Saving Anna

by Sharon Struth

  He shrugged. “If not, we will try the others. It could take a few tries. You were given very little information to begin your search.”

  “I know. I… You’re right.”

  She sat quietly a few seconds, wondering why today felt different. Yesterday’s research and talk with Dr. Walker had left her with some powerful feelings. Isaak’s story collided with some missing chunks of her own life. What if the course of history had changed? What if her ancestors had left Poland but entered America as proud Jews, who brought their religion and customs to a new land? She’d have been raised differently, perhaps even found another bond with Isaak in their common faith.

  She glanced Josef’s way. He concentrated on easing off the highway exit. Would he want to know about her life, or even care? Then again, maybe a little openness on her part would make him feel more comfortable with her.

  “Yesterday, I was thinking about my ancestors from Poland. They immigrated to America, probably at the turn of the century.”

  He stopped at a traffic light off the ramp and turned her way. “Oh? So you are of Polish lineage?”

  “On my dad’s side. I’ve been told the family who moved to the States were Jewish, but they must’ve changed their faith when they left Europe. That’s all I know about them.”

  “I imagine those who leave for America do so for many reasons. But always for a fresh start.”

  “Yes. I mention it because I think that’s why I feel like I have more at stake with this visit.” He lifted his brows, seemingly interested, so she continued. “I keep thinking what it must’ve been like to be Jewish around the war. Or even before it. My readings have shown Jews were persecuted over centuries.”

  “Yes.” He shook his head. “It is hard to understand such prejudice. I am sure when you think about your family, it makes this more personal.”

  Their eyes met and his softened, showing empathy for what she’d disclosed. “Yes. It does.”

  The car behind them tooted. He glanced up at the changed light and slowly took off. “But you still need to be patient. It may take a few tries to find Gunther. More than a few.”

  “That’s not what I want to hear.”

  “Maybe not, but it is… Oh, what is the word?”

  “Annoying?”

  He frowned. When he glanced over, she smiled so he’d know she was joking and, to her relief, he laughed. “No. Realistic.”

  They turned down a street and parked in front of a simple one-story house with peeling paint.

  “We are just outside of the city.” He shut off the car. “We may find fewer English speakers in these parts. I will introduce us, explain why we visit.”

  “Sounds good.”

  They approached the front door and knocked. Within a minute, a woman with long gray hair opened the door.

  She didn’t smile but gave them a no-nonsense eyebrow raise and said something in German.

  Josef smiled. Anna had no idea what he said, but within seconds the woman smiled back and nodded.

  After they talked for a minute, he turned to Anna and said, “She doesn’t speak English. May I show her the photo?”

  Anna passed it over. While they discussed matters and looked back and forth between the photograph, she strained to figure out what they were saying to no avail.

  Josef finally turned to her. “She is getting a photograph of her father but says this is not him. He is in a nursing home. Aside from the man’s missing arm, her father served in the Wehrmacht the year this was taken.”

  A wave of disappointment crashed at Anna’s feet.

  The woman returned holding a dated picture of another Gunther Hinzmann, working in his family bakery after the war ended. He definitely wasn’t the man they were looking for.

  Josef glanced at Anna. “Do you have anything else you’d like to ask her?”

  “No. Please tell her I appreciate her time.”

  Josef translated and the woman nodded.

  Anna smiled. “Danke schön.”

  She walked towards the car ahead of Josef as the weight of disappointment pulled down her mood.

  At the car, she leaned against the hood to wait while he carefully made his way along the slate walkway.

  Josef neared the car and stopped in front of her. “Nobody said this would be easy.”

  “So? That doesn’t mean I can’t be disappointed.”

  He raised his brows. “No. You can. But I’m going to stay positive.”

  With his floundering moods, she never would have expected such a comment. Though she wasn’t sure where it came from, she accepted the dose of optimism. “And I suppose you’d be right.”

  “I am. It is our first try,” he added. “We will have luck maybe next time. Besides”—he motioned over his shoulder toward the city and turned back to her—“it frees up our time to go see the castle.”

  “But you sounded like you didn’t want to go before.”

  “I cannot walk much, but will do my best.”

  She smiled, and his eyes softened. Had simply handing a little bit of her trust Josef’s way earlier relaxed them both? “Are you sure?”

  He walked to the driver’s door, watching her with a playful sparkle in his crystal blue eyes. “Better get in or I will leave without you.”

  Chapter 12

  Josef stood near the doors to the Oberstadt lift in the commercial district of Marburg, an easy way to reach the old upper city. Midday traffic zoomed by past him, but he kept watch on Anna until she reached the entrance to the road leading to the same place.

  He yelled out, “Are you sure you don’t want to take the lift?”

  She twirled around, smiling bright. “Positive. I want to see the city from the ground up. So all I do is follow this street uphill, right? I’ll get to the same place as if I took the lift.”

  “Eventually. Yes.”

  She shot him a thumbs-up.

  Before she could even take a single step, he shouted one final warning. “Do not get lost.”

  She tilted her head and plopped a hand on her slim hip. “Like I would do that on purpose.”

  “I meant, do not wander.”

  Tours required he monitor his flock of passengers like a herding dog tracks sheep. He took his job seriously. Anna brought out a different type of protective. One he struggled to define. “The road leads into the market square. Meet me at the fountain.”

  “Got it.” She didn’t look back as she stepped away and disappeared around the bend.

  He tapped the lift button. When the doors opened, he boarded with a few people who looked like students from the nearby university. Once at the top, he exited and followed a hallway taking him to the Obserstadt’s cobblestone streets, as though he’d traveled in time when compared to the modern paved roads on the street below.

  On his way to the fountain of St. George, he took slow steps, using care on the smoothed, uneven stones. He admired the crooked, half-timbered houses and medieval atmosphere of the old city, last seen by him on a weekend away during college.

  He arrived at their meeting point. Mounted high on the horse, St. George held a spear aimed straight at a dragon, struggling for release while pinned beneath the horse’s hooves. The mythical beast’s ferocious face proved he still had some fight in him. A fate Joseph understood. He’d be damned if this pain got the best of him. Not yet.

  He leaned against the fountain’s edge, resting his cane there and lighting a cigarette. He’d wanted one in the car, but hesitated because he’d never seen Anna smoke, so he didn’t light up. Just as well, because he’d have to quit again. Someday. After his leg healed.

  Tourists wandered in the area