Page 106 of Winter’s End

Evi shook her head. “I can bicycle into the center if I need to.”

“I don’t know, Evi,”Mevrouw’sface was sober. “The Germans are on high alert. It is as though they know the war is all but lost to them.”

Jacob had told her much the same thing. He had heard it on the BBC, he said, listening late at night with Papa Beekhof, The Allies had dealt the Reich a devastating blow, taking several towns in and around Limburg. German soldiers had begun to defect.

“It’s the beginning,” Jacob told her, his face alight. “The Allies will be here soon.”

...

Jacob had been sitting at her bedside when she awoke after the harrowing night in Enschede. “Hi, Itty Bitty. How are you?”

She had managed a smile. “As fine as anyone who has taken a bullet to the shoulder.”

“That’s not funny.”

“It was not meant to be funny. But I think I will be fine.”

She leaned on her good elbow to pull herself up. “You are a wonderful teacher, Jacob. Even in the dark, sighting from the ground after I was hit, I killed those two Nazi guards.”

She sat up, using her good hand as leverage. “You would have been truly proud.”

“I am proud.” His hand was warm on her face. “Good job, Itty-Bitty”

She willed him to come closer, but he took a step back. “Guess you don’t need me anymore.”

She had steeled herself, looked deep into his eyes. “I will always need you, Jacob…”

...

“If you think you are ready, Evi,” Mevrouw said now, “you may go back the barge. Willem can go along with you. You will want to bring back some clothing,ja? And whatever else you will need.”

She was not eager to be back on the barge. Mam’s heart and soul were there. But of course there were things she wanted to have – Mam’s hand-knit blankets, and her box of photographs – and some of her sweaters and boots.

“If you think it is safe…” her voice trailed off.

“You can take the back roads.”Mevreowlaid a hand on her good shoulder. “Willem will know how to go.”

PART FIVE

Haarlem, the Netherlands

March 1945

ZOE

“There is some good news, Zoe,” Gerritt came up behind her in the hospital’s dim sub-basement.

She had been listening to Kurt’s expressive voice readingTheUgly Duckling,marveling at his ability to keep even the youngest children rapt, no matter how many times they had heard the story.

They had worked out a system for bringing in food, for tending to minor emergencies – even for ensuring that the ‘bodies’ posing on gurneys in the morgue could walk about and exercise on schedule.

They had developed a signal – three quick blasts of an airhorn – to alert them if the Germans stormed the building. The door to the ambulance bay was a way out, though the bravest of them knew they might be running into the arms of the enemy.

Zoe turned to her cousin. “Any good news is a blessing.”

Geritt sat beside her on a low wooden bench. “Two of the city’s mortuaries have agreed to help when we are ready to evacuate our refugees. They will keep transport our ‘bodies’ once or twice a day – and they will keep a couple of marked vans in the ambulance bay withkeys in the ignition so that anyone escaping will have a chance to outrun the Germans.”

MILA