Page 75 of Winter’s End

Mam stood with her hands on her hips. “Perhaps you would like to come with me, Evi,ja? You can look after the baby while I navigate.”

Evi wavered. She had thought she might go back to the Beekhof farm. Jacob must surely still be upset at his failure to –ex-fil-trate.

But Mam needed her help today – and little Jacob, as well…

...

They were on the river before nine in the morning. Evi piled cushions and woolen blankets in the hold to make a bed for the baby. She fed him a bottle, still wondering at the sight of this tiny child struggling, as they all were, to survive.

He was asleep before the bottle was half empty. Evi climbed to the main cabin as Mam piloted the barge.

They were past The Hague and nearly to Rotterdam. Evi was near to nodding off herself when she heard the gears begin to grind.

“Evi!,” Mam shouted. “There is a spit of land on the port side. Get ready to jump!”

“But – ?”

“Do not ask questions, Evi. Jump! Now! Find your way back to Haarlem!”

“But the baby – “

“You cannot carry him. Let me worry. Now, Evi, jumpnow!

Evi glanced toward the hold. Glanced back at Mam. She had never heard such urgency in her voice. Grabbing her bookbag, she leapt from the port side, landed heavily on a gravel-filled slope, clawed her way to a grassy knoll, her left knee badly scraped. She swiped at the blood with the hem of her skirt and sat to catch her breath, scanning the horizon for the barge.

Just down the coastline, she caught sight of it, inching its way toward shore, followed, to her horror, by a German patrol boat, big and grey, pulling quickly alongside.

She watched, terrified, as two black-booted Germans leapt from the e-boat onto the barge before it was fully stopped against the pilings.

She tried to move, to do as Mam had told her, but she could not take her eyes from the barge. It seemed to take forever before Mam emerged, her red shawl around her shoulders, one of the Germans close behind, his rifle at her back.

Evi leaned forward, squinting into the wind, and watched, unbelieving, as the rifle sounded and Mam, like a rag doll tossed into the air, tumbled soundlessly into the sea.

ZOE

Kurt made a place for her on the wooden bench where he sat to tell his stories. His voice was barely above a whisper.

“I told you, Zoe, that I was able to smuggle Jews and German dissenters across the border. My routes took them from Cologne to Rotterdam where, if they were wily, and fortunate, they could make their way to safety.”

Zoe studied the lines of Kurt’s face, a prominent nose under warm brown eyes, dearer to her each time she saw him.

Kurt sighed. “I was part of a group calledDie Rote Kapelle- the Red Orchestra – a network of Resistance workers united against the Nazi regime. Among those I helped to escape were some high-level military defectors and diplomats the Reich had been pursuing.”

Zoe listened.

Kurt paused, leaning back. “Needless to say, when the Gestapo caught on, they began pursuing me, as well – especially in Rotterdam, once they realized I had slipped out of Germany. So, I took a new name and re-settled here, first in Amsterdam and then in that little house in Haarlem before the Germans starting grabbing up land.”

“Lieve godyou were able to dodge them…”

“Thus far, anyway. Apparently, at the time we were told to evacuate, they had not yet identified me…But now, one way or another, it appears they have made the connection.”

Zoe wondered who might have betrayed him – and what the Reich had paid them for their loyalty.

She held up a hand. “But Kurt, they have no way of knowing, at this point, whether you are alive or dead…”

Kurt offered a wry smile. “And still my name appears on your cousin’s list of ‘most wanted…”

Zoe glanced across the room, where Gerritt was deep in conversation with two of the Jewish physicians who were still treating those who needed care, even here, in this secret sanctuary, with the barest of supplies.