Vienna Secrets

76

Rabbi Seligman shook his head. “Leave us? Why must you leave us?”

Kusiel shifted uncomfortably. “My sister’s ill.”

“I didn’t even know you had a sister.”

“Yes, a sister and two brothers.”

“Why can’t you go back home, attend to her, do whatever’s necessary, and then come back? I’m sure we could find someone to help maintain the synagogue in your absence.”

“Thank you, Rabbi. That’s very kind of you. But she’s very ill.”

“Couldn’t your brothers look after her?”

“They’ve moved away. She’s on her own.”

“In which case, why don’t you bring her back here? We could look after her. My wife would be only too pleased to-”

“She wouldn’t want to come. She’s like that, stuck in her ways.”

The rabbi shook his head. “But how will you survive?”

“I’ve saved a little. And I’ll get a job.”

“In rural Galicia? At your age?”

Kusiel replied with a shrug as if to say, Maybe. Why not?

The rabbi looked at the caretaker anxiously. “How much have you saved?”

“Enough.”

“Are you sure? Look…” The rabbi squeezed his shoulder. “If you need more…”

“No,” said Kusiel sharply. “I couldn’t.”

“All right,” Seligman continued. “But if you find yourself in difficulties?”

“I’ll write,” said Kusiel.

“You promise?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll sleep more soundly knowing that.”

The old man smiled sheepishly and lowered his gaze. There was something about his inability to hold Seligman’s look that made the gentle rabbi uncharacteristically suspicious.

“Kusiel,” he said, hesitantly, “you’re not leaving Alois Gasse because of that… business in the attic room?”

The caretaker sighed. “No, of course not.”

The rabbi nodded. “We’ll miss you.”

At midnight Kusiel was leaning over a bridge, looking into the murk of the Danube Canal. He found the old key in his pocket and dropped it into the water. It didn’t make a sound, and he did not see it disappear. When he put his hand back into his pocket, he closed his fingers around a roll of banknotes. It was more money than he had ever before seen in his life.