The Jewish Dog (25 page)

CHAPTER 33

O
ur blessed partisan routine didn't last long
.
The
Stuka
air sorties over the forest became more and more frequent
,
and many German soldiers flowed to our neck of the woods
.
Our raids in the villages became more dangerous and less common
.
Joshua's health wasn't great either
.
His coughing at night became worse
,
and at times he would shiver for hours under our ragged blanket.

One night I tossed and turned
.
It had been weeks since we had carried out a successful foray
,
and our food supply was becoming scant
.
Enemy aircraft hovered over us from dusk to dawn and we were forced to spend long hours under camouflage nets
.
The hunger was bothersome and Joshua's loud coughs made it difficult to sleep
.
And then
,
in the dead of night
,
the camp sentry sounded the alarm whistle
.
The slumbering partisans awoke as one to their greatest nightmare
.
That which we feared was upon us
.
German troops were raiding the forest
,
making their way with the deadly fire of machine guns
.
Mortar shells were falling from the sky.

“Burn everything and run!” Molotovski cried
,
but no one heard his orders
.
Everyone had dispersed every which way
.
Some partisans tried to return fire
,
but there was no chance
.
The Germans had absolute superiority in personnel and in arms
.
My comrades were dropping like flies before my eyes
.
A long
,
terrifying burst of shots hit the tree I was hiding behind
.
I ran
,
panicked
,
wherever my legs would carry me
.
I looked all around
,
searching for Joshua to no avail
.
I was fear-stricken
.
Bullets flew over my head
.
I knew all about human tools of destruction and the death they wrought.

A sudden stabbing pain paralyzed my thigh
,
and I fell
,
wounded
.
I was hit
.
The smell of blood flooded my senses
.
My blood
.
I turned my head to lick the wound
,
but blood streamed all over my fur
.
Every movement brought another wave of unbearable pain
.
It was clear – the injury was severe
.
I lay down
,
ready to let go
.
My war was ending
.
The battle didn't interest me anymore
.
The explosions were dull in my ears
.
My last thoughts were of Joshua
.
Was he still alive? My looming death did not trouble me
.
Short and bitter were the days of my life!

My thoughts blurred
.
Suddenly
,
the sky was darkened by cumulus clouds
.
Torrential rain poured down unabated from the heavens
.
Buckets of water fell fiercely
.
The ground became muddy
.
The German uniforms soaked through
.
German commands of retreat echoed between the trees.

“Caleb
 . .
 
.
Caleb. . . .” I heard a voice calling me
.
Was it the voice of the Heavenly Dog?

“Caleb
 . .
 
.
Caleb. . . .” The voice became more human
.
“Caleb!” I now recognized it as Joshua's worried
,
desperate voice.

I opened my eyes
.
Joshua was standing above me.

“Caleb
,
you're alive!” He hugged me
.
“You're alive
!
You're alive!”

Three partisans came and stood at his side.

“He's severely injured,” one of the partisans said
.
“He's in pain.”

“I'll put him out of his misery,” another said
,
reaching for his gun.

“No!” Joshua cried
,
and shielded me with his arms
.
“If you shoot him
,
you kill us both.”

“I had a dog once,” the partisan said
.
“My entire childhood
,
I grew up with dogs.”

Joshua hesitated.

“The poor thing is suffering,” the partisan with the rifle tried to convince him
.
“We mustn't delay
.
The Germans might come back at any moment
.
We have to run!”

“I'm staying.”

“Jew
,
don't be stupid
.
How will you survive alone in the forest for even one day?”

“God will help.”

“Like He's helping now?” mocked the man holding the rifle.

Joshua didn't reply.

Joshua sat with me in the blood-soaked forest until the first light
.
The cold air threatened to freeze us to death
.
My bullet-ridden comrades lay lifeless
,
their faces sunken in the muddy ground
.
A terrible lament was carried silently in the wind
.
Angels were crying for the forest heroes who had fallen by sword
.
At night I was haunted by my dreams
,
and I kept waking
.
Each time I fell asleep
,
I worried I'd never wake up again.

The Heavenly Dog came to me again and tried to encourage me
.
“Do not fear Caleb
,
my servant
.
I am your shield
,
and your reward will be great
.
Look up at the heavens and number the stars
,
if indeed you can number them. . . .”

The pain was unbearable
.
All I could see was stars.

When the sun peeked from the horizon
,
flies swarmed toward my wound
.
I didn't have the strength to banish them
.
Joshua swatted at the flies
,
but they came back quickly
.
He picked me up and carried me to the nearest village.

