CHAPTER 1
I n the gray, bombed-out city of Vienna, Austria, an American ventriloquist opened the closet door of his hotel. Still in his tuxedo and overcoat, The Great Freddie intended to put away the battered suitcase in which he carried his silent wooden dummy. But there on the floor sat a gaunt man with arms folded across his knees, waiting. After a second glance,The Great Freddie realized it was a child, a long-legged child with the hungry look of a street kid. In the deep shadows the intruder glowed faintly, as if sprayed with moonlight.
âWell, well, howdy,â said the ventriloquist, startled. âWaiting for a bus?â
âWaiting for you, Mr. Yankee Doodle, sir.â
The entertainer, thin as a cornstalk from his native Nebraska, grinned and shucked his overcoat. Someoneâs idea of a prank, was this? âIf youâre under the notion that all Yanks are millionaires and an easy touch, you may go through my pockets. Iâm just about broke. Tapped out. Down to bedrock.â
â Feh! Who needs your money?â asked the intruder. âI once saved your life.â
âYou donât say.â
âWould I lie to you?â
âYouâre a mouthy kid,â the lanky American remarked. âIâve never laid eyes on you.â
âWant to bet, Sergeant?â
Sergeant? The Great Freddieâs cat-green eyes narrowed as he peered into the closet. Confound this pest. How had he known that Freddie T. Birch, second-rate ventriloquist, had been in uniform? The big war in Europe had ended three years before. It was now 1948. Freddieâs army haircut had long ago grown out. Now in his early twenties, he parted his hair in the middle and slicked it back, shiny as glass. What had tipped off this kid?
âLucky guess,â the entertainer saidfinally. What was it with the boyâs eyes? They were unnaturally bright, as if lit from within. âWho are you, a kid actor from one of the theaters? I know makeup when I see it. Youâre painted up white as Caesarâs ghost.â
âI am a ghost,â replied the intruder.
âDonât make me laugh.â
âAm I cracking jokes, Mr. Yank?â
The Great Freddie, growing impatient, wanted to brush his teeth and tumble into bed. âGo haunt someone else. I can see your sharp elbows. Ghosts are wisps of fog.â
âSorry to disappoint you,â said the intruder.
âAnyway, pal, Iâve never heard of a ghost in short pants.â
âExcuse me, there are lots of us. Did they keep it a secret from you in the army? The Holocaust? Adolf Hitlerâmay he choke forever on herring bones! You didnât hear he told his Nazi meshuggeners , those lunatics, âSoldiers of Germany, have some fun and go murder a million and a half Jewish kids? All ages! Babies, fine. Girls with ribbons in their hair, why not? Boys in short pants, like Avrom Amos Poliakov? Thatâs me, and how do you do? No, I wasnât old enough for long pants. Me, not yet a bar mitzvah boy when the long-nosed German SS officer shot me and left me in the street to bleed to death. So, behold, you see a dybbuk in short pants, not yet thirteen but olderân God.â
The Great Freddie took a deep breath. He was dimly aware that Hitler, the sputtering dictator with the fungus of a mustache, had sent children to his slaughterhouses. But so many?
Ugly vote by vote, the Germans had elected a lunatic to run their country. Freddie wasted no pity on the once-proud survivors who had voted him into power. They had drowned democracy like a kitten, invaded Poland and France and ignited World War II. Now Germany lay bombed into a rubble of fallen roofs and shattered lives. Freddie had volunteered to do his part.
The former bombardier cleared his mind of the war. âSo youâre a ghost in short pants.â
âA dybbuk.â
âA what?â
âI said, a dybbuk. A spirit. With tsuris. That means trouble in my