“How come I gotta be the one?” she asked, suspiciously.
“’Cause you’re the youngest. He’s less likely to suspect you. We’ll distract him for a moment so you can wedge it in the door.”
A sly smile came over her face. “I can do that,” she said, moving back down the corridor to the door, but turning away as if it didn’t exist. Looking perfectly innocent, she stared out a window.
Jack and Queenie moved fifteen feet in the other direction.
Not three minutes later, the locked door opened and the same conductor came out. He seemed in a hurry and walked right by Rabbit, hardly giving her a glance. Once he was past, she made her move. Queenie and Jack turned and looked the conductor right in the eye. They figured that if he was focused on them, he wouldn’t turn around to look at Rabbit. It seemed to work, because Rabbit jammed the pen in the doorway and went back to the window. However, the conductor seemed to sense her movement behind him and started to turn around.
Jack grasped for any diversion. He blurted out, “Guten Tag.”
The conductor turned back to Jack. “Guten Tag.” He pushed by them and was gone.
“Wow. That was close,” said Queenie, looking a little shaken. But she smiled when she saw the pen holding the door open by just the tiniest crack.
Rabbit quickly pulled it open, and waved them in with a small bow.
“Nice work, Rabbit,” said Jack.
They all entered what turned out to be the baggage car. The luggage was neatly stored on racks. Fortunately, before the door shut all the way, Jack grabbed it, making sure it could be reopened from the inside without a key. He didn’t want them to get trapped in the baggage car with no way out.
“Let’s find our stuff,” said Rabbit, bounding off.
From the dark recesses of the compartment came a bark. Then a bunch of dogs started barking.
Jack and Queenie immediately turned back for the door. Barking dogs were sure to bring the conductor. Time to go!
But leave it to Rabbit to head in the opposite direction. That wild child definitely knew how to strike terror into the hearts of her brother and sister. She went right for the back of the car and dropped down on her knees in front of a big cage filled with dogs. This wasn’t just a luggage car; it was also a pet transportation area. Having no choice, the older kids followed the sound to extract her. There was Rabbit, sitting inside the biggest cage with four dogs all over her. That maniac had actually opened the cage and gotten in with the dogs. Rabbit’s the type of kid that dogs naturally love. Within seconds they were too busy licking her to bark. Jack and Queenie just stared at her, incredulous.
Queenie whispered very calmly, “Okay, Rabbit, say goodbye to your little friends, and let’s get outta here before we get busted.”
It took a bit of persuading to get her to come out, but they finally made it back to the door of the baggage car. Slowly pulling it open, they slipped out, unseen.
Making their way forward, they reached their cabin and stopped to check in with their parents.
“Well, well, well, here are my children,” Lt. Col. McMasters said with delight. “And what have you little rascals been up to?”
Unfortunately, before the others had a chance to respond, Rabbit rushed in. “Dad, guess what? They have a bunch of really cute dogs in the baggage car!”
Jack and Queenie froze in place, waiting for their father to start asking a hundred and forty-two thousand questions about how they could possibly know what was in the baggage car, and had they trespassed, and what possessed them to think it was okay to do such a thing. But by some miracle of the gods, he just looked at Rabbit and said, “That’s nice.” Then, looking at Jack, he asked, “Are you hungry?”
“Starved!” Jack said, unable to mask his relief.
“Well, since we still have two hours left of our ride, why don’t we get something to eat?”
“Excellent idea,” said Mrs. McMasters.
They all saddled up and made their way to the dining car. Their father ordered for them. The kids weren’t surprised when their father ordered beer for himself and their mom. But then he gestured toward his kids and asked for “dry Coca-Cola.”
The waiter nodded and walked away.
“Dry Cokes? Dad, do they have dry Cokes in Germany? How can they be dry?” Rabbit couldn’t ask her questions fast enough. She wasn’t the only one wondering what their dad was up to.
