The Jerusalem Inception

Chapter 26





Lemmy spent a week with Tanya—reading, talking, and making passionate, tender love. When she sat for hours with the oversized headphones in the other room, he slept as if recovering from months of insomnia. For his eighteen birthday, she baked a chocolate cake and opened a bottle of wine, which they finished together. Now that he was officially an adult, she took him to a government office, where he obtained an Israeli ID card and received his military draft papers.

They barely slept that night. In the morning, they showered together and took the bus to an open field in West Jerusalem, where the IDF had set up a processing center for mandatory draftees, most of them recent high-school graduates. Several rows of military trucks waited in the sun, and female soldiers in olive-green uniform and hoarse voices tried to keep order.

Standing among hundreds of young recruits and their families, Tanya hugged him tightly. She smiled through her tears. “Keep safe, will you? And no more rebellions. Once in uniform, you must obey orders.”

Lemmy made a mock salute. “Yes, Madam!”

She waved as he climbed onto the back of the truck. “Don’t forget to write!”

He blew her a kiss and mouthed, “I love you!”

The trucks departed in a cloud of dust and engine fumes. The families, many with younger children, waved at the convoy until it made the turn onto the main road to Tel Aviv. Fathers put on brave faces while mothers wiped tears.

Tanya walked to the main road, where she planned to catch a local bus back home. She noticed Elie’s car, parked farther up the road under a tree.

Tanya got in. “You’re becoming too predictable for a spy.”

“It’s all part of the plan.” His face seemed even gaunter than before, his dark eyes sunken beside the protruding bridge of his nose. He was wearing a brown wool cap, pulled down over his ears. He emitted a medicinal smell, which she assumed came from the ointment on his burns. She watched the families leave the field, some getting into their small cars, others walking, or waiting for the bus. “The army is the best thing for him.”

“I made a few calls. He’ll be assigned to Paratroopers Command. Their boot camp lasts six months, so even if war breaks out, he’ll still be in training, safely away from battle.”

She thought of Lemmy in uniform, so different from the Talmudic scholar he had been only a week earlier. He was free now to make new friends, gain confidence in himself, and become a normal Israeli. “Have you spoken to Abraham?”

Elie uttered a strange chuckle, something between clearing his throat and blowing his nose. “He’s too furious to speak with anyone. Blames you for brainwashing his boy.”

The thought of Abraham being angry with her gave Tanya mixed feelings—a satisfaction in prevailing over him to set Lemmy free and a lingering doubt as to whether she had done the right thing, tearing a boy from his family and community.

“Better keep away from Abraham,” he added. “He’s got a temper, you know.”

His tone made Tanya wonder whether Elie was telling the truth, or was he up to his usual manipulations. “Lemmy told me that his father was sad, that he hugged him before addressing the men, and tore his coat in mourning, as if his son had died. But you say he’s furious?”

“Abraham isn’t furious with his son. He’s furious with you. But he’s a soldier in our fight for survival. A secret agent of his caliber doesn’t get distracted from his job by personal problems.”

“He’s not a machine. Losing a son is a tragedy for any parent.”

“Abraham’s job is to keep the ultra-Orthodox under control, not to babysit a troublesome teenager whose very existence was an error and whose behavior undermines Abraham’s authority. It’s better that what’s his name is gone from Meah Shearim.”

“His name is Jerusalem.”

“Right. Jerusalem.” Elie tapped the steering wheel. “Of course, to begin with, it would have been better if you had left the boy alone. Abraham’s standing in the sect would have been stronger with a devout son to follow him. But once you exposed the boy to secular culture and to carnal pleasures, it’s better he’s out of the sect. They’ll forget about him soon enough, except maybe his mother. Abraham is very concerned about her.”

Tanya thought of the woman she had seen briefly that Sabbath morning months ago, when she had visited Abraham’s home.

“He’s her only child,” Elie added as if Tanya didn’t know. “I would have her committed to a mental institution, but Abraham thinks she’ll recover better within the sect.”

“She’ll recover only when she’s reunited with her son. A mother is a mother, no matter what religious differences separate them.”

“You don’t know Neturay Karta.”

“I know motherhood. She can write to Lemmy and meet him when he’s on leave.”

“I’ll suggest it to Abraham.” Elie turned on the engine. “Shall we conclude our business?”

Tanya took a deep breath. She was about to hand over the ledger, breaking her promise to the first man she had loved, SS General Klaus von Koenig. But she wasn’t doing it for her own personal gain, or for wealth and influence. She was buying Lemmy’s freedom. And the money—even if Elie somehow managed to get it from the Swiss—would be used to defend Israel and protect those who had survived the Nazis’ camps. It was justice, yet the ledger belonged to Klaus, who had saved her life and turned her into a woman, who had taught her art and music, who had treated her with kindness and affection while the rest of the world was engulfed in cruelty and death. She had not been blind—Klaus was a cultured, polished technocrat, who had applied his education and energy to serve mass murderers. But with her he had shared only his warmth, humor, and strength, forming a peaceful cocoon in a stormy world, earning her heart in that all-consuming passion of a teenage girl’s first love. And that Klaus, the one she had known and loved, would have understood why she was trading his ledger for Lemmy’s freedom.

“Here.” She held up the pocket-size booklet, bound in black leather, stamped with a red swastika. “But promise me that you won’t interfere with the boy. Ever.”

“Abraham’s son?” Elie made a dismissive gesture. “What would I want with him?”

“Swear!”

He raised his hand. “I solemnly swear that I won’t interfere with Jerusalem Gerster.”

She watched Elie’s thin fingers turn the pages. Each page listed precious stones and jewelry, categorized by size and quality, with meticulous notations of quantities and totals for each category. On the last page, hand-written in faded blue ink, it said: Deposit of above-listed goods is acknowledged this day, 1.1.1945 by the Hoffgeitz Bank of Zurich. Signed: Armande Hoffgeitz, President.