LITMIR.BIZ

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When the sun came up, they shook hands in open acknowledgment of their brotherhood. Reuben had said, “We’re in this together, and, by God, we’ll get out of it together.” He would never forget those words and the unbreakable bond they’d formed that night.

      Daniel pushed his head deeper into the pillow on the hard cot. He had to believe in Reuben. Believe in Reuben…He dreamed of fluffy white clouds, soft warm breezes, and the slow, joyful unfolding of Reuben’s promises.

      Reuben stood beneath the portico of Soissons Hospital, an abandoned ruin of a chalet before French forces had marched into the valley and commandeered the building for medical facilities. Before coming here he and Daniel had been treated behind the battle lines. Dealing with the sick and wounded was more difficult for the Americans than for the French because there were no American hospitals, and only those men who were permanently unfit for further service could be sent home. Reuben didn’t know if Daniel realized they would surely see action again. It was this knowledge that made Madame Mickey’s invitation so attractive. On their own, Reuben and Daniel were doomed to return to the front. If someone could pull a few strings for them, for whatever purpose, why not?

      The cold made Reuben’s leg ache and the biting wind burned his eyes. The past weeks he’d forced himself to ignore such pain. He was alive, that was all that mattered. Time would heal his wounds. He leaned against the wall and lit a cigarette, trying to shrug deeper into his khaki tunic. He was colder than a well digger’s ass, but he wouldn’t move toward the barracks that were his temporary home until Madam Mickey had all the paperwork in order.

      Private Reuben Aaron Tarz, Co. D, 16th Infantry Regiment, a doughboy. On June 5, 1917, he’d been one of five million men registering for the draft, but he wasn’t one of the ones who shouted “Kill the Kaiser!” He’d enlisted for two simple reasons: three square meals a day and a roof over his head. For his efforts he’d received his pay, killed the enemy, lain in his own body filth, been sprayed for cooties, been blinded and wounded. More than that, he’d stood at attention when the bugles blew at four A.M., the time when a lot of Americans stateside were just going to bed. He’d slogged through sleet and slush, seen every horror there was. Eventually he’d hardened himself to the sight of maggots feeding on dead flesh, of rats that infested the trenches in search of food, any kind of food, even human corpses and gangrenous flesh. If he lived to be a hundred, he would never forget walking up the line, his eyes alert for the Krauts and for Daniel. The hateful cacophony of bayonets clanking against steel helmets, the mountains of dead bodies, the madness, the absolute terror of it all. The nightly muck sweats, the fear of dying, the fear of surviving. They called it a world war, but to Reuben it was his war, very personal and very much his own. It was his fight to stay alive.

      Reuben flicked his cigarette into a mound of slush. His feet were cold, his legs ached, and he had a terrible pounding in his head. Back at the barracks he would apply the drops to his eyes and gradually the headache would lessen. It was a hell of a price to pay for three meals that were more slop than food and for a cold roof of stars. But what choice had he? he reflected bitterly. All the ills of the world, all the wars, pestilence, and famine, were brought about by small men, small of stature and small of mind.

      With a muttered oath, he pulled his cap over his curly dark hair and yanked it down over his ears. By the time he’d made it halfway down the road to the barracks, the hard, sluicing sleet had soaked him to the skin. His head was pounding as he limped through the half-frozen sludge. Looking up, he squinted through the rain in the direction of the barracks. Another few minutes and he’d be inside, where it was warm. Things were looking up—the way his luck was going, his dreams might even come true. He could almost touch them, and it scared him; he kept wanting to look over his shoulder. But he had guts, he had chutzpah, and that chutzpah would make all the difference. He was going to succeed in this world. In the trenches, he’d climbed over dead bodies literally—now he’d do it figuratively if need be.

      Yes, he was Jewish, but only when it was convenient to be Jewish. During his year in the trenches he had passed for every nationality under the sun. Jews, he’d found out early, were not the most highly regarded of people. But when it came right down to it, he probably wasn’t anything except Reuben Aaron Tarz from Brooklyn, New York.

      A young man, angry still at his mother for dying during the first minutes of his life and then making him live through his first six years with his father, who had grieved over his wife’s death in granite silence until he, too, had succumbed. Those first six years, he believed, had taught him not to cry. He didn’t remember too much after that except arriving and leaving, then his aunt’s house in Brooklyn, and the years with her and her swarming brood. Those years, he believed, had taught him how to fight for his own space. Six loved children in a cramped tenement in Brooklyn and one begrudged child made that damned near an impossible feat. He’d been thrown out of that house after his temper had erupted once too often. And he had been on his own ever since. Often, in those early times in Brooklyn, he went hungry for days and had a bath and clean clothes only when he could finagle a deal. Soon trouble became his middle name. And trouble finds trouble. The local gang of street boys was well into a life of crime, running numbers and doing shady errands for local smalltime mobsters, by the time Reuben had decided that getting out meant living longer. He’d seen enough of what happened when the low men on the totem pole got into a disagreement. The ones on the ground got squashed. Life held no guarantees, but of one thing Reuben was certain: He’d never go back to Brooklyn.

      The long gray barracks were just ahead, low shadows in an already gray background. Only the yellow lights dimly penetrating the ice-glazed windows gave him direction. He couldn’t wait to get out of his wet clothes, clothes that would never dry. In the morning he’d have to put them on again and they’d stick to his body like leeches. Well, he’d worry about that tomorrow. Right now he was going to shed the wet wool, slip under his blankets, and pray for the pounding in his head to let up.

      No sooner had he opened the door than a chorus of voices surrounded him. “Here he is!”

      “Now we can feast!”

      “Come on, Tarz, let’s get it together here.”

      “Yeah! Lady Bountiful was here and left you a basket of goodies. Good, loyal soldiers that we are, we didn’t touch a thing. Divvy up.”

      “What do you have that the rest of us don’t, Tarz? That’s what we want to know.”

      Reuben grinned halfheartedly. His bunkmates had been riding him ever since Madame Mickey had made her first appearance at the barracks. At first he’d thought she was just another generous Frenchwoman who wanted to help the Americans. Then his buddy George had explained her mission. “My body!” Reuben had squawked. “She’s twice my age!” The first night in the barracks after her visit, the men began to talk.

      “What a knockout!” George had exclaimed.

      “Did you get a load of her legs? Sheathed in the finest silk stockings.”

      “That perfume of hers is enough to make you want to crawl after her on your hands and knees.”

      “She’s a fool for black hair and gray eyes. I heard her say your eyes were gray. ‘The color of the sky before a snowfall!’”

      “I’ll bet she’s got beds with silk sheets and monograms and the same kinds of towels. Real soap that smells nice and a telephone in the bedroom. White carpets…”

      “You’re making all this up.” Reuben had laughed with the rest of them.

      “No,” George said seriously, “Madame Mickey’s a living legend around here from what I’ve gathered. And I’ve been up and around longer than you have.” He pointed and flexed his healed arm. “She comes almost every day in a big sleek Citroën, bringing a mountain of goodies just like you’ve got right here. She’s got a warm word and a dazzling smile for anyone who needs it. And always, always, looks good enough to…”

      “Eat!”

      “Devour whole!”

      “Make love to!”

      “Get lucky with!”

      Each

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