Siegfried eyes bulged. "Mein Gott! They'll probably see the President."
I nodded. "He's coming to the ball, I guess. Neat, huh?"
Elsbeth's smile turned down. "But what about you? Are you going, too?"
I shook my head. "Nah. Kids aren't invited. I'm probably going to stay with Oscar and Millie."
"Oh, good." She flipped her hair over one shoulder. "I would have been way too jealous if you'd gone."
Siegfried trotted up beside her. "Ja. And maybe you might have missed him a little, nicht war?"
A faint blush colored her cheeks. "Maybe." She smiled over her shoulder at me, urging her horse into a slow canter. "Race you to the Ambuscade."
Chapter Fifty-six
Sig lay on his stomach on his bed, with his nose in a book. He licked a giant lollypop and had a faraway look in his bright blue eyes. His bedroom felt like a sauna—even with the fan turning from side to side, pushing hot air from corner to corner. I popped another fireball in my mouth, savoring its heat.
Earlier that day, my parents had taken us to the country store, where we filled little brown bags full of penny candy. We'd been sucking on sweets for the past hour. I walked around his room, touching the football curtains, running my hands over his math club trophies, and generally taking it all in. I hadn't been in his room much at all during our friendship, since it had always seemed easier just to hang out at my house. Less nerves, less potential for getting in trouble.
The fireball burned my tongue. I took it out for a minute, then popped it back in and stuck it inside my cheek, moving it from side to side to avoid too much heat in one area.
I ran my fingers over the spines of the math and science books on his bookshelf. "Sig? Have you read all these?"
He nodded, but didn't stop to look up from The Call of the Wild by Jack London.
Elsbeth bounced into the room and flopped on the bed beside him, poking him in the side. "He's read them all a hundred times. But today he's just a big boring lump. Look at him. He's trying to beat us all by reading all the books on the reading list first."
I joined them on the bed and looked at the clock. "Yeah. I haven't even started my list. I have to get on it." I said the words, but my sugar-laden brain knew I'd wait until the last few weeks of summer and cram them all in.
Elsbeth rolled onto her back and raised both legs toward the ceiling and back down again with one fluid motion. She smiled sideways at me. "Gus told me he had to escape from his house today."
We'd chatted on the phone earlier, and she'd invited me over after getting permission from her mother. Mr. Marggrander would be in the city at his engineering job until five, so we were safe to laze around for another few hours.
Siegfried put his book down, and turned to me with concern. "What?"
I touched his arm. "It's nothing to worry about. It's just my mother was driving me nuts."
He sat up and gave me his full attention. "What's going on?"
I backed up to the headboard and plumped a few pillows behind me. "She's trying on clothes for the trip."
He rolled his eyes. "Oh."
"She's bought and returned at least a hundred dresses. And every time she gets one, she makes me and my father look at her while she twirls around, walks across the room, sits on the couch, and so on. It's driving me nuts. Today she's shopping for shoes."
Elsbeth giggled. "But it's a gala! She needs to look just perfect. I should've been there. I could help her pick out her gloves and hat and scarves…" Her eyes turned dreamy. She stood and twirled around Sig's bedroom. "Oh, it would be so lovely to go to a ball."
Sig snorted through his nose. "Like Cinderella?"
She stopped mid-twirl and glared at her brother. "Why, yes. Precisely like her."
I put my hands behind my head and looked at the ceiling. "I think she wishes I was a girl instead of a boy. Then she could talk about all this stuff with me every day."
Elsbeth flopped onto the bed again. "Oh, no. I'm sure she's happy to have a son. You can help with all the chores and take care of her when she's old."
"But girls take care of their mothers when they're old, too." Siegfried's comeback earned a grimace from his sister. He smiled an apology to her, and then put his book on the nightstand and walked to the window. "Do you think it will ever cool down? I'll bet it's almost a hundred out there."
My tee shirt stuck to my chest, a testimony to the temperatures. "I'd even take winter now. I'm sick of this darned heat. And I haven't been able to mow the Stones' lawn in weeks. Everything's so dry. I wanted to, but it isn't growing. It's just crunching and turning browner."
