The Day the Flowers Died (7 page)

With her mother’s last words, Rebecca crumbled in her seat,
resenting the correction, especially in front of Eli.

“Alright, Mutti, I will try to make more time to talk with you
by phone, but I can’t promise you anything with writing.  I
just don’t have the time.”

“That’s all I ask,” Deseire concluded.

As the discord between Rebecca and her mother settled, Eli found
it comfortable to lean towards the dining table and eat
again.  Ralph took a spoonful of peas to his mouth and soon
the plates around the table sat empty.

“Dinner was absolutely delectable,” Eli said and pushed himself
out of his seat.  The butler handed him his trench coat. 
“Thank you.” Eli brushed his hair back and took the coat from the
butler’s hands.  Rebecca finished licking red brown sauce
still on her plate with her fingers and then glided over to Eli
with her arm squeezing under his.

“Eli has to get going.  He has a big day tomorrow with his
family,” Rebecca said. Ralph stood, walking to Eli to shake his
hand.  Eli reciprocated.

“It was nice meeting all of you.”

“It was a pleasure finally meeting you,” Deseire said.  “I
have been waiting awhile to meet the secret man Rebecca has been
hiding.”

“I’ll see him to the door,” Rebecca said.  The two of them
strolled out of the dining hall and Rebecca nestled her mouth to
Eli’s ear.  “You ate your ham.”

“Yes, well, I was trying to be polite. I didn’t want to offend
your parents,” he thought for a moment with a childish grin, “or
the cook.”

Rebecca nudged his shoulder and they walked out to his car.

“I guess I’ll see you after Christmas.”

“Do come to my New Year’s Eve party. It will be at my place and
everyone will start arriving around eight.  You will meet my
friends, or at least some of them.”

“I’ll be there.”

Eli’s lips moved towards hers and, after a brief moment of
passion, Eli slipped into his car and Rebecca watched him drive
away, back to Munich, back to her home.

Retracing her steps to the lavishly decorated house, she saw the
curtain in the side window wrinkle back over the glass and the
silhouette of her mother disappear. Rebecca’s muscles tightened and
her lips pressed hard, knowing her mother’s hidden disapproval and
peering eyes always kept watch on her, even after all these
years.  She did not want to walk through those doors, back
into the house, knowing the discourse she would have, defending the
man she was with, defending the university she attended, defending
her choices in life.  Rebecca sighed and opened the large oak
doors, entering to the living room where her parents waited with
Mildred’s strong smile telling her she would be fine.

A large Christmas tree sat in the corner of the room with a red
silk rug engulfing its base. Five presents packaged in silver,
gold, green, white, and red wrapping paper waited underneath the
tree’s boughs.  Rebecca passed her mother and sped to the
tree, as if she were twelve again, to examine the gifts, then tried
to sneak out of the room.

Deseire watched Rebecca ignore her and followed Rebecca into the
corridor before she escaped to her room upstairs.

“We have to talk about this,” Deseire insisted.

“I don’t want to have this conversation with you, Mutti. 
It’s Christmas Eve and I don’t want our arguing to spoil
anything.  Can’t you just wait until after Christmas?” Rebecca
implored and, with that reasonable suggestion, Deseire’s tightened
jaws loosened and Rebecca’s tightened muscles relaxed.

“After Christmas morning, but we will have this discussion,”
Deseire insisted.  Rebecca turned from her mother, rolled her
eyes and pouted her lips, then pranced up the stairwell to her
private room with a tub.

Rebecca knew the conversation her mother wanted to have, both of
them pulling a string in opposite directions, each insisting they
knew what was best for Rebecca’s life.  Only Rebecca did know
best without the doubt that plagued her in previous times when they
argued.

Doubt questioned, when she insisted on leaving for college, if
Munich would work out for her.  Doubt made her choice of
Nursing uncertain.  But Eli — she knew in the deepest parts of
her heart Eli was right for her and no amount of whining or arguing
from her mother could change that. Rebecca took a bath and Mildred
helped her get into bed. Before turning out the lights, Mildred sat
beside Rebecca’s pillow and kissed her forehead.

“You’ve always had a strong will just like your father, your own
mind to do things.  But your mutti is just trying to do what
she thinks is best for you. You might not think about such things,
but these are worrisome times and she doesn’t want to see you get
hurt. She does love you, dear.”

