went to my room to find David sitting on my bed with all his clothes packed in a rucksack.

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“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!?” I shouted, not caring if mum or dad heard me or not. “I’m running away!” Said David, throwing the rucksack over his shoulder and giving me a stern look. “Running away…why?!?” I screamed again. “Because…of those people that just came. They’re going to lead the Nazi’s right into Poland Jacob, and then what! We’re all going to die!” He ran over to me and threw his arms around me and put his head in my chest. “I don’t wanna die Jacob, I don’t wanna die!” He sobbed. “David look at me right now!” I jerked his head upward so I was staring directly into his eyes. “You’re not going to die. How many times to I have to keep telling you. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Now unpack your clothes and stop being so ridiculous.” He looked me in the eye, “Go to hell!” I slapped him hard in the face so that he fell off his bed and landed with a soft thud on the floor. “What is wrong with you? What has gotten into you lately? You’ve been acting very strange. You never used to talk to me like that.” He just stayed on the ground, his head hung and looking at the wood floor. “What’s wrong with you?” I screamed. He looked up at me. “You tell me.” He smiled, wickedly, and then hung his head again. “Tell me now!” I said, my face reddening and my heart beating faster every second.

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He looked up at me again, and then smiled, “Piss off!” He grabbed his bundle of clothes and threw them at my face. When it connected it fell apart and all his clothes that were in it fell out. “There,” he said, “Those are probably better that yours.” I ran over to him, picked him up by his collar and slammed him into the wall. “YOU LISTEN HERE!” I screamed, not caring if anyone heard me. At this point I didn’t really care. “You are nine years old. You do not talk like that to me, who is older than you, and who happens to be your brother, and who also happens to take care of you.” I slammed him harder against the wall. “Did you forget that? Huh?!?” My hands were shaking his small body and his head was straight up against the wall. “Now what is wrong with you?” “I already told you!” Said David, sounding like himself again, so I let go of his collar. “Them. Carol and Sebastian. They’re German. Why the heck did they pick this house? And dad’s just an idiot for letting them stay!” “Don’t you dare talk about dad like that!” “Shut up!” He screamed in my face. “That’s also what I hate. You think just because you’re older you can boss me around and tell me what to do. I’m nine. I can think for myself. So, like I said, you can sit around here and wait for someone to kill you, or you can come with me, and just hide somewhere until all this is over, like dad said.” “Don’t you get it?” I screamed. “It isn’t going to end. Not for a long, long time. Look David, if you go out there on your own, they will find, it only takes one soldier, and when they do find you, they will kill you David, do you understand?!?” I grabbed him again and shook him, “I don’t want to loose you like we lost Alice. Ok, not you too.”

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He looked up at me like I had just said the worst word in the world. Saying Alice’s name was like saying something in a different language. Alice was my sister, four years than me, who joined some group called the Resisience…or whatever. They were trying to put to the Nazi’s rule, and you can guess that it didn’t go that well. According to the man who brought the news, her head was placed on the ground and a truck ran over her head. I wasn’t supposed to be listening, but I put my head on the door and listened. My parents told David that she was missing without a trace. “Please David, don’t go.” I looked into his eyes and he looked back into mine. “I’m sorry.” He said, and smiled vaguely. He squatted on the ground and started picking up the clothes that were scattered on the ground. Although, that night, I would be helping David put them back in.

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Screaming in the night.

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