TRUMAN PLAZA, GERMANY by Marc Svetov I. Grandmother 4 Boston – Berlin 8 Pearl Harbor 14 They Can Tell By Our Noses 21 Fathers, Artists 26 This is Your Great Adventure! 31 Communal Apartment 35 Vodka and Righteousness 38 Red Balloon 42 Feliks Mayer 47 Hobo and Rabbi 51 Vicious Circles 58 Grandmother 64 II. PX – Post Exchange 68 Yoga 74 … You Name It, The Germans Had It 77 I’ll Kill Them! 83 This Drama Has No End 86 Farewell 89 Hunger 91 Grandmother 94 Kung Fu 96 Diamonds … 98 … And Marlboros 102 Transcendence 104 Conversations with Rudolf Hess 106 Grandmother 110 Chicago 113 Nudniks 118 Pumpkin Seeds 123 There Are Days Like These 128 Mihai And Wife 136 TRUMAN PLAZA | Marc Svetov | www.TransatlanticHabit.com 2 III. Andrews Barracks 140 Making Peace 145 It’s Different 151 Buttons 156 Hermits 161 Walkie‐Talkie 165 Grandmother 167 A Crummy Guy 171 To Find Millie 173 So Nice and Gray 177 I Swear By Apollo the Physician 182 Little Drummer Boy 186 Grandmother 190 Rebels? Idiots! 195 … And By Asklepios, Hygeia, and Panacea 198 How Green Was My Valley 204 Why? Why, Howard? 209 A Nut! An American! 212 … And By All the Gods and Goddesses 214 Things Were Not Going Well 217 … And Call Them to Witness 219 Feliks Meyer 221 Asphyxiation 223 In the Hospital 225 Arrival 228 TRUMAN PLAZA | Marc Svetov | www.TransatlanticHabit.com 3 Jonah got along in the belly of the whale, Daniel in the lion’s den, But I know a guy who didn’t try to get along And he won’t get a chance again… That’s all she wrote, “Dear John! I’ll send your saddle home.” “Dear John”, recorded by Hank Williams (Ritter/Gass) Grandmother “My dear Alan,” my Grandma Bess wrote me a month after I had arrived in Berlin, using her blue ballpoint, “God, how I miss you and wish you were here. You’ve been gone much too long. “I hope you have inherited some of me good qualities. I am a fighter. You are passive and you do nothing to help yourself. What are you looking for? You sure will not find it in Germany. All you did was follow a Nazi dame to Germany. Is this intelligent? And is it intelligent to take a Russian name? The Russians are as bad as the Germans. “You said there is a penalty in Germany if the Hitler salute is given. According to our papers the Nazis are at it again. The Germans are a frightened people, but you are starting to act like a German also. When Hitler became the “big wheel” the Germans were starving, no jobs, no food, so somebody had to be the ‘scapegoat’, so he started with the Jews. Sic million of your people were killed, remember that! “Alan, darling, you must have gumption. You must stand on your feet!” “I try to be tolerant of people but I do have me likes and dislikes. I detest Germans and Russians and Poles, all Jew‐hating bastards! And you changed your name to Salnitsky, why? I dislike stupidity in people. I have very little regard for ‘frightened people’, and you are starting to act like a ‘frightened’ young man. To follow a Nazi dame to Germany whom anyone with self‐ respect would not cross the street to look at. You are not in love with her, you think you are, how could you be in love with a Nazi? You have had nothing but grief since you met her, she is bad luck. Me, your grandmother, fights for what she thinks is right. I am a hot‐head, I am not vindictive, but don’t step on me toes. I always bide m time. You followed a Nazi dame to Germany. She is not worthy of you, not even to walk across the street to see her. “You have been ‘lost’ a long time, it is time you ‘found yourself.” TRUMAN PLAZA | Marc Svetov | www.TransatlanticHabit.com 4 “Please, darling, do not ever insult me intelligence. I love you dearly, but that ‘Salnitsky’ must go. God gave you a good brain and a good backbone, fight for a principle instead of chasing a Nazi dame all the way to Germany. You are young, the world is your oyster, you could do anything you want to do if you want it bad enough. You will fall in love many times, you will torch many times. We all do. But these phases pass. “Alan, all authors, and we have some great ones, they all start with short stories, then they grow, they did not travel to Germany, the did not change their names, they wrote right here in the U.S.A.” her last word had faded, and