Sig nodded in understanding. "Ja, it’s horrible.” He turned and sat back on the bed. “When do your folks leave for D.C.?"
"Day after tomorrow. They're driving down with Mrs. Brown."
Elsbeth turned to me with concern. "What's happening to Mr. Tully while she's gone? Isn't he due out of the hospital soon?"
I got through the hottest layer of my fireball, and finally tasted the sweet inner pink sphere. I'd visited Tully every other day with either my father or Oscar, and had been keeping good tabs on his place and Penni. She'd been very quiet, but I'd seen signs of her several times. "He gets out tomorrow. Mrs. Brown was so worried about him. She was going to put him in some kind of home for a few days, ‘til she got back. But Oscar talked to her, and convinced her to let him and Millie take care of Tully while she's in D.C."
"I'll bet she didn't want to leave him," Elsbeth said. Her eyes grew soft and warm. "I wouldn't want to leave you, Sig, if you had heart surgery."
Her comments made me suddenly think of the twins as old people, with white hair and wrinkles. It was hard to imagine, but I figured Elsbeth would always be loyal to her brother, no matter what.
Siegfried shifted from foot to foot and blushed. "Ja. Danke."
I squinted, seeing something in the distance that didn't make sense. "She said she'd only feel comfortable leaving him with someone like the Stones. And I'll be there, too, so I can help out bringing his tray up and down the stairs and stuff."
I looked closer. Something blue flashed on the far side of the barn. "Sig?"
"Ja?"
"Where are your binoculars?"
"Here. On the bedpost."
"Can I borrow them?"
"Sure." He brought them to me. "What is it?"
"I don't know. But someone's out there."
Chapter Fifty-seven
I turned the focus wheels on the binoculars and tried to find the blue blur I'd seen earlier. "I could swear…" I swung the glasses from left to right. I peered over near the barn. The woods. The field. Nothing.
Sig and Elsbeth crowded beside me. Elsbeth tapped my hand. "Let me look?"
I handed them to her and scratched my head. "I saw a blue flash. Like someone running, I think."
Siegfried paled. "My mother's wearing a blue dress today."
Elsbeth moved the glasses higher, toward the hilly woods that separated our properties. With a start, she stared for a moment, and then shrieked. "No!" She unwound the strap from her neck and threw the binoculars on the bed. "Come on. It's Mama."
We raced out of the room, down the stairs, and shot out the door. On the porch, the mail lay scattered in a heap, and the paper lay open to a page about the Auschwitz trials that had been taking place in Frankfurt. The headline read, "Auschwitz Trial: Sixty-six Nazis Receive Life Sentences." Siegfried picked up the paper, exchanged a horrified glance with his twin, and took off for the woods. The paper flew in his wake, wobbling and dancing in the steamy air.
"Come on." Elsbeth reached for my hand, tears streaming down her face. "She read about the trials. It must have brought back the memories."
We ran after Siegfried, flying over the grass side-by-side. Fear for the twins flooded my heart. What will we do when we find her? Will she try to hurt herself? Will she know us?
We raced after Siegfried, past the barn, around the cornfield, and up the trail to the woods that separated their prop
erty from my family's land. Sweat streaked down my back and face, blinding me with salty moisture. Elsbeth's dark hair fell half out of her ponytail; she looked as hot as I felt. We barely saw Siegfried's back when he streaked into the woods. Panting hard, we stopped at the opening of the trail to catch our breath.
Elsbeth held back the sobs that threatened. I could see it in her tight lips and half-closed eyes. Her chest heaved with the exertion. "Come on. Auf gehts."
I churned into the woods after her, turning left on the path that circled around the hill. I'd seen a flash of Siegfried's yellow t-shirt seconds earlier, and followed him. With his sixth sense, he'd know where to find his mother. I was sure of it.
In the confusion, my mind buffeted back and forth between turmoil and curiosity. Inappropriately idle thoughts wound through my mind: Would Penni do a rain dance for us, sending sweet droplets down to cool our blistering skin? Could she talk to Mrs. Marggrander and calm her?
