The Masada Faktor

The Masada Faktor by Naomi Litvin Read Free Book Online Page B

Book: The Masada Faktor by Naomi Litvin Read Free Book Online
Authors: Naomi Litvin
Oskar’s will that she contact Mother, or if Mother had died, then her next of kin, with this information. Millie also wrote that she wanted nothing to do with her family’s past.
     
    Millie said she was in the process of making Aliyah to Israel from Germany, mostly because of the music scene in Tel Aviv. I was somewhat surprised that there were any German Jews left over there and for her reasons for wanting to exercise her Right of Return to Israel.
     
    She wanted nothing to do with her family’s past, when Israel is all about the past. Oh well, I thought, Lots of people made Aliyah for different reasons. Who am I to question hers? Still, it was all very strange.
     
    I was uneasy when I finally replied to Millie’s email. Something did not feel right, and I was taking this information in with skepticism. I gave my phone number and suggested that we get together, thinking, She must be involved with the Arab from Haifa.
     
    I also mentioned that I was busy trying to find an affordable apartment in Tel Aviv and wouldn’t have much time. Moving to Tel Aviv was my first priority and finding an apartment there would be difficult.

    It was a Friday night at the beach in Tel Aviv and I could hear the beating of the drums. It was right before sundown and the lifeguard made a loud announcement over the crackling loudspeakers in Hebrew, then repeated it in accented English, “Ladies and gentlemen, in fifteen minutes there will be no more lifeguards on the beach. Please watch your children as the surf is very dangerous. Shabbat Shalom .”
     
    I had walked up the promenade to Tel Aviv from Jaffa, and noticed Muslim men and their children in bathing suits frolicking in the surf. Their wives must have been sweating under their long black dresses. Even though they were smiling, I thought of their second class status as women.
     
    Lost in thought about the plight of Muslim women on the beach, I abruptly found myself face to face with a tall young woman who spoke to me in a bizarre high pitched voice with a German accent, “Natasha Bernard? I am Millie Stone.”
     
    We went to Landwers Coffee at the Tel Aviv Marina behind the Gordon Pool. We sat down at an outside table. I was hungry and wanted to have their warm quinoa and lentil salad and a Goldstar beer.
     
    Millie ordered a coffee and we made some small talk about our email correspondence and she let me know she was a flight attendant. I found that hard to believe as she seemed so ill at ease in her own skin. She kept looking around, her eyes darting from table to table.
     
    She explained that her German grandfather was not Jewish but had married a Jewish woman after World War II. Millie’s mother was born to them. “My mother is Jewish and therefore I am Jewish. Even according to the religious Jews I can make Aliyah.
     
    I tore open the package that she gave me but there was nothing inside but postcards and souvenirs from Munich 1945. “Millie, what am I supposed to do with this stuff?”
     
    “Well, I certainly do not know and do not care. All I know is that it was my specific duty to get this to you so that I can receive my inheritance. And now I can afford to get the flat that I want in Dizengoff Square. And also, I meant to ask, are you at all interested in renting out my spare bedroom?”
     
    I couldn’t believe my good luck. “Yes Millie, I would love to see it. And if I like it I will move in immediately!” She gave me the address and told me to meet her there the next day at 2:00 P.M.
     
    The memorabilia from Millie’s grandfather Oskar didn’t seem to have anything to do with The Masada Faktor. After Millie left Landwers Coffee I stayed for a while to look over all of it. I didn’t want to think she was using it to lure me, it seemed reasonable that it was a condition of her inheritance.
     
    I could have been rationalizing that there was no connection between Millie and the conspiracy. But I needed this chance, to live in Tel Aviv. If I was going

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