“Absolutely, Rabbit. Dry Cokes are very common here. Wait till you taste them—totally unique.”
“Dad! What do they taste like?”
“It’s impossible to describe. You’ll just have to wait and see.”
Jack started to imitate a waiter. “Here is your powdered Coke, sir.”
A few minutes later, the waiter approached with a silver tray of drinks. There were two big glasses of beer, three bottles of Coca-Cola, and three empty glasses. The Coke bottles looked just like the ones in America.
Rabbit took a swig from her bottle. “Hey,” she said, “this isn’t dry Coke—it’s regular Coca-Cola!”
“Yup, it’s exactly the same Coke we have back home,” their father said, chuckling. ”I actually asked for drei Cokes. In German the word drei sounds exactly like dry, but it means three. I ordered three Cokes, not dry Cokes.”
“Good one, Dad,” said Jack. Sometimes there were moments with his dad when Jack felt everything was fine. This was one of them.
“Don’t worry, kids. Soon enough you’ll all speak enough German,” reassured their mom.
A few minutes later another surprise arrived. The waiter brought over five big bowls of hot soup with hotdogs in them.
“Now this you’re going to like,” their dad said. “It’s lentil bean soup with hotdogs.”
Rabbit looked down into the bowl, obviously confused. Then looking up to the waiter, she raised her hands to her mouth pretending to be eating a hotdog, and asked, “Hey, where are the buns?”
The waiter, having no idea what she was saying or wanting, looked at her like she was from Mars.
Their dad told the man that everything was fine.
“Just cut up your hotdog and eat it out of the bowl, dear,” said Mrs. McMasters.
For a moment, Jack wasn’t sure if he should use a fork or spoon, but once he tasted his soup, there was no question about whether he liked it.
“Hey, Mom, from now on I think you’d better give up the buns and stick with German-style hotdogs,” Queenie said with a smile. “This stuff is really good.”
Their father smiled back. “Welcome to Germany.”
Standing in the dark, looking out the bedroom window, all was confusion and fear. Something had jarred him awake. Then the noise came again. A loud clattering, and then a deep grinding. It was coming from out there. A tank rolled into view, the sounds made by its treads. Were those soldiers coming up alongside it? Who were they? What was happening? It was so dark he could barely make them out. Then came flashes of fire and ear-shattering explosions.
He watched as the machine-gun rounds came ripping through his window and cringed at the sound of exploding glass. Tiny chards of glass flew past him. The tank fired a massive round, and half of the bottom floor of the house exploded. They needed to get out or they’d all be dead—no choice. He screamed as he jumped from the second story window—
“Wake up, Jack. You’re having a bad dream,” whispered Queenie, shoving him hard enough that his head banged on the window.
“Whaaa . . .” He was hyperventilating.
Mrs. McMasters, hearing him, looked over. “Jack, are you okay?”
“He’s fine, Mom. He was just dreaming.” Queenie watched her mom turn back to looking out the other window, and then leaning over, she quietly asked Jack, “What were you dreaming about?”
He said nothing. He was totally disoriented. He must have fallen asleep. Where was he? Oh yeah
. They were in a staff car. They’d stayed at that castle last night and taken the train that morning to a city called Stuttgart.
“Jack . . .”
His heart was still racing, and he felt clammy as he turned and looked at her. “We were being attacked by invaders. Our house was being blown up. Like the ones we saw on the train yesterday.”
“Nazis?”
“Dunno.”
“Relax, Jack. It was just a dream.”
“Yeah, but it seemed so real. Do you think we might . . .”
“Be quiet, Jack. Don’t think about it,” she said very softly.
He turned away and stared out the window.
There was snow everywhere. All that white somehow calmed him. About an hour outside of Stuttgart, the German countryside had become hills and even some small mountains. The farther the train went, the deeper the snow got. When they had finally pulled into the station, two staff cars were waiting for them. Jack, forehead pressed against the window of one of those staff cars, thought back over last night.
