Page 69 of Winter’s End

Bicycle forgotten, book bag over her shoulder, Evi followed in Jacob’s wake as he forged a path for them through the brush between thickets of trees.

“We need to move faster, Evi,” he called over his shoulder. “Those bastards may well be on our tail, trying to figure out where those shots came from.”

Evi struggled in the darkness to keep up with his stride. “I’m right behind you, Jacob,” she huffed.

He clearly knew the terrain, she realized, knew where he was going and how to get there. He must have walked these woods, inch by inch, more than once in the months he had been secreted with the Beekhofs – andgodjizdank, for both of them that he had.

Branches fell away at her feet. Leaves crunched underfoot. She followed blindly, trusting Jacob’s lead as night deepened and the airaround them grew colder. Soon, she began to recognize the land nearing the driveway to the Beekhof farm.

Struggling for breath, she slowed her pace. “Please, Jacob, I need to rest.”

“Okay, here,” he told her, jogging up the secluded drive and slowing under a towering elm. He collapsed under it, Evi falling beside him. She listened to their breathing slow.

“Damn…” he muttered. “Snafu…”

Evi frowned. “Sna-fu?

“Old army term.” He muttered. “Situation Normal…All Fu…” Never mind. It’s done. It’s over…”

She could think of nothing to say.

“Well,” he said finally, into the silence. “It seems we are even Steven...”

Now she looked at him. “Even steven?”

She was close enough to see his crooked smile. “An American expression…It means…well, it means what it says. We’re even.”

Still, she struggled to understand.

Finally, he looked directly into her eyes, expression sober “You saved my life tonight, Evi. I don’t why or how you followed me, but you did. So, now we’re even.”

She swallowed hard. What was there to say? She would have ripped out the woods, tree by tree, to ensure that Jacob was safe.

“The helicopter,” she managed finally. “It was coming for you…?”

He drew a breath. “Yeah… I thought we could pull it off though… The Air Force did, too. We never figured on a bunch of drunken Germans.”

Evi listened, searching his face.

“I managed to contact my CO – my commanding officer – on an old wireless the Beekhofs had in their basement. I was ecstatic. My CO thought it was worth a try. So, we made the plan for my exfiltration – “

“Exfil…”

“For the Army to retrieve me, send a rescue ‘copter to a precise location at a specified time and pluck me into the air. I thought maybethat clearing in the woods could be an ideal place to try it.” He screwed up his mouth. “…I guess it wasn’t…”

A cold wind riffled through the elm.

“Lousy timing. Lousy luck,” he said. “And I think one of the rotors was hit. I pray to God that ace makes it back to safety.”

Evi shivered.

Jacob put an arm around her. “You’re cold.”

“Yes.”

He drew her to his chest. She turned her face up.

Slowly, so slowly she was not sure it was happening, he began to close the distance between them. Close…so close…