A Dash of Aryan

Richard Karpowitz winced as his phone rang. He was sure it was his mother, calling to ensure he would join her and dad in the synagogue for Shavuot. He loved his mother, but he really wasn’t comfortable with religion. Richard wasn’t a atheist, but thought that maybe the day could be spent on making a little more money than reading from the Torah. But try telling that to his granddad who had survived the holocaust. Even though he was 95 and frail, he held on to the Jewish traditions like a beaver to his log, unable to let go, and sinking into them more and more.
Ric, as he liked to call himself was the X generation. He was born in America, loved the culture here and was sure that whatever happened he would be ok, after all he was in the country with a first amendment to free speech. He had somehow worked his way through his masters in Yale Grad and was now working as a founding partner in a Startup in Portland. Life was good. He did do his part to the community by driving a Prius, sending a 100$ to the food harvest fund and running a 5mile marathon for breast cancer(mainly because he was trying to please a girl from his yoga class). He never did understand his parents nature to talk about the good old times in Poland. What could be better than America in 2008 he wondered.

Ric had to meet an venture capitalist in Idaho . He never had visited the state and never wanted to till his 18th year. That was when he met Alan Hunter, his roommate and pal for life. Alan was from Idaho, but you could never guess it from all the crazy situations he had managed to get them in and out of. They had bunked innumerable classes together to get into so many run ins with campus security that Jack Chapman, the dean had their parents number on his speed dial. But the funny thing was Ric had never met Al’s parents. Al had always managed to soothe Jack by just talking to him .That was Al’s magic, his gift of the gab. He seemed to convince teachers that upgrading their grades from a D to a B- was in the students benefits, sorority girls that dating either him or Ric was a good social cause and the best one of all, convincing Jack Chapman to actually give them their degree, inspite of lacking 95% attendance. But what shocked Ric the most was that Alan decided to go back to Idaho to manage his fathers business, then take up his choice of a job in the advertising market.Ric hadn’t seen him in 5 years, but they stayed in touch through mails and an occasional phonecall.
After a successful meeting, Ric decided to call Al when his gaze wandered to the date. It was Al’s birthday today .He put Al’s number into his I-phone and it took approximately 5 seconds to return his address. He wanted to surprise Al and maybe finally he would meet his parents. After driving for about 2 hours, Ric finally arrived into a small town.He couldn’t believe that Al had settled down here. It looked like it didn’t have a Starbucks or even a multiplex. Shaking his head, he wondered if this would be a good time to ask his old pal to join him in the business. He slowly drove his car into a pathway which seemed to go up a hill. A couple of cars followed his, no wonder for Al’s party. He wished he had brought a better gift; he had picked up a shirt from a local mall. Now, he prayed that Al was the same size that he was 5 years back.

As Ric stepped from his car, he looked around to see people in different attires. Must be a costume party , he thought. Funny, though most of men seemed to be dressed in the shorts and the ladies in Heidi dresses. As he rang moved through the throng, into an open doorway, trying to catch a glimpse of Al, he stopped in his tracks. There were a dozen men in Nazi regalia. Though it was probably a costume party, Ric thought it was in very bad taste. His grandfathers’ stories of the death camps and shooting squads sprang on him like never before. Trying to spot Al’s golden head through the crowd, all Ric could think about was getting out of there as quick as possible. Snatches of conversation kept hitting him. ‘Superior’, ‘Pure blooded’, ‘Segregation’ and ‘Aryan nation’. As his brain tried to assimilate what was going on, he saw Al on a podium smiling, and wearing another Nazi uniform. As he internally retched, old senior lady stopped him and smiled. “Are you here for the first time” she asked. As he dumbly nodded, she said “its nice to have new blood. We need young people to stop the Jews and Colored folk from contaminating our pure Aryan blood. I am sure your blood oath will not be wasted today”. As she was talking Ric, couldn’t believe the filth that was permeating in the minds around him. He was shocked and appalled, that such violence and hate still resided in this decade. He thought the villains in the world were long bearded men hiding in caves in Afghanistan, but how could you fight little old ladies. As the buzzing around him grew louder, he suddenly felt Al’s eyes on him. He knew he would be dead in less than 5 minutes. Al had only to let this group know he was a Jew. If an old lady hated Jews so much, how much would that ugly bald guy in the corner with a swastika on his arm hate him?

As Al moved towards him, he stayed rooted not able to move. He somehow had an inkling of his grandfathers fear but greater courage at that moment. Remembering words from the Torah to give him strength, he stared Al in the eyes, almost defying him. Al face didn’t change to much , He smiled a bit and shook Ric’s hand . “Happy Birthday”, was the only thing that Ric managed to say,while he dumped the shirt in Al's hand .Al turned to the old lady and said “Grom, this is my old roommate -Richard Braun”. As Ric , blinked he knew Al was protecting him again, as he did all those times in school. As the same introduction flew between the other members Al simply mentioned that Ric’s grandpa was in Poland in WWII. Al let everyone think that Ric was the grandson of a Nazi soldier. As the pats and smiles came his way, all Ric wanted to do was throw up. Al, making conversations on the way quietly led him back to his car.
Ric jumped in and scanned Al’s face , his mind was still trying to understand the monster behind the friends face. Al looked at him and shrugged. “We all have to live with legacies” he said. “Yours in surviving the holocaust and mine is being the cause. Do you know Ric, I was named after my great grand uncle ,but changed my name.But I couldn’t change my family. So I live with them and bear this craziness, to contain them in this little neck of the woods. If this is unleashed, then we will be staring at another killing zone”. As Al closed the car door and started moving away, Ric asked what was you uncle called ? Al just turned back and said “ Adolf Hitler”

As Ric drove away, he said a little prayer and picked up the phone to ring his mother. He would be there for Shavuot and every occasion after that.