I wished I knew how to summon Penni. Maybe she could make it storm again, like the time I'd run from the homestead to get help for Tully when he collapsed. And maybe she could make our horses suddenly appear so we could jump astride them and move faster.
I brushed aside the random thoughts and redoubled my effort. After sprinting up the hill and through a white pine grove, we finally saw them. Brigit Marggrander lay on her side, wailing and pounding the ground. Her face—grotesquely red and swollen—reflected pure terror. She held her hands up in defense when Siegfried tried to reach for her. German words streamed from her, too fast and garbled for me to understand. But there was no doubt about her state of mind. She feared her own son as if he were an SS officer. Screaming, she pushed back from him, crying and warding off imaginary blows with waving arms.
"Nein!" She scurried backwards into a pricker bush, her arms and legs quickly dotted with blood where the thorns scratched her skin.
"Mama!" Elsbeth streaked to her mother's side and crouched a few feet away. Mrs. Marggrander yelled, again incomprehensible words in German.
I followed, wanting to help with a desperate, childlike flicker of hope. "She doesn't know you."
Siegfried held a hand up to silence me, focusing on his mother and speaking in soothing tones in her native language. His voice—soft and fluid—must have mesmerized her, because after a few minutes, she let him take her hand. It seemed as if they'd done this before. Elsbeth watched and waited, and as if on cue, she scooted to her mother's other side and began her own flow of soft and soothing words. Mrs. Marggrander's face gradually relaxed, although she still looked from one to the other as if unsure where she was or who they were.
In English now, Siegfried continued. "Mama. It's us. You're safe. You're in America. Safe now. No one can hurt you."
A fresh wave of tears escaped his mother's eyes. "Nein!"
Elsbeth stood and came to my side. Her voice shook. "She's not responding."
I nodded. "Does she usually?"
"Ja. After a few minutes. She ‘wakes' and knows who we are."
Torn with uncertainty, I shifted from one leg to the other. "Should I call your father?"
Fear claimed her face. "A doctor would be better. Papa thinks we should hide this. He doesn't want people to know. But she's never been so bad."
"I can call my mother. She'll know what to do."
She grabbed at the imaginary lifeline. "Ja. Okay. Please."
Siegfried chanced a glance at me. "Ja. Schnell, Gus. Bitte."
I gave Elsbeth a quick hug, which earned me a faltering smile. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
The trip down the hill was easier; although by the time I reached the house I felt I'd die of thirst. I grabbed the black rotary phone in the living room and called home.
Pick up, Mum. Pick up!
"Hello?"
"Mum. We need help."
"Gus? What's wrong?"
I launched into an explanation, but wasn't very clear.
"Brigit's where? In the woods?"
"She read about the trials in Germany. You know, the Nazis. It set her off and she went crazy. She doesn't even recognize the twins."
"Good Lord. I'll be right over."
"You need to call Doc."
She hesitated for a split second. "You're sure she needs him? You know how private they are about these things."
"Mum. I'm positive. She can't stop crying, and she looks real scared."
I'd finally convinced her. "Right. Your father has the car, so I'll call the doctor, then cut through the cornfield. It'll be quicker."
Relieved she finally believed me and understood the urgency of the situation, I hung up, and then stuck my head under the kitchen tap to drink my fill of cool water. Sig's canteen hung on the back of the door. I grabbed it and filled it to the brim. They'd all need water by the time I got there. With thumping heart, I shrugged out of my soaking t-shirt and raced back to the cornfield to wait for my mother.
Chapter Fifty-eight
I pushed a pile of peas around my plate and glanced over at Siegfried and Elsbeth, who stared at their laps.
My mother clucked with sympathy, and tried once again to reassure them. "Doc Henderson says your mother just needs a rest. Reading about the trial and all just set her off. He says the shock of it brought back her old memories."
Elsbeth poked her fork into a sausage and rolled it around. "It's happened before, Mrs. LeGarde. But not this bad."
My mother rose, walked around the table, and rested her hands on the twins' shoulders. "Everything's going to be okay. I'm sure of it."
Although I was starving, I felt weird eating. It was almost eight o'clock at night, three hours past our usual dinnertime. I put my fork down and tried to hear what my father was saying on the phone in the kitchen, but he kept his voice low.