Mildred rubbed her calloused hands over Rebecca’s thick hair and
then left the room.  Rebecca fell asleep with those words on
her mind, worrisome times.

The morning whistled into Rebecca’s room with the curtains drawn
by Mildred and the birds singing songs for the new day.  “It’s
time to get up dear.  You don’t want to miss opening the
presents,” Mildred urged.  Rebecca yawned, lifting her arms
above her, and nestling her head in her warm silk sheets once more
before pulling herself off her bed and into her bathroom where
Mildred had drawn the bath.

“I’ll see you downstairs for breakfast.” Mildred’s words muffled
behind the closed bath door.  Rebecca heard her bedroom door
shut and Mildred’s heavy walk down the steps.

When Rebecca made it into the dining room for breakfast, she
found her parents already there, eager to start their day.

Ralph walked over to his daughter and placed a small pink box in
front of her after she sat down.

“Daddy,” Rebecca’s stern face, kept that way from a night of
anticipating her mother’s conversation the next morning,
soothed.  “You didn’t have to do this.” Rebecca caressed the
package with her fingers, investigating with tactile
concentration.

“Well, go ahead, open it,” her father said. Rebecca loosened the
thread of pink ribbon to undo the bow and then lifted the box
lid.  She peeked inside, noticed a metallic key and then
closed the box to keep the gift safe.

“You didn’t, Papa!” Rebecca leapt off her chair and rushed to
hug her father.  Ralph let out a guffaw at being squeezed.

“You need a new car.  You have no way of getting around in
that big city and we worry about you.  Besides, now you have a
way to visit us more often and we won’t need to hear anymore of
your mother’s bickering to come see us.” Ralph glanced at Deseire
at his last words and winked.  Deseire smiled.

“Thank you so much, Papa!”

“Well, let’s go see it.”

Rebecca sprinted out of the dining hall, past the butler holding
open the front door, and to her new car.  The blue Audi
tickled Rebecca to uncontrolled elation as Ralph and Deseire caught
up to Rebecca. Even Deseire smiled at her daughter’s
enthusiasm.

“Adorable!” Rebecca became giddy, swinging the door open. “Can I
drive it?”

“Of course.  Take it for a spin and then head back for
breakfast,” Ralph said in a fatherly tone. Rebecca jumped into her
new car and heard her mother say, “You shouldn’t spoil her like
that. It was her decision to go off to University.” But the wind
from the rolled down windows brushed over Rebecca’s hair and face
and her mother’s words, like the wind rolling off of her, blew
away.”

Rebecca returned to the dining hall with breakfast already
served on the large burgundy breakfast plates. They ate breakfast
without the daunting conversation Rebecca had been waiting for, but
her mother’s eyes had peered at her more than once during the
morning meal.  Rebecca knew she would not return to Munich
without speaking to her.  The three of them left the dining
hall to enter the living room where the tree and gifts
waited.  Rebecca’s cheerful demeanor from receiving a most
unexpected gift in the morning spread to her father and the
servants, leaving everyone, except her mother, in a jovial
mood.

Four presents sat under the tree for Deseire and Ralph. 
Her parents opened them, revealing a pearl necklace and a broach
for her mutti and a silk neck tie and a leather wallet for her
papa.  One last gift remained for Rebecca from Deseire. 
Rebecca opened the silver wrapped present to find a small white box
much like the box her father had hidden the Audi key in.  She
opened the lid and found a small silver band ring that matched the
one her mother wore on her index finger.

“I hope you like it, Rebecca.  Is it modern enough for
you?”

“Of course, Mama, I love it.” Rebecca slid the silver ring over
her left index finger and gave her mother a hug, who held her tight
and then let go while still holding onto her arm.

“Rebecca, we need to talk about your future.”

Rebecca pulled free and sat in the chair across from the sofa
where her mother made herself comfortable.

Ralph lifted his cigar to his mouth and escaped to the porch
adjacent to the living room.  Rebecca scrutinized her mother’s
eyes, her fake smile and her raised brows and waited for the
words.  “In these fragile times, who you date is important;
the reputation you build for yourself is important.  You don’t
want to have doors shut for you because of the mistakes of your
youth.”

“What mistakes, Mother?” Rebecca remarked in a contrived
innocence.

