Page 89 of The Little Liar
“It’s not necessary,” he said.
Part VI
The Start of the Finish
As the actress Katalin Karády said, there is a price for everything that happens in your life. We will now witness the price our four characters paid—for the truths they told, and the lies they endured. Their final bills came due on the same day, in the same place where our story began.
What brought them all together was an article that ran in Salonika’s largest newspaper, theMakedonia, in early 1983:
EVENT TO MARK GREEK JEWISH VICTIMS OF WAR
SET FOR MARCH 15
It was announced today that a special commemoration march will take place on Tuesday, March 15, beginning at Liberty Square at 2:00P.M.and continuing on to the old train station. The ceremony will mark the 40th anniversary of the first train to travel from Salonika to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz. The mayor of Salonika and other dignitaries are expected to attend.
Under other circumstances, this would simply be a calendar note, one of countless events held around the world to mark a war that was fading from memory.
But in our story, it was a siren song.
The Greek march was Sebastian’s idea.
He had been pushing it for years. Working with the Nazi Hunter, Sebastian had continuously lamented the lack of attention given to the Greek victims of the Wolf’s war. While stories from Poland and Germany were commonplace—books written, movies made—many people seemed unaware that the Nazis had even invaded Greece, or that Salonika, once home to more than fifty thousand Jews, had seen less than two thousand survive.
The Hunter had spoken with members of the Greek government, pressuring them to acknowledge the horrors in their history, many of which were made worse by the complicity of certain Greek officials.
But nations are slow to address their pasts. Finally, promising to attend the event himself, the Hunter was able to convince the authorities to permit a march from the center of Salonika to the old train station, where so many Greek families saw their bonds forever severed.
And where Sebastian last saw his brother.
***
By this point, you might wonder why Nico still haunted his elder sibling. After all, decades had passed since they’d seenone another. Sebastian was in his midfifties, a grandfather, living in Vienna. And if we’re being candid (and what choice do I have?) Sebastian now wore the crown of honesty that Nico once commandeered. His fierce devotion to pursuing the truth filled his days and nights.
But time does not heal all wounds. Some it only rubs deeper. Sebastian had always envied Nico, even as a child. The way he looked. The way he entertained the family. The way Lazarre seemed to favor him.“Such a beautiful boy.”
Envy between brothers is commonplace; one often feels the other gets all the love. But what truly roiled Sebastian was that when Nico was finally exposed, that love did not die.
Instead, in the crowded train car to Auschwitz, with no food, no water, the air choking with death, Sebastian’s mother and father continued to cry for their lost son.
“What will happen to him?” Tanna wailed.
What will happen to him?Sebastian thought.What about what’s happening to us?
“He’ll find a way,” Lev encouraged. “He’s a clever boy.”
Clever? He’s a liar! A little liar!
Even Nico’s baby sisters were weeping for their brother. Only Fannie, or the idea of Fannie, gave Sebastian comfort. Wherever they were being taken, she would be going, too, and he could try to console her. He could be important to her, the way Nico was seemingly so important to everyone else.
And then the large man pulled that grate off the window, and in an instant, Sebastian made a choice that would break his heart for years. He pushed away the only person who gave him hope. He did it because he loved her.
And years later, she would push him away because she didn’t.
***
Sebastian had not spoken to his ex-wife for a while. She seemed so distant the last few phone calls that he no longer wanted to put himself through the pain. She was in California. He was in Austria. That was that.
He often wondered if she’d found someone new to love. Sebastian had not. Although there were women he found attractive, and several who seemed interested in him, he always defaulted to his work. Nothing felt as compelling as pursuing his tormentors. I suppose it should not surprise us that a boy who felt slighted grew into a man seeking justice.
