Page 10 of The Little Liar
One Sunday, in the fall of 1942, Lazarre takes Nico, Fannie, and Sebastian to where his parents are buried, just outside the city gates in the eastern section of Salonika. It is, at the time, the largest Jewish cemetery in the world, and some of the graves go back hundreds of years.
“Nano,” Nico asks as they climb a hill, “who is the oldest person buried here?”
“Not anyone I knew,” Lazarre says.
“There are graves here from the 1600s,” Sebastian says.
“Really?” Fannie says.
“It’s true, I read it,” Sebastian says.
“I don’t want to be buried anywhere,” Nico says.
“We could throw you in the ocean,” Sebastian says.
“That’s not nice,” Fannie says.
Nico smiles at her.
“I was just joking,” Sebastian says. He feels himself go hot with a blush.
They move through the brick and stone markers, which are large and closely placed and cover the ground as far as they can see. Finally, they find the graves of Lazarre’s parents. Lazarretakes a deep breath and closes his eyes. He bends slightly and begins to pray, stroking his beard and muttering the Hebrew to himself.
Nico watches. Then he, too, closes his eyes and sways back and forth.
“He doesn’t even know the words,” Sebastian whispers to Fannie.
“Then why is he doing it?”
“I don’t know. He’s like that.”
When he finishes, Lazarre gets down on his knees and removes a rag from his pocket. He has a small canteen of water, and he wets the rag and begins wiping the tombstone.
“Nano, why are you doing that?” Nico asks.
“Out of respect for your great-grandfather and great-grandmother.”
“Can I help?”
Lazarre rips off a piece of the rag. Nico takes it and squats before the stone. Fannie squats next to him and Sebastian does, too. Soon all four are wiping dirt from the markers.
“This,” Lazarre says, softly, “is what we callchesed shel emet. A true and loving kindness. You know what a true and loving kindness is? Eh? Children? Look at me.”
They stop their wiping.
“When you do something for someone that can never be repaid. Like cleaning the graves of the dead. That is a true and loving kindness.”
He lowers his voice. “It’s easy to be nice when you get something in return. It’s harder when nobody knows the good you are doing except yourself.”
The children resume their wiping. When they’ve cleaned the two graves, Nico gets up and walks to another.
“Come on,” he says, looking back.
“Where?” Sebastian says.
“We should do theirs, too.”
Sebastian rises. Fannie rises, too. Soon the three of them are dipping rags in the water and wiping the facades of strangers’ tombstones, one after another. Lazarre closes his eyes and mumbles a prayer of thanks.
