With the heater broken, the pre-dawn hours had brought with it a deep chill; his feet were numb on the pedals and his hands ached on the steering wheel. He lifted the collar of his jacket and pulled it closer to his neck for warmth. Zach's was curled up in ball next to him. Zach wasn't his real name, no one knew each others real names. John's had given them each new one, his brothers names, so they would be easier to remember. He wondered where his brother's might be now?
The Mormon soldier sat ramrod straight in the rear seat directly behind him. They were lucky to have him. The Mormon's had more battle hardened fighters than any other resistance groups. After Salt Lake City was nuked they made their way up to the borderlands between the US and Canada where they became a semi nomadic warrior tribe. During the Summer months they would split up into small family bands and hide deep in the northern wilderness. When winter came the men would gather for their yearly raids, extracting revenge for the loss of their homeland.
In response to their raids the SS dispatched guerrilla teams to penetrate the mountain terrain. They set about targeting small family bands, torturing and killing women and children, taking special pains to keep captured soldiers near their families encampments, forcing friends and family to listen to their howl's of pain and pleas for mercy as they slowly died.
It was their plight in the face of these vicious attacks with that had allowed Arendt to make inroads with them. The Mormon's realized they needed more training in order to stop the men who were hunting their families. She provided it, sending special forces men, intelligence officers, unusual terrain experts, giving them the skills they needed to fight back.
Out in the deepest wilderness of North America a deadly game of cat and mouse developed. The elite teams of German's and Mormon soldiers stalked and hunted each other. Each side created nicknames for their opponents and those names became known throughout the country. “Snow Dog”, “Sauerkraut”, “Trapdoor”, “Canary”, “Troll”, “Two shots”.
Despite the lack of of free press everyone knew about their exploits and paid special attention when winter came and the attacks began in earnest. Small children, housewives, German officers, factory workers all had specific men they rooted for and followed. People traded information on them; their favorite weapons, height, what they wore. It was a harrowing past time, full of exultation and pathos, as the soldiers they cared about so deeply won or lost, rose or fell, through death. The effects of a major victory or defeat could be felt on the Streets of New Orleans, Chicago or Boston.
The Mormon's never indulged in the torture the Nazi's seemed to take so much glee in perpetrating. They made their statements through acts of outrageous daring. It was their own way to get under their enemies skin and build moral back home. SS men had woken up in one of their fire-less encampments with a Book of Mormon under their heads as a pillow or with one of their comrades heads hugged in close to their own chests for warmth. Only John knew that that was where the Goy had been come from, where he had been trained and hardened.
John had voiced concerns to Arendt about them. She was unphased “They are folk heroes, the strangest ones I have ever heard of, but folk heroes nonetheless. We are just lucky that the the Mormon's thinking is so provincial and religiously strange. If not the whole resistance could have come together around them. Who knows, we might have ended up with some bizarre theocracy.”
Possible place for the battle of Salt Lake
“Many people are secretly practicing Mormonism around the country. Do you think we have anything to worry about?”
“No, no, no. Don't worry about that. That is a detail, a minor one. People want to belong to the winning team. All we need to do is give them a military victory that belongs to them, speaks to them, so that they don't have to convert to Mormonism or any religion for that matter to join the army. That's why we need them with us, why we need to ally with them, for their aura of victory.”
The other men, all trusted men from the Jewish resistance, had gone after him right away the night before.
“So what’s it like having looks like that, the square jaw and all?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I bet you ten to one you can throw a football. Right Jimmy?”
“Looks like a football player to me.”
“In fact I bet you were a quarterback.”
“How’d you know that?”
“You have that look. You obviously know how to fight, I can see that by how you carry yourself.”
“And all the cheerleaders wanted to hang out with you. What’s it like being that guy?”
“It’s good. What can I say. ”
“Honest. I like that. You and I are going to be friends. One thing I can’t stand is a guy who can’t a give a straight answer.”
The Mormon said, “When you grow up you leave behind childish things.”
“Your wife back at home?”
“I would prefer not to talk about my wife.”
“You shy?”
“You fellows sure like to talk.”
All the guys start laughing.
“Brother, you're in the wrong group not to talk. Here, cigarette.”
“Don’t smoke.”
“Course not. What a goy.”
“What’s a goy?” They all laughed again.
“You are my friend. You are.”
Jimmy spoke up “They would have his picture in the dictionary under goy”
“Is it a bad thing?”
“Not in your case. I think you're alright”
“Guess I can rest easy now. Knowing that you guys think I'm alright”
“Guess you can.”
Mike started in again.“So I heard you guys lost your temple.”
“Yes.” He became very serious at that moment and sat up straighter.
“We lost our temple first, I'm sure you know that.”
“I'm not very familiar with Judaism.”
“I suppose they didn't teach it much in your schools.”
“A little bit. We read bits of the old testament. I suppose I wasn't paying attention.”
“Let's be honest. Your temple, you are just copying our temple.”
“I don't know that much about other religions but I'm pretty sure Jews didn't invent temple's.”
“This is true, this is true. I think that we did invent being really serious about rebuilding it.”
“Well, if you Jews are serious about rebuilding your temple I suppose that is one thing we have in common.”
Mike piped in, “Ha. This is funny. You should convert to Judaism.”
“Mike, I'm not converting to anything and to be perfectly honest with you I have never seen much benefit in talking about religion. You have your beliefs and I have mine.”
“Ok, fair enough.”
“I am curious what's a goy.”
“In simple terms it's a non jew. You are actually one of the most goy people in the entire world. Over this immense globe, teaming with human beings I would put you in the top one hundred goys” the guys nodded their heads, except John who was holding back waiting to see if he needed to cut the conversation short or let it ride and see if they were bonding.
“Sounds like it's a yes no thing. How can somebody be a bigger goy than somebody else?”
“No, no. It's definitely on a scale. It's not just a yes or no thing.”
“Are any jews goyish then?”
“No, I don't think so, though some try to be. Jews can definitely act goyish, but I would say they are faking.”
“Then what makes me more goy than any other goy.”
“That is a good question but extremely goyish one.”
“The question was goyish?”
“Yes. Needing to ask the question puts you way over on one side. What is a goy? That is an extremely goyish question.”
“So goy can be an noun and adjective?”
“Oh definitely. In New York everyone knows what a goy is and that's because everyone in a bit jewish.”
“Give m
e some examples.”
“Well catsup is Goyish and mustard is Jewish.” All the gys nodded in agreement
“What else.”
“Well some obvious ones. New York is Jewish and California is goyish.”
Jimmy jumped in “The Lone Ranger is goyish, but the Shadow is Jewish.”
“So bad things are goyish?”
“No, not all goyish things are bad, for example ice cream.”
Everyone but The Goy laughed. Zach said, “Ice cream is very goyish.”
“But within ice cream, vanilla is goyish and chocolate is Jewish.”
“That's pretty complicated. I'm a vanilla guy.” said The Goy.
“You see, I already knew that, the same way I knew you played football.”
“And what are the Nazi's?”
“The Nazi's are evil. Killing Nazi's, I thinking killing Nazi's is Jewish.”
“Well, being as I'm out to kill as many Nazi's as I can, I guess that makes me a little bit Jewish.”
“It really does goy. It really does.”
Chapter 17