Page 206 - LEIBY

206 Leiby – Border Smuggler

unforgivable carelessness! They had been warned time and time
again to never ever leave any evidence of their border smuggling
anywhere. It was imperative that the mass emigration from
Poland appear to be spontaneous, a group of individuals who
had just happened to arrive at the border together, and not a
carefully planned operation.

“Oh, Alexander, you have to be more responsible.” In his mind’s
eye Leiby saw himself reprimanding the breichnik when he’d
meet up with him next. “I could just as well have been a secret
agent of the O.B. or a member of the A.K. I could also have
been an armed bandit. Why aren’t you more careful?”

Another photograph with Polish scribbled on it was also lying
on the table in full view. Leiby picked it up and examined it
curiously, trying to see if any of the faces on it seemed familiar.
The men that stared out at him looked young and hardy.
“Asians,” Leiby surmised. “They must have come here from the
kolkhoz that they were sent to during the war. They obviously
spent a good few years there in backbreaking labor and that’s
how they became so strong and muscular looking.” The men
in the picture stood in a long line at the entrance to the farm,
knapsacks in hand, and seemed ready to be on their way. Leiby
spotted Alexander in the photograph too, standing at the end
of the line, smiling broadly. Unlike the other men, his hands
were empty and folded in front of him. His brown knapsack
and the briefcase that he always carried with him were nowhere
in sight, leading Leiby to assume that he had left the office for
just a short time, presumably to accompany the group, and had
intended to return a short while later.

At the very corner of the picture stood a young girl, next to a
blurred figure. Leiby’s eyes opened wide in astonishment and he
whispered to himself disbelievingly. “Mirushka… it’s Miriam.”

The little girl with the cropped hair and round face that looked
up at him from the photograph was undoubtedly Miriam,
Yosef ’s missing sister. And the picture had been taken just a
few hours earlier, Leiby was positive.