“Caleb
,
my heart and soul,” he whispered in my ear
,
and I could hear the strain in his voice
.
“I don't know if I'm bringing you to recovery or to your grave.”

Although he feared that the villagers might hand us over to our enemies
,
he gathered his courage and walked toward the houses
.
The villagers were uneducated
,
impoverished
,
and teeming with superstition
.
Turning in a Jew was
,
to them
,
like squashing a bug
.
It was obvious we'd need a miracle.

CHAPTER 34

A
nd a miracle we were granted
.
The miracle was named Olga Berdyczewski
.
A nicely-rounded woman
,
her bosom filled her peasant dress to the brim
.
To quote Joshua
,
“an entire orchard should be planted in her honor.”

I don't know if it was her fondness for dogs
,
her fondness for Jews
,
or both that caused her to take us into her home.

“My dog has been injured,” Joshua said
,
and she quickly improvised an operating table for me.

“I need sausages
,
and vodka too,” Joshua requested
.
“Lots of vodka.”

Soon Joshua presented me with a dozen sausages doused in a scent that made my head spin.

He petted my head
.
“If you don't wake up
 . .
 .” he said
,
his voice quivering
.
“If you don't wake up. . . .”

I couldn't hear the end of his sentence
.
When I bit into my third sausage
,
my senses grew numb and my sight dimmed
.
Despite the pain
,
I understood more or less what Joshua intended to do
.
I vividly remembered how I was drugged by the men in black coats
,
back when I spent the night with Margo on a newspaper in the underbelly of the city
.
I had seen how a doctor cut into the belly of a partisan who had been given a bottle that smelled just like my sausages
.
And yet
,
I put my destiny in Joshua's hands without hesitation.

I couldn't eat the last sausages
.
My head became heavy and my tongue fell limp outside my mouth
.
Beyond the screen of intoxication
,
I could feel myself being tied to the table
.
Olga shaved the fur off my thigh with scissors and a razor
,
and Joshua cut into my skin with a white-hot knife
.
It was the only pain I ever felt that I would not wish on my most bitter enemies
.
Joshua cut something out of my body and stitched the open wound with a thread.

For the first days after the surgery
,
I couldn't eat or drink
.
Olga made chicken soup
,
and Joshua soaked an old shirt in it
,
and then squeezed it into my mouth
.
It was a month before I was ready to get up from my bed and walk on all fours.

Joshua was hidden away in dark corners
.
I
,
on the other hand
,
was allowed to run around Olga's house and yard
.
At first I preferred to stay in Joshua's company
,
but I quickly got tired of hiding
,
and began wandering around the house.

I especially liked sitting by Olga's goose pen
.
She had five geese
,
and a couple chickens as well.

Olga hid Joshua in a small space underneath the barn floor
.
She covered the space with a wooden plank
,
and covered that with a pile of hay
.
In the morning
,
warm rays of sun would shine through the big barn window straight onto the haystack
.
At that time of day
,
I would climb onto the haystack
,
circle myself several times
,
making a comfortable little spot
,
and leave my thigh exposed to the healing caress of the sun
.
Twice a day
,
Olga would bring a bottle of water and a pot of baked potatoes for Joshua
.
Sometimes she would vary the menu and bring zucchini and eggs.

I would sit under the table and watch Olga as she cooked
.
Her thick arms jiggled as she peeled potatoes and crumbled bread to feed her geese.

Olga would wake up early in the morning
.
First she would heat a pot of water to wash herself and a pot of milk for her morning meal
.
Then she would feed the poultry and collect their eggs
.
Every day she would dust off the display case in the living room
.
Many books were arranged on the shelves
,
but I never saw her open one.

One day
,
as she was dusting
,
loud knocks were heard at the door.

“Gestapo!” a voice called from beyond the door
.
“Open up!”

Four Gestapo officers entered the house and scanned it quickly.

“Where is the landlord?”

“I am the landlord
.
I'm widowed.”

From where I sat on the haystack
,
I could hear the moving of furniture
.
The officers came into the yard and approached the barn.

“And what's under the haystack?”

“There's nothing under there,” Olga lied
.
“It's just the poor dog that lies here
.
Officer
,
I don't know if you've ever adopted a dog
,
but this dog is really quite sick
.
I found him injured
,
losing lots of blood
,
infested with fleas
,
with thick saliva coming out of his mouth
.
I'm not sure it's a good idea to go near him.”