Their father’s surprise had been Schloss Rheinfels, the largest castle on the Rhine River. They had gotten to stay in the castle overnight—something their parents had to explain twice, it was so unexpected. A bed is a bed is a bed—except in a castle. Then it’s an adventure. And that night their dreams had been full of adventure.
On the walls of the fortress where it overlooked the Rhine River, they’d found an old catapult. Next to it was a big pile of round boulders, ready for the catapult to fling them down the hill at approaching enemies. They weren’t small like baseballs, or even bowling balls. They were enormous, round rocks more than two feet wide. They must have weighed two hundred pounds each. Even their dad couldn’t figure out how, in the olden days, they’d managed to get the rocks up into the catapult. But however they did it, one thing was certain: those giant projectiles would flatten anything in their path.
Jack thought about the ancient armor they’d seen displayed in a stone hall of the castle. The antique helmets and armor had been worn by knights. Lt. Col. McMasters had told them an armored knight with a horse covered in armor was the equivalent of a tank today. In fact, a medieval knight riding in full armor was so powerful he could take on a whole bunch of enemy soldiers and win all by himself.
“Since you’re a tanker, does that mean you’re a modern-day knight, Dad?” Queenie had asked.
Their dad just chuckled.
10
Quarters
Jack leaned over and whispered to Queenie, “Everything’s so foreign. I love this.”
Queenie nodded. “And like going back in time. Here castles aren’t just in library books and fairytales—they actually exist. And the ancient villages and fortresses—they actually exist.” Queenie’s eyes said it all. She leaned in closer to Jack. “My mind’s spinning—in a very good way.”
Jack nodded back. “And the whole language thing. I mean, on the train everyone was speaking words we couldn’t understand. It’s like someone turned the dial on the radio and scrambled the reception and we were getting static.”
“Yeah, we could see them speaking and hear them—but it was all gobbledygook.”
“And most of them couldn’t understand us either. It’s like we’ve been dropped down on another planet. We’re invisible, looking in on their lives, but they can only sense our presence, our intrusion.” He quietly started repeating, “Guten Tag, Guten Tag, Guten Tag . . .” He was playing with the words on his tongue. “How’d the Germans ever come up with all those weird sounds?”
“Yeah. And how’d they all manage to learn ’em?”
“Hey. What are you guys laughin’ about?” demanded Rabbit, clearly feeling left out.
“Cool it, Rabbit, you’re too young,” Queenie snapped. “Just slide back into your own little world and leave us alone.”
“She’s doin’ it again, Mom!” Rabbit whined, just a little too quickly. It was less a complaint than a way to get Queenie in trouble.
“Settle down, you three. We’ll be there soon.” Mrs. McMasters’s voice had just that little edge to it that said, You had better not do anything to upset your father.
No one said much on the final leg of the ride. They just stared out at the beautiful, white countryside. The car finally pulled up to a guarded gate. Above it, a large sign arched across the road: Cooke Barracks, United States Army, Headquarters 4th Armored Division.
An MP held up his hand, indicating the car needed to stop. MP means military police. Saying MP is like saying cop, but Army cop.
Their driver rolled down his window, and the MP peered into the car, his eyes pausing on their dad and the silver oak leaves on his uniform that indicated his rank—lieutenant colonel. The MP snapped to attention and saluted crisply. Lt. Col. McMasters silently saluted back. The guard waved them past the gate house and onto the base.
The staff car slowly moved along the snow-packed street and up a long, gradual climb. Jack had the strangest feeling, as if this were all very important but somehow he wouldn’t be able to absorb it. His body was motionless, but his mind was in overdrive. What were these buildings? Where did his dad work? Where were all the tanks? Where was the PX? (The PX is a base’s private department store, open only to Army personnel and their families.) Where were the movie theater and bowling alley? His frustration built as the unanswered questions piled ever higher. But his brain wouldn’t let up. Where was the school they’d be going to? How hard would the school be? Where would they live? Where would his friends live? Would he have friends? Would they be good friends? Would he like it here? Would he get along? Where could he build a fort?