“He is a Jew.  I can’t have my only daughter, my only child
dating a Jew.” She said the word Jew almost in a whisper, like
she’d catch an illness from saying it too loudly.

Rebecca fell back into her chair at the words her mother
actually said aloud, words she knew formed in the corners of her
mother’s mind during dinner and tried to ignore. But her mother sat
in front of her and would not let her hide in the fanciful dreams
of her unbridled youth in Munich.

“I…I…” Rebecca stuttered at what she wanted to say.  “I’m
not going to do this with you, Mama.  You always try to
control every decision I make and it’s not going to work with
him.  It’s my decision, not yours.” Rebecca pulled herself out
of the chair with both hands and stormed out of the living area
while Ralph blew cigar smoke out the open glass door.

Fifteen minutes later, Rebecca returned to the living room with
her luggage in hand and placed it between the living room and the
corridor.

“I have to get going.  I have a lot to do, and don’t want
to be late arriving in Munich.” She scurried past her mother to her
father and gave him a hug and thanked him for the car.  Then
she plodded to her mother and offered a worn smile.  Her
mother stood and they politely hugged out of aristocratic
expectations.  Rebecca turned with her long dark brown hair
swaying about her and lifted her luggage to walk out the front
door.  Mildred hurried to her side with a square treat wrapped
in foil and handed it to her.

“Don’t forget to take this. I made it myself for you, your
favorite banana bread.” Rebecca’s tense cheeks and stretched eyes
lightened and she hugged Mildred before exiting to her new blue
Audi.

Thursday, December 31, 1931

The New Year’s Eve party was one of a many in this apartment
building and they reminded everyone a new year was born. 
Perhaps the jazz music and gaudy decorations or perhaps the idea of
the past ending and a future beginning allowed everyone the freedom
of the untamed.  The last night of 1931 gave people an excuse
to be rowdy and wild, despite the growing conservative German
culture toward a more civil society.  On this night, those
rules did not apply anymore.  On each floor of the apartment,
music permeated the walls and the sounds of chatter and laughter
filled the halls.

Rebecca walked through Eli’s open door into a room filled with
guests, music, dancing, food and drinks.  Her maroon dress
swayed over her slim ankles and her sleeves cuddled her elbows. A
white ribbon adorned her waist and her hair, holding her long brown
hair up into a looped braid. The dim lights lit enough for everyone
to make out shadows of who everyone was with. Eli noticed Rebecca
from across the room and darted to her side to escort her through
the crowd and help her untangle the long, thick, white scarf around
her neck.  They stood near the kitchen, the light from the
moon shining through the window and over their faces.

“How are you? It’s so good to see you.” Eli held her shoulders,
stroking his hands down her arms to her hands and then took one
into his.

“I’m…good.  I’m good.” Rebecca strained to keep the
argument at her house between just her and her mother.

“Did everything go well with your parents at Christmas? Did you
have a good time?” Rebecca tried to resist remembering the tense
scene and her drive back to Munich, desperate to see Eli again.

“My papa bought me a new car.” She gleamed, tilting her head to
one side, hoping conversation would revolve around that singular
topic.  A tall blond haired man, whose hair reminded Eli of
the military, and a woman with long blond hair and taut lips, held
hands as they half danced next to Rebecca.  She introduced
them to Eli.

“These are my friends from University, Louise and Barnard.” She
gestured as she said their names.  “Louise is also studying to
be a nurse and Barnard wants to be a lawyer, like you.” Her eyes
glinted of pride, glancing at Eli.

“It’s so nice to meet some of Rebecca’s friends.” Eli shook
Barnard’s hand and Bernard politely reciprocated, recoiling his
hand just before Eli let it go. Eli smiled and nodded to Louise,
whose fluffy dress matched the fluffiness of her hair, and then
turned to Rebecca.

“Would you like to dance?” Eli scooped Rebecca’s hand into his
and whisked her onto the dance floor which was his living room with
all its furniture rearranged against the walls.  Eli’s grey
vest over a crisp white button down shirt looked sharp over his
grey tie tucked into his grey slacks.  His black loafer shoes
slid across the wood floors with Rebecca in his arms.  One
hand pressed her straightened back while his other lay in her hand,
guiding her along the floor like two ballroom professionals.