ingredients together, rolled the mixture into balls, and simmered them in the usual broth. âBabi, how can you make fish balls without fish?â I asked her. âThe same way I make them with fish,â she answered. But what really surprised me was that they tasted just like real fish balls.â
âYou see, Charlotte, what a good teacher I had,â Mother commented with a laugh.
âHow is your mother?â Mrs. Gerber asked.
âRozsi still writes and tells us that they are managing, and my mother sends us whatever she can spare.â
âI donât know how much longer the Stern brothers can bring us baskets from Komjaty,â Lilli said. âThe fact that they look like two Ukrainian peasants helps them to keep from getting caught. Itâs their activity in the black market that keeps their families alive.â
I usually went to the train station when Rozsi wrote that one of them was coming. The first time Mother sent me on this errand alone was during the summer. She had told me that if anyone asked questions about who gave me the basket, I was to say that the man got right back on the train and that I didnât get a good look at him.
âWhy canât Iboya do it?â I had asked fearfully.
âBecause you are younger and smaller and wonât be noticed as easily.â
When I met the 7:30 a.m. train from Komjaty that morning, my heart was pounding in fright. Shimi Stern was the third person off the train. He spotted me instantly and put down his bundles, hunching over them as though he were looking for something. As soon as I got close, he straightened up and stepped away, leaving a basket on the platform. I picked it up and he walked right past me with no sign of recognition. The basket was very heavy; a manâs tweed sport jacket was pulled through the handle and covered the contents. I hiked it up on my right arm and let the weight rest on my hips as I walked home. Mother, waiting at the gate, took the basket from me, and together we walked into the kitchen. After Mother had hung the sport jacket in Fatherâs wardrobe, she emptied the contents of the basket on the tableâjars filled with lekvár, raspberry jam, and egg yolks; a small sack of barley and one of yellow dried peas. After that first time, meeting the train every few weeks became a game.
Lilliâs remark about the possibility of the Stern brothersâ being caught was prophetic, though. A few days after the Gerbersâ visit, I came home from school to find Shimi in a gray prison uniform and a policeman sitting on our porch, each engrossed in a plate of food. Mother was standing over them on the kitchen threshold.
âCome, Piri, you look hungry; Iâll fix you a plate, too,â Mother said nonchalantly as she walked with me into the kitchen.
âYou mustnât ask questions,â she said as she handed me a plate of mashed potatoes covered with giblet gravy. We both went back to the porch, and I sat down next to the men.
Shimi looked up from his empty plate and smiled. âHow is the schoolgirl?â
âAre you in jail?â The question slipped out before I had thought.
âYes, Piri, Iâll have to wait for a trial. I was allowed a visit to have some of your Motherâs good cooking.â
I was about to ask another question when I remembered Motherâs warning, so I just nodded at his comment and continued to swallow my potatoes in silence, noticing, though, that there were slivers of chicken on the policemanâs plate. When the policeman finished, he stood up and motioned to Shimi, who stood up also. Then he handcuffed Shimi; they both thanked Mother for the dinner, and the policeman led Shimi away.
As soon as they had disappeared, Lilli came up from the back yard.
âWhat do you think will happen to him?â she asked Mother.
âI think that theyâll let him go. They canât lock up everybody who has a few extra ration