Livi doesn’t say a word because she knows Ziggy is gathering his strength to tell her the worst part of his story, just as she had stumbled over hers.
‘She was taken to Auschwitz and she never left.’
‘Oh, Ziggy, I am so, so sorry.’ Tears are flowing down Livi’s face.
‘Anyway, I was moved between camps in Freiburg and Waldenburg where they set me to work making optics for German submarines, then to Gross-Rosen and finally Reichenbach.’
‘You did get around,’ Livi says, with a small smile.
‘That’s one way of looking at it. I was liberated at Reichenbach and taken back to Prague, but eventually I headed home to Moravia.’ Ziggy takes a drink from the long glass of cold coffee which the waitress has just placed in front of him. ‘Home, ha!’ Ziggy snorts. ‘There were Germans living in our house, so I kicked them out and—’
‘Wait,’ Livi interrupts. ‘You kicked them out?’
‘Of course. They had taken our lives, Livi, they weren’t having my house too.’ Ziggy’s eyes flash and Livi has no trouble imagining this strong, handsome man chasing those Germans out of his home and down the street.
‘Go on,’ says Livi, sipping her coffee, wishing Ziggy had been around to dispatch her own intruders in Vranov.
‘Well, I moved back in and then, one day, a knock on the door and it’s my father standing there. Can you believe it? He and my two brothers had been taken to ?ód? in Poland and when the Russians came through, they ran away and joined the Czech Legion. My brothers were still in Prague, but eventually we were reunited.’
‘Ziggy, thank you for telling me your story.’
Ziggy sighs, closes his eyes and shakes his head slowly. ‘I had a relatively easy time during the war, Livi – weren’t you listening? I didn’t suffer like you or your sisters. I don’t even have a number on my arm.’
‘A number on your—？ Ziggy, what are you talking about? It isn’t a competition. It’s a terrible story, all our stories are equally awful.’
‘I’m just saying, your suffering was worse, much worse than mine. I can still see it in your eyes, Livi .?.?. whenever you think no one is watching, you disappear.’
‘And so do you!’ Livi snaps. ‘We all do. Now please, Ziggy, you have your father still, your brothers. I have my sisters. Let’s just take our good luck and appreciate it. Do you think it matters whether you had more soup than me? Or that you had two blankets instead of one? We were prisoners, they took us from our homes for no reason and killed our families.’
Ziggy sets down his cup and takes Livi’s hand. ‘I live with my father in Rishon, Livi. I would very much like you to meet him.’
Livi is surprised. She has been with Ziggy for months, but he never once mentioned his father. But at the same time she also knows there is nothing sinister about Ziggy; that this part of his life is so closely entwined with the tragedy of his past, to talk about one he would have had to discuss the other, and, until today, he just wasn’t ready.
‘I would like to meet him,’ says Livi, trying to control the tension in her voice. She too is ready is move on from their stories for the moment.
‘Good, because he is dying to put a face to the beautiful girl I have been telling him about.’ Ziggy opens his mouth to say more, but closes it, peering at Livi intently.
‘Have I got something on my chin?’ she asks.
‘It’s just that odd feeling that I’ve seen you somewhere before, Livi. It’s driving me crazy.’
‘Well, I guess we might have been on the same ship, and we might have just caught each other’s eye at some point.’ Livi is grinning, relieved that Ziggy is not dwelling on the past, that they can now move on and .?.?. something snags at the back of her mind and now she is staring at Ziggy just as intently.
A group of show-offs surrounded by adoring girls.
‘You’re a Peacock Boy!’ she whispers, delighted.
‘I’m a what?’ Ziggy looks appalled.
Livi remembers the young man, standing alone while his ‘fly boy’ peers basked in the golden attention of pretty girls.
‘That’s what Magda called you. Not just you – the group you were with on the boat. The pilots, technicians. Fly boys.’
Ziggy is quiet, and then his face breaks into a huge grin. ‘Of course! You’re the girl who always looked so serious. You didn’t give any of us a second glance.’
‘That’s not true, Ziggy. I gave you two, at least.’ Livi is blushing.