Free Things Could Be Worse by Lily Brett Page B

good German.’
    â€˜You know, Mum,’ Lola said, ‘I don’t think anyone would even ask me if I was Jewish. I’ve got an Australian passport. Why would they ask me?’
    â€˜Oh, Lola,’ wailed Renia Bensky, ‘You know nothing. The Jews are the first ones they will kill. Look, it happened already, I think the American soldier the hijackers did kill was a Jew. Everybody wants to kill the Jews first, Lola. But what do you know? You grew up a free child in a free country. You know, Lola, maybe it is not so bad that you didn’t marry somebody Jewish. Rodney is so blond, and the baby is blond, and they’ve both got blue eyes. The hijackers would never think the baby is Jewish. Anyway, Lola darling, I shouldn’t hold you up. Give the baby a big kiss from me. You sound a bit tired, so try and get an early night.’
    Lola put the phone down. The bits of shit had come off the nappies and floated to the top of the bucket. She thought her mother was getting confused. Wasn’t it another group of terrorists who had shot the Jew first? She would ask Rodney. She put the nappies in the washing machine.
    The next day Renia rang the Immigration Department to ask if they could remove the entry on Lola’s passport listing Germany as her place of birth. Renia was switched from one clerk to another. Nobody seemed to understand why this was so important, and nobody could give her an answer.
    Renia wrote to the department. Her neighbour, Mr Spratt, checked her letter for her and told her that it was an excellent letter. The Immigration Department replied that if Renia came in to discuss the matter, it would be considered. Renia thought that she would go in with Lola. After all, Lola could talk anybody into anything.
    â€˜Mum,’ said Lola, ‘I’m having enough trouble staying alive in one place. I feel in such a mess. I can’t even think about the danger of having Germany as my place of birth in my passport when I travel.’
    Renia felt angry. Lola had always disappointed her. It was as if Lola was going out of her way to make sure that she never gave her mother any pleasure. The only thing that Renia had ever asked of Lola was that she be slim. She had been putting Lola on diets for over twenty years. But somehow, despite all the diets, despite all the lettuce and tomatoes, despite the Ryvita biscuits, the thin-trim wafers, the Metrecal drink, the sugarless chewing gum and the calorie-less lollies, Lola had always been fat.
    Lola had completed slimming courses at Silhouette, the Elsternwick Weight Loss Clinic, the YWCA gymnasium and Weight Watchers. And she had remained fat.
    Renia rang up her local Member of Parliament, Mr Charles. Mr Charles lived around the corner from the Benskys. Renia made a point of always saying hello to him. She also let him know that she voted for him. Mr Charles would help her with the Immigration Department.
    Renia was elated the day that Josl picked up Lola’s new passport. Next to ‘place of birth’ was a nice, cream-coloured space.
    â€˜Couldn’t this make the hijackers suspicious?’ asked Topcha Rosen. ‘After all,’ she continued, ‘everyone has a place of birth on a passport. Maybe they will wonder why this girl has nothing next to her place of birth? Anyway, don’t worry, Renia. The main thing is not to worry about it. You’ll worry Lola, and then she’ll be worried, and the hijackers will see a worried person, and they will wonder why the person should be so worried.’
    Renia knew that Topcha knew what it was to be worried. And what it was to be in danger. Topcha had been hidden in a bunker in Poland for five years. Topcha’s family had shared the bunker with another family. Fifteen people living in a bunker for five years. The bunker was twelve feet by eight feet. They couldn’t all lie down at once. They had to roster sleeping hours.
    After the war, Topcha’s parents