He hung up and rejoined us. "That was your father, twins. He's going to stay up at the hospital for the night. They'll reassess your mother's condition in the morning." He took his seat at the head of the table and flicked his napkin open. "Would you two mind bunking with us tonight?"
Siegfried still looked listlessly at his plate. Elsbeth answered for him. "Ja, that would be fine. Thank you for your kindness, Mr. LeGarde."
How did she remember her manners at a time like this? I'd be lucky if I could put two words together, were I in her place.
"It's all settled then. Siegfried, you'll sleep with Gus. And Elsbeth, you can have the guest room."
My mother smiled, turning to Sig. "Honey. You don't have to eat if you don't want to. I know it's not very fancy. We didn't have much time to make a nice meal."
Siegfried looked at her wounded eyes. "Danke, Mrs. LeGarde. It looks good. It's just I'm not very hungry."
I never thought I'd hear him say those words. But I understood. I put my napkin beside my plate. "Maybe we could just go up and get them settled in, Mum?"
She smiled and reached down to hug first Elsbeth, then Sig. "Of course. Is that what you two want?"
A slight nod came from Siegfried, and a half-smile from Elsbeth.
"Okay, then. Gus, you know where the guest towels and extra toothbrushes are. Give Siegfried your blue pajamas, and I'll lay out one of your father's clean t-shirts for Elsbeth. It'll work fine as a nightgown."
We scraped back our chairs and plodded upstairs. As sad as I was for my friends, I felt a chill of excitement about having them both sleep over. I knew they'd be starving in an hour or so, and I'd already planned to make them huge peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Wonder Bread. I figured we could read comics together to try to take their minds off it, and Sig and I could talk in my bed by the light of the moon. With a sense of great responsibility, I helped them find the things they needed for bed.
***
Elsbeth appeared in my bedroom doorway with my father's t-shirt slung over her arm. "Is it okay if I take a bath, Gus? I'm so sweaty and hot."
She looked wrung out. I jumped up from the floor where I'd been picking up my jacks and marbles, trying to neaten it up a little.
/> "Sure. Come on, I'll show you where everything is."
I was a little embarrassed that I had my own bathroom. It seemed like something you'd find in a rich person's house. The main bath in the hall near my parents' was the one they used, but I figured she'd feel weird taking a bath if they might need to use it.
"Thanks, Gus." There were no more polite pretenses, now that it was just us. Her voice showed her true state: deflated, soft, and simply exhausted.
I led her into the blue and white bathroom and opened the door beneath the sink. "This is my secret stash." I handed her the bubble soap. "Don't tell anyone, okay?"
She took it without a smile. "I won't."
"Here. Let me help you." I started the water in the tub, adjusted it to a warm temperature, and added three squirts of bubbles. "That should do it. And you can use these white towels. They're clean."
"Danke."
I backed out of the room and closed the door, then heard her click the lock. For a brief moment, my mind wandered places it shouldn't go. I tried to squash the inappropriate thoughts. How could I think of things like that at a time like this? Especially when she was hurting so badly? I shrugged and tried to focus on Siegfried.
"Wanna read comics?"
He walked to one side of the bed and sat in his boxer shorts. "I'm so hot."
I realized with a start that I hadn't turned the fan on. He was right. It was oppressively hot in the room. "Here. You can have the best side of the bed, near the window. I'll get it cooled off in here in a jiffy." I turned the fan on high, asking him to get up while I pushed the bed closer to the window. "See?"
"Danke. I think I'll just lie down, if that's okay." He flopped onto the bed and turned away from me, on his side.
I stripped down to my boxers, too. It was too hot for pajamas. I lay down beside him. "Want me to turn out the light?"
I could barely see his head move in agreement. "Okay."
We listened to the sound of the water running in the bathroom, and let the fan dry our perspiration. My feet itched. I wiggled them and rubbed them against each other. Sig stayed facing away from me. I ached to reach out to him, to comfort him. "Buddy?"
Don't Let the Wind Catch You (LeGarde Mysteries Book 6) Page 21