Entry into the complete unknown—just a bit overwhelming.
He looked at Queenie, and she looked at him. They each knew all the questions, and they each knew neither of them had the answers. At least, not yet they didn’t. Rabbit, on the other hand, looked totally unconcerned. She was bouncing up and down.
“Wow!” was all she kept saying.
Fortunately, her attitude proved contagious. Even if they couldn’t figure anything else out, Jack and Queenie knew this had to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. White snow covered the hills and fields and forests. It also looked like an exceptional place to explore. So they crammed all those unanswered questions as far back in their minds as possible and just got excited. No matter what else happened, they had each other. And one way or another, they’d make this base into another most excellent adventure.
They pulled up to a large, three-story apartment building and got out. Lt. Col. McMasters pointed to their new quarters. The term quarters is the Army’s way of saying your house, your home, your apartment. Army brats don’t have a home, they have quarters.
“This is called The Glass House, and it’s where we are going to live. See that second apartment from the end on the third floor? That’s ours.”
They bumped the suitcases up the stairs of what was now their stairwell. With no shortage of excitement, they impatiently waited for Lt. Col. McMasters to get the door open. Entering, they realized it was much bigger than it looked from the outside. In fact, all the rooms were large: large kitchen, large living room, large dining room, three big bedrooms, and a big bathroom. But the biggest thing of all? The toilet.
“You gotta be kiddin’!” yelled Jack “That toilet’s big enough for a giant to take a cra—” Jack shut up. He realized he was one swearword away from getting his mouth washed out with soap, and there was a nice new bar within his mother’s reach. To Jack’s relief, the colonel hadn’t seemed to notice.
“It’s gigundous!” Queenie exclaimed.
“If I’m not careful, I’ll fall right in and get flushed!” exclaimed Rabbit.
Everyone laughed. But Rabbit wasn’t exaggerating. They were laughing because it seemed like it could really happen. The Germans had the biggest toilets they’d ever seen.
&
nbsp; Queenie turned around. “And look at the size of that tub! I get dibs on the first bath.” Queenie loved the idea of an indoor swimming pool, and this tub was almost big enough.
However, when she found out she’d be sharing a room with Rabbit, her look of elation vanished. “Mom! I’m not sleeping with her!” she snapped. “She can sleep in Jack’s room.”
“Don’t start with me, Laura,” Mrs. McMasters said, giving her the eye. “You and your little sister are going to share, and that’s all there is to it.”
When they entered the room, Rabbit scrambled onto the twin bed closest to the window.
“Get off my bed, Rabbit,” Queenie snarled.
Rabbit started jumping up and down, obviously enjoying the chance to torture her older sister. Refusing to hear a word that Queenie said, Rabbit shouted, “Look at the beautiful forest out there—it’s all ours!”
Queenie could barely control her rage. “I won’t tell you again, Rabbit. Move it!”
Pretending not to hear her, Rabbit turned from the window and sprang high into the air to land outstretched on the other bed. Scrunching her back into the mattress, she sighed, “Perfect, just perfect! I’m closer to the bathroom.”
Queenie stared out the window. “Rabbit, there are going to be rules.”
“Yup,” said Rabbit. “If there’s thunder, we sleep in the same bed.”
Queenie shuddered.
Jack’s room was down the hall and looked out in the opposite direction. From his window he saw across the street and into another set of woods. But there was also a big, open area where someone had made a snowman. Beyond that, and way below, Jack could see an airfield for both planes and helicopters. Not bad, he thought.
The second time through their quarters, they noticed things they’d missed. They found a big balcony off the living room that looked out over the back forest. Even though it was cold, they all went out to inspect.
Leaning precariously over the rail, Rabbit said, “Wow! We’re really high.”
BRAT and the Kids of Warriors Page 12