Together in Another Place Read Free

and he had been spared that lot. A concert, a bunter abend , served as a welcome
distraction for those who could gain entry to the hall and he had made it his
business to be there.
    He
remained uncertain how his attraction to Harriette could be resolved; he knew
only that he should live for every moment that the beautiful young woman was in
his presence. He felt unashamedly possessive about her and everything that she
aroused within him.
    Such
intensity, an emotional turmoil, had not been experienced before. He chose not
to dwell for too long on the thought that their present circumstances
heightened his senses.
    His
only wish was to see her, to watch Harriette dance and, most pleasurably of
all, to hear her sing. Then he would be taken to another place, seduced into
believing that the camp was but a temporary and horrific aberration. Normality might
yet be re-discovered in a labour camp or factory, that servitude would be his
fate; he would be taken to a place where he could put his skills to use. He was
a jeweller, a craftsman, but any manual skills devoted to prosaic endeavours would
serve until a heinous war beyond the fence had been settled. Dismantling parts
recovered from shot down aircraft was deviant behaviour for a man with his
skills.
    How
else could he, and countless others, make sense of what was being done to them?
Rumours abounded but they were incredible to believe. The shop, the café and
work inside the camp, and outside under close supervision, confounded the
pessimists. The camp even had its own currency although he knew others profited
from the exchange of money brought in from the ‘real world’ outside.
    Hearing
the lovely voice of the young woman he had so recently met would calm any
observer’s tormented soul. He knew the debilitating fear of the unknown and
that a resolute mind could still so easily succumb to. So much happened all
around him to shake one’s defences; the punishment regimes for some, for others
the loss of loved ones and friends on the weekly transports out of the camp,
and for many the loss of life through illness and lack of food.
    It
hadn’t been like this for him only a few weeks ago; he had lived beyond the
wire but within the confines of the ghetto. The boundaries to the world were
being drawn in, both physically and emotionally. He was quite alone as he
sought to be reconciled with the changes in his short life.
    How
he wished that his own family was close by; how comforting it would have been
to know, like Harriette, that they would be together, one and all, until a
judgement day of some kind and of man’s devising. He believed in only one; that
determined by Jehovah and a faith that he clung to. The man he was, and his
belief, had determined that he be taken to this place; the sight and touch of Harriette
would sustain him during the days of waiting until names were called out again
in a week’s time; then the tumult of uncertainty would begin once more in those
that remained behind.
    These
were thoughts that could have overwhelmed him; instead, he felt uplifted as the
small orchestra in the pit before the stage began to play. He found himself
humming along somewhat tunelessly, but he was diverted, and tapped his feet.
    ‘Not
too loud,’ a well-dressed man advised him, not unkindly.
    The
curtain drew back to reveal an elaborate backdrop for a dance troupe. They were
dressed in very short skirts and matelot tops and began a high-kicking routine
that soon had onlookers clapping along.
    ‘There
are some who frown on what goes on in this place…’ Simon was now told and he
heard a hollow but appreciative laugh as they watched with rapt attention a
routine that would have been unremarkable in any other venue.
    ‘I
prefer it to the alternative…and so should they,’ Simon answered, somewhat
haughtily.
    ‘That’s
what I think,’ was the man’s reply. His eyes hadn’t left the scene being acted
out before them.
    ‘Are
you…alone, here, like me?’
    The
man