Free Wildflowers of Terezin by Robert Elmer Page B

always liked him."
    "I do like him, most of the time. He's very sweet. He brought me flowers at the hospital the other day."
    "There, see? And?"
    "And he's very sensible. Men like him are very sensible."
    Yes, and everything about him looked the part—from his serious brown eyes and his dimpled chin to the prominent nose. Sensible.
    "Well, then. What else can you ask for? You told me once that you thought he was the one."
    "I was only fourteen at the time." She counted cracks in the narrow sidewalk as they neared the synagogue. He would be there today. She couldn't avoid him. But she certainly didn't want to hurt him, either. She could imagine the hurt puppy dog look on his face if she ever did.
    "So just tell me this." Her mother wasn't giving up that easily. "What if he did ask you to marry him? What would you say?"
    "Actually, Mor, he already did."
    "What?" Her mother nearly exploded. "You never told me this. You never tell me anything! Should I not have known about this? What did you say?"
    "Relax. That was ten years ago."
    "Oh. You give me a heart attack with that kind of talk, and for what? Sometimes I wish your father was still alive just so he could discipline you. Here you are, twenty-five years old, and you still need someone to discipline you. You need a husband."
     

     
    "I know. I miss him, too."
    Hanne's mother let the answer slip by, perhaps not realizing.
    "So what did you tell him?"
    "Who? You mean Aron?" Hanne thought they'd better agree on terms, here. "I think we're talking about two different 'hims,' here."
    "Aron, of course I mean Aron. The man who asked you to marry him. I was married when I was eighteen, you know.Fifteen's not that much younger than eighteen."
    "You can't be serious. I told him I was going to be a doctor and that I wouldn't have time for men."
    "You said that? Why am I not surprised?" This time Hanne's mother nearly dragged her black pumps across the sidewalk, looking more dejected with every step. "And look at her today. My daughter the prophetess. My daughter the nurse.The still-single nurse."
    "Mor," Hanne said with a smile as she squeezed her mother's hand, "you're incredible."
    "Your father would have been proud to hear you say that.Now if only you meant it in a nice way."
    "You know I did."
    Hanne would have been happy to keep the verbal sparring match going if not for the somber greeter standing between the familiar iron outer gate and the blond brick building's main entry. The Hebrew inscription above the outer door read "Welcome in the name of God." Tobias Simonsen, a young man who worked at the Tuborg brewery, must not have read the inscription.
    "Please hurry inside and find a seat," he told them with an urgency that seemed quite out of place for the holidays. Tobias, in a hurry? He looked up and down the street for any other stragglers before following them inside the lobby and slamming the door shut behind them. The sound reverberated throughout the building, sending a shiver up Hanne's spine as she helped her mother climb the stairs to the women's balcony, lofted high above the pews below.
     

     
    "Strange how they're celebrating the high holy days this year," Hanne's mother wondered aloud as they found a seat by Gitte Lewenstein next to the railing, looking down some eight meters or so to where the men sat. At the front of the synagogue, the ornate platform enclosed with a railing held the eight-armed menorah as well as a podium for the rabbi and the ceremonial scrolls of the Torah.
    "Do you have any idea what's going on?" Hanne wondered aloud as she searched the crowd.
    Fru Lewenstein shook her head and knit her crooked fingers together on her lap; she looked as confused as anyone else.
    "All they've been doing is rushing around and whispering to each other down there." She leaned across to speak to Hanne's mother. "No telling what they're up to, but I'll tell you one thing: It's not the service we're expecting."
    Still Hanne looked out across the sea of men's dark