Chapter 8
We left the offices of Hoffman, Phillips, Browning and Dunne, and headed South down Main Street. I drove carefully out to the eastern edge of the city. As I drove Beth asked "Where are we going Alex?"
I replied "It's a secret."
I put a finger to my lips as if I would shush her. Beth was impatient but willing to go along with me for a little while at least. After nearly twenty minutes (I hate Friday rush hour traffic!) we pulled up in front of what looked like a warehouse.
I got out and came around the car to open Beth's door. It showed how well she knew me that she waited for me to get the door for her. My Grams had taught me to always treat a lady LIKE a lady and to always BE a gentleman, not PLAY the gentleman. There is a big difference, trust me. Beth was a great lady in my eyes and more importantly she was MY lady. I wanted her to know that.
We walked up to the entrance of the "warehouse" and after entering the door found ourselves in a very small room facing another door; Beth had to stand so close to me she was pressed tightly to my back and I could feel her breasts pressing into it. The feel of her against me caused a very prominent response in my trousers. This new door was an armored door and had no handle. A video camera was mounted to the right of it on the wall. A button set below the camera was marked "RING BELL FOR ADMITTANCE".
I pressed the button and, after a moment, heard a thin voice come from the speaker, "Ah Alex! Good to see you, come in my boy, come in!" A buzzer sounded and a loud solid clank came from the heavy door and then it trundled open silently on pneumatic rollers. Beth looked at me for a moment and took my hand. I led her into the room.
The room was large perhaps one hundred sixty feet across and nearly as long. The floor of the room was dotted with many long workbenches. All but one of which had a cloth draped over it to hide what was on it. There was a man wearing a yamika at the bench on the far right.
Hiram Meyer was a small frail looking, exuberant little man. His yamika was of a pristine white satin and he wore small round glasses with multiple magnifying lenses attached. He was working on a very delicate looking necklace of intertwined gold and silver chains and muttering to himself in Yiddish. While his accent marked him as coming from somewhere in Eastern Europe his English was flawless. Glancing to his left he said, "I'll be with you in a moment Alex." I looked at Beth and we waited in silence.
Suddenly the small tight knot in the chains he was holding came free and he exclaimed "Ah, now that is more like it. If that meshuga old bat will be more careful this would not happen every two weeks…" Hiram looked up and for the first time noticed Beth. His face clouded with awe as he spoke in a near whisper "Mein Gott! Ein Engel hat kommen für mich!"
I had to laugh as I answered in all seriousness "Kein mein Freund, sie ist mein Engel, kommen von Himmel, mich zu sparen!" Hiram jolted as if I had shocked him and said.
"Your pardon please, I did not realize I was speaking aloud."
Beth was looking annoyed and said with a sweet smile that promised havoc if we did not comply, "Somebody had better start translating before I get mad!"
I smiled and Hiram looked embarrassed. I said "Hiram said "My God! An Angel has come for me!" and I said "No my friend, she is MY angel, come from heaven, to save me!" Beth had the good grace to blush.
I began the introductions, "Beth I'd like you to meet the finest jeweler in the western hemisphere, Hiram Meyer. Hiram I'd like you to meet Beth Taylor, my girlfriend." Beth reached to shake his hand and then froze as the word "girlfriend" passed my lips. Hiram had also been reaching to take her hand and froze.
Today seemed to be my day to shock people and I was finding that I liked it. I smiled at him. He turned to me and said in a loud sputtering voice "Girlfriend… but… Lisa…" He put a hand on his chest to calm himself and said in his most serious tone "Perhaps you would care to explain this turn of events?" I laughed and put my arm around Beth.
He waved us over to a workbench that had three stools at it and we all sat down. I told him the story, all of it, and explained about Beth. The anger in his eyes at hearing of Lisa's treachery was enormous.
"Weibchen! Dirne! A worthy student of Hitler!" he began cursing in Yiddish, German, and, I think Italian.
Beth looked at me for translation again, "He said "Bitch!" Then "Whore" and then switched to Yiddish, a language I don't speak. I think to spare my feelings." I turned to Hiram "Calm down Hiram. I don't like what she did but I can't change it. Are the birthday gifts for the twins ready to be sent?" The change of subject seemed to snap him out of his rant. He stopped, calmed himself, nodded and stood up.
He went over to a cabinet and brought out a pair of jewelry boxes "They are right here. We finished them this afternoon." He handed me the boxes and I opened them. Inside the boxes lay matching link bracelets of platinum. One with a capitol S the other an L in an old world Calligraphic script. The links of the bracelet looked like flowing Celtic knot work vines. The letters were inset with brilliant sapphires tracing the shape of the letters.
Their mother had filed for divorce in the week following Christmas and before New Years. Their birthday was the twentieth of September. Today was the ninth. Eleven days more and I would have been happy to give them these gifts as my daughters. Now I didn't know how to sign the cards. I wasn't their father and they didn't want me to be, or so it seemed. A wave of melancholy emotions swamped me and I closed my eyes. Without turning I handed the boxes to Beth for her to look at.
