Margot: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

and in and out, until I hear the conversation turn, and Peggy 03
and Shelby start bickering over which sandwich to share for 04
dinner. 05
“Fine,” Shelby is saying now. “If you don’t want hot turkey 06
then Margie will split with me instead, won’t you, Margie?” I 07
look up and nod slowly, carefully. 08
Peggy rolls her eyes again. “Everything is always so diffi 09
cult with you, Shel.” But she says it lightly and with a smile, 10
so I know she is teasing. 11
Shelby elbows her sister and laughs. The sound of it now, 12
once again, falling over me like a stream. 13
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04 Chapter Five
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14 Back in my apartment, later that evening, I lie on the 15 blue couch with Katze and think about what Shelby said. The 16 way he held on to Anne at the very end, kissed her . . . 17 That is ridiculous, not at all what happened. Not even close. 18 I stare at the phone. I have not called to look for him, in so 19 long. But now I wonder again, for maybe the millionth time: 20 what is true and what is not? If the movie is filled with such 21 outrageous stories like the one Shelby spoke of, well . . . 22 I kept a diary before my sister even started hers, before the 23 annex even. In 1941, I wrote about a boy named Johann, who 24 had straw-colored hair and pale blue eyes and who lived 25 around the block from us on the Merwedeplein. I wanted him 26 to notice me so badly it made my stomach hurt. 27 Once, before the annex, my sister had picked the diary up 28S off my dressing stand and read it without asking me. 29N “Who’s Johann?” she asked me.
“That’s private,” I told her. 01
“You tell Maria, but you won’t tell me.” She put her hands 02
on her hips, honestly offended, as if Maria were a real person 03
whom I loved more than I loved her. Maria was just the name 04
I called my diary, only further evidence of her snooping. 05
“Johann is not a real person. He’s just a character,” I lied. 06
“Oh.” Her eyes lit up then. “You’re telling stories.” 07
I remind myself of this moment so often, every time I look 08
through the book. Every time I read the words she has written 09
about Peter. And again now, having heard Shelby’s descrip 10
tion of the movie. 11
You’re telling stories. 12
Now I stand up and reach for the phone on my kitchen 13
counter; I pull the dial to 0 again, and this time, I quickly let 14
it go before I lose my nerve 15
“Operator,” the woman’s voice says. 16
“I need the address and number for a Peter Pelt, Philadel 17
phia,” I tell her. The words shake in my throat. Peter Pelt. 18
That was the name he told me he would go by, in Philadel 19
phia. I will no longer be a Jew, he’d whispered to me as we 20
were lying on the divan in his room, more than once. I will 21
leave everything behind. Hiding who you are, it’ll be so much 22
easier than hiding where you are. He would be Peter Pelt, and 23
I would be Margie Franklin. We would come to Philadelphia, 24
and we would be Gentiles together, safe together. 25
“Just a moment,” the operator says now. 26
I hold my breath and close my eyes. According to the Red 27
Cross, Peter died in 1945, after a death march to Mauthausen. S28
But also, my sister and I both died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen. N29
01 “Miss.” The operator comes back, and I am waiting for her 02 to say it again: that he doesn’t exist. Peter van Pels died, near 03 Mauthausen, fifteen years ago, almost . “Here you go,” she says 04 instead. “I’ve got a P. Pelt, at 2217 Olney Avenue, Apartment 05 4A . . .” She is still talking, but my ears buzz so loud, I almost 06 cannot understand what she is saying.
07 I have not called to ask for him for so long. How long has 08 this listing been there? Peter died, near Mauthausen. 09 After the war, we will go to Philadelphia, he told me, so 10 many times. We will find each other in the City of