Albany Park Read Online Free

questions.”
    Sally jumped in, smiling broadly. “Tell him about the names and stories Pa would make up about them.”
    “Tell him about the giant,” said Faith, covering her mouth to hold back a giggle.
    “Oh, Frank, you wouldn’t believe this guy,” Flo laughed, holding her hand up as high as she could. “He had to be about six-foot-six and as wide as a doorway. He was an Ensign in the Navy and when he walked in here with that long black overcoat and big white hat, I was afraid to let him sit on the couch. I never saw anybody that big. And Pa, who was about half his size, started to ask him where he was from and what he did in civilian life and a bunch of other questions. I thought I would die.”
    “He looked like a human dry dock,” piped Pa. “About the size of an aircraft carrier.”
    “Actually,” Flo smiled slowly, “he was a very nice guy, who used to date a girl I work with, before she got married. After the war, he’s going back to college to become an engineer.”
    Lilly sat quietly and when Frank asked, she introduced him to her rag doll Lucy. She wanted to know if he remembered her.
    “Sure do, but what happened to her eye,” he asked, noticing the blank spot where the doll’s eye had been.
    “It fell off when I bit it one day,” she answered quietly.
    “What happened when you got to England?” Pa wanted to know. “And when did you get into the actual war? I heard that the Battle of the Bulge almost turned the war around and our troops were pushed to surrender. Weren’t you there? What happened?”
    Frank pursed his lips and pulled Sally a little closer as Pa peppered him. Looking down, he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head without answering.
    “What about the Jews,” Pa asked quietly,” “did you see the camps?”
    “Please Pa, not now,” he answered softly.
    Slowing down, Pa asked. “Where were you in France and Germany?”
    Frank sighed. “All I remember is that we were moving constantly. Then we would stop abruptly and have to dig in and maybe stay in one place for a few days.” His voice trailed off and he looked down.
    He looked up and continued.
    “When we got to Aachen, early one morning, we hadn’t seen any German troops for two days.” he said with a grin. “Our platoon took over a big hotel and raided the wine cellar. By the time we had to move out, we were all drunk. Then we went downtown and began taking over the office buildings. Some of the guys started tossing typewriters out the windows and then we threw chairs and even desks from the top floors. Everyone was laughing and it was like a big party. Finally, a few guys passed out and we just stayed there all night.”
    Pa looked up and started again. “I heard from Sid Klein, who lives down the street, and lost a leg in the war, that the Nazis were bayoneting Americans in the Battle of the Bulge.”
    Frank looked away and didn’t answer. A smile broke out though, when he mentioned some of the places he had been; like the famous bridge in Remagen that the Germans did not destroy when they retreated. “It saved a lot of lives and shortened the war because we got so many troops and tanks across it before it finally collapsed.”
    “What about the synagogues and the Jews in Germany? Are there any left?” Ma asked in a soft voice.
    “Ma, I can’t talk about it now, but it was worse than anyone can imagine. All I can say,” he started and then stopped. Looking down, he shook his head, twitching a shoulder. Frank the older brother and boy just two years before, was now a man. His lean face with those very blue eyes, which suddenly narrowed as his brow creased said in a somber voice, “After the war, we had to help set up the displaced people’s camps where they brought survivors from the concentration camps. The people were more dead than alive. I saw young men and women from cities all over Europe who weighed less than eighty pounds. They were filthy, and sick; and many of them couldn’t walk, they