des Prés. It had been raining on and off all day, and now the rain had started to turn into a
cold, driving sleet. As her taxi pulled up in front of Les Deux Magots and Noelle stepped
out into the biting cold, a man in a raincoat and wide-brimmed hat appeared at her side out
of nowhere. It took Noelle a moment to recognize him. Like his aunt, he looked older, but
the change went deeper than that. There was an authority, a strength that had not been
there before. Israel Katz was thinner than when she had last seen him, and his eyes were
hollowed, as though he had not slept in days. Noelle noticed that he was not wearing the
yellow six-pointed Jewish star.
“Let’s get out of the rain,” Israel Katz said.
He took Noelle’s arm and led her inside. There were half a dozen customers in the
café, all French. Israel led Noelle to a table in a back corner.
“Would you like something to drink?” he asked.
“No, thank you.”
He took off his rain-soaked hat, and Noelle studied his face. She knew instantly that
he had not called her here to ask for money. He was watching her.
“You’re still beautiful, Noelle,” he said quietly. “I’ve seen all of your movies and
plays. You’re a great actress.”
“Why didn’t you ever come backstage?”
Israel hesitated, then grinned shyly. “I didn’t want to embarrass you.”
Noelle stared at him a moment before she realized what he meant. To her, “Juden”
was just a word that appeared in newspapers from time to time, and it meant nothing in
her life; but what must it be like to live that word, to be a Jew in a country sworn to wipe
you out, exterminate you, particularly when it was your own motherland.
“I choose my own friends,” Noelle replied. “No one tells me whom to see.”
Israel smiled wryly. “Don’t waste your courage,” he advised. “Use it where it can
help.”
“Tell me about you,” she said.
He shrugged. “I live a very unglamorous life. I became a surgeon. I studied under Dr.
Angibouste. Have you heard of him?”
“No.”
“He’s a great heart surgeon. He made me his protégé. Then the Nazis took away my
license to practice medicine.” He held up his beautifully sculptured hands and examined
them as though they belonged to someone else. “So I became a carpenter.”
She looked at him for a long moment. “Is that all?” she asked.
Israel studied her in surprise. “Of course,” he said. “Why?”
Noelle dismissed the thought at the back of her mind.