she switches pens, uses a red ballpoint, giving a bloodcurdling emphasis to the warning: “Not in a Nazi country! “Please, Alan, get out of Germany, your are not a German, you are a Jew. So be a Jew. Look how the Jews fought for Israel and still are fighting. And the Germans killed six million Jews. “That Salnitsky name makes me ill, makes me ashamed. Surprised you would want it. “What sort of atmosphere is there in Germany? The have no culture, they are Nazis and Huns and killers. “So stop chasing this dame like a hound dog, grow up. You will be twenty‐seven so act like twenty‐seven, not like seven. “I am your maternal grandmother. I love you dearly. I try to be understanding. You are my daughter’s son, a daughter I adore. She misses you, Alan, so does your Dad. Your parents have a son and a daughter. The daughter is in California, and the son is in Nazi Germany. Saw your paternal grandparents last night. Your paternal grandfather is very ill. “So you do not like South Bend. You know, we do have other cities in America. “There are many disappointments in life, many heartaches, but one does not run away from them. One fights. One does not run to Nazi Germany. The Germans are Huns, they are Nazis. They are arrogant people and killers. Germany has no culture, never did. “Alan, I will be seventy‐seven in January but I still fight for what I think is right. I had an incident the other day. I purchased two Dacron pillows. Could not use them, I wanted feather pillows, so I take myself downtown to Wieboldt’s (another German), went to the Pillow Department, and who do I encounter? The buyer who is black. The moment I saw her I knew I would have trouble and I did have trouble. I told her I could not use Dacron pillows. I want feather pillows. She was real ‘bitchy’ and accused me of trying to return merchandise I had used. That was not nice. She said she would not give me credit, that she was the ‘boss’. I asked her who pays her. She was steaming and said, ‘You will not get a credit.’ I looked at her. Said, ‘Don’t make book on that. Will get credit, and you should stop fighting the Civil War.’ I left the pillows, and as TRUMAN PLAZA | Marc Svetov | www.TransatlanticHabit.com 5 I walked out she said, ‘Take your pillows.’ I said, ‘Those are your pillows.’ I left the pillows and went to the Adjustment Department. By that time I am boiling mad and when I saw a young man in that department I told him I wanted to talk with the ‘head man’, no flunky. I also asked him to look up my account, which I have had for forty‐five years. He looked up my records, gave me credit and said he would have someone else take care of me. I answered, ‘Not on your life. I want no part of this store.’ When I got home I wrote a letter to the manager commending the graciousness of the young man who took care of me and also wrote, ‘Today I learned courtesy is a dirty word.’ “Alan, take your right name back, it will be lucky for you. Please come back here. Germany is not place for you or any Jew. “When I worked for Phil Tyrrell, he was an arrogant man, but I was with him twenty‐six or twenty‐eight years. We still correspond. “Alan, dear, I love you deeply. Love people who use the brain the good Lord endowed them with.” I inhaled deeply. My grandmother was giving me one rabbit punch after another. Her letters! “You know, Alan, we do have other cities here in the U.S.A. Beautiful cities, with atmosphere and culture. “There are many disappointments in life, many heartaches, but one does not ‘run away#. Life itself is hard, but we are here for some reason. One faces tribulations, one fights for what one believes is right, one does not run to Nazi Germany. What the hell for? Culture? Not in Germany, they are Huns, they are Nazis. They are arrogant and they are killers. “I love your very much. I love people who use the brain the good Lord endowed them with. Seems to me yours brain has become stagnant. “I do not like Germans, do not like Poles, do not like Russians. All Jew‐hating bastards. “You were named after two wonderful people, kind people, wise people.” She meant her own parents: Louis and Anna. I was called Aland Lawrence in their honor and memory… Gram had no mercy. She wanted to finish me off.