The MUSN'T BE SUNG song
Yes, Rachel was tossed from the birthday party. Not awfully shocking. After all, she began singing the Mustn’t Be Sung song. I’m serious. What is wrong with her?
She won’t be able to go anywhere after this. Not anytime soon.
Who doesn’t remember the incident? (I mean, of course, the first incident?)
Let’s not go into that and spoil our day.
Gretchen Reinhardt's birthday party was a tremendous success. (Except for Rachel).
The garden behind her house is the envy of the neighborhood mothers. All children love that hedgerow Maze. Reinhardt parties are the best attended and they find so many silly excuses for throwing them, too.
Naturally, there’s gossip.
The Reinhardt family gets way too much attention. In my humble opinion.
That Maze--nobody else has anything to compete.
The Goldman’s have a terrific pool and trampoline. Who cares anymore?
Kurt and Hannah’s backyard badminton tourney was a flop, too.
No, there’s only the Maze as far as school kids and parties and having a good time.
If you’re throwing a party--guess what? So are the Reinhardt's and suddenly nobody comes to your party.
Coincidence?
Mama says, “No way!”
I overhead Mrs. Schultz telling my mom the other day that the Maze cost the Reinhardt's a quarter of a million!
Insane? “Immoral” is a better word for it.
There are plenty of hungry people in the world.
And charities go begging. I’m just saying…
After the funeral last year, after the Silverman’s moved away and Rolf was arrested for singing that damn song--- it was the Reinhardt's Maze that took everybody’s mind off the incident.
The first incident.
So, there’s that.
No, the second incident should have been more than enough warning.
(What in God’s name is wrong with Rachel?)
I cried my eyes out. She’s my very best friend.
That damn song!
Mama told me how lucky I am I hadn’t heard it.
She frightened me--the way she said it--her eyes were all red and she was shaking.
I felt like throwing up I was so scared.
How is singing a song a bad thing?
The thing is--once you hear it you can’t stop thinking about it. No matter what you do--it comes back and you start trying to get rid of it--like hiccups. You try all the usual remedies. They don’t work.
Mama said:
“If you have a contagious disease you wouldn’t go to a party, would you? You wouldn’t want your friends to get sick--and die--would you?”
I tell you what--mom screaming those questions at me has given me the bad dreams. (Naked people screaming and dying.)
I talked to Anna last night on the phone. She’s having the same kind of dreams.
Isn’t it weird?
But then--there’s the Maze. It solves everything.
It’s like having a cure for hiccups!
What would I do? I know why you’re asking.
I mean--IF I accidentally heard it. That song.
I guess I’m scared because parents tell you things that aren’t true...sometimes.
When Mia, our cat, stays out too long Mama shakes a box of kitty treats to lure Mia back inside. Except when she runs out of kitty treats--She shakes a box of anything else.
Poor hungry Mia is tricked. She trusts Mama.
She just comes running in expecting to be fed. Nope--gotcha dumb beast!
A lie is a lie.
I’m no angel. I lie sometimes.
I’m not evil. I’m scared.
I wouldn’t dare lie to Mama about most things.
But this is different.
How can I possibly explain why Rachel taught me the song?
She’d fall apart if she knew I climb into my closet and cover my head with pillows and sing:
"Never Say That You Have Reached the Final Road."
Rachel never lied to me. Mama has--but never Rachel.
Rachel whispered to me that the man who built the Reinhardt's Maze is an evil man.
He was heard saying he’s building showers--strange showers, for our Leader.
He was laughing when he said it.
“Die Juden gehen rein, aber es ist Deutschland, das gereinigt wird.”
"The Jews go in to shower, but it is Germany which is cleansed."
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This song, by the Vilna poet and underground fighter Hirsh Glik, later became the general anthem of the Jewish partisans."