I rose from my curled up position and twitched my head
.
I lifted one leg
,
and sank back down with my tongue out
.
The officers watched me with pitying looks
.
I stood up again and limped toward them
,
wagging my tail weakly
,
my tongue hanging
.
I swear upon my tail
,
they believed every move
,
and disappeared before I could lick one of their hands.

Once
,
toward evening
,
Olga came to the hiding place carrying a pot of potatoes and carrots
.
“Five months ago
,
they killed my husband,” she told Joshua
.
“Jezhi was the youngest of the Drohovski family
,
the richest family in the village
.
People would come from Vienna to buy their horses
.
Five thousand zloty per horse!”

She removed the cover from the pot
.
“Eat
,
eat,” she urged Joshua
.
“And give some to the dog
.
Just because you're nice enough to listen to my stories doesn't mean you have to starve while you do it.”

Joshua stuck a fork into one of the potatoes and bit in.

“All the village girls wanted to marry my Jezhi
.
He wasn't like the other men in the village
.
He was educated
.
He taught math and literature at the Gymnasium
.
But Jezhi didn't want anyone else
,
only me
.
He told me that I was a ‘round figure' – it was his kind of joke
.
When the Germans came
,
they turned the Gymnasium into a command center
.
Instead of young boys playing in the yard
,
there were armored vehicles
.
A German soldier stopped Jezhi when he was on his way home from the tavern
.
My poor
,
drunk Jezhi.” Tears welled in her eyes
.
“He greeted the soldier with curses and spat in his face
.
And the soldier shot him again and again without stopping
,
riddling his body with holes
.
My poor Jezhi
,
he never had a chance.”

Joshua held out his hand and they embraced for a long time.

“May God save your kind soul,” Joshua whispered to her
.
“I fear that you will pay with your life for the mercy that you have shown me.”

She tightened her grip on his hand
.
“Better to be killed by German fire than to roast in the fires of hell.”

One afternoon
,
a blond boy sneaked into the barnyard
.
He lay down on the haystack
,
in my usual place
,
and listened carefully
.
An evil streak flashed in his blue eyes
.
A rumor had spread that several Jews were hiding around the village
.
Ignorant
,
hate-filled young boys were hungry for a hunt
.
I knew that if I tried to bark out a warning
,
I would merely raise suspicion
.
But what could I do? Was I doomed to watch Joshua taken out of his hiding place and led to his death?

The boy ran off
.
I knew he'd be back.

A few minutes before sunrise
,
as I was asleep in Joshua's arms
,
we heard noises coming from the barn
.
Someone was lifting the haystack that covered our hiding place
.
I heard shouts coming from outside
.
Joshua held me close
,
and I could hear his rapid heartbeat.

The wooden planks that served as our ceiling were wrenched away
,
and a happy
,
round face looked at us from above
.
It was Olga's shining smile
.
She seemed even plumper and happier than usual.

“Come on up,” she called to us
,
clapping her hands
.
“It's over
!
The war has ended!”

Joshua exited the hiding place and blinked
.
He hadn't seen sunlight in months
.
The sun slowly rose and lit the earth with an optimistic
,
pale light
.
There was no sweeter sound than this announcement
,
the end of the war.

Olga and Joshua sat together on a tree stump in the yard and watched the green hills and the meager flocks grazing
.
It was the time for survivors
.
The vista seemed delicate and brushed
,
a pleasant backdrop for the memories carried by the wind of those who died by fire and those who died by water.

“Stay with me,” Olga asked
.
“I will be a good friend
,
a loyal wife.”

“Olga my dear
,
my savior
.
You are a beautiful woman
,
and your heart is bigger than the world itself
.
But I am a Jew and I cannot marry you.”

“What's the difference between the God of the slaughtered and the God of the butchers?” Olga asked
.
“I don't care for either
.
And I certainly can't understand why you still follow the God that let the Germans lead your brothers into the furnaces and did nothing about it.”

Joshua took her hand gently and kissed her cheek.

She awaited his answer
,
but he was in no rush to reply
.
A peaceful quiet lingered between them
,
and the attentive listener could hear the chirping of birds alongside the ding-dong of cattle bells.

“Just as a dog follows his master
,
I must follow mine
.
The dog of a righteous man follows him
,
as the dog of an evil man follows
him
.
I don't know if my God is righteous or evil
,
but He is my master
,
and I am willing to die for His name.”

“But He watched your parents
,
your brothers
,
and your friends get butchered
,
and didn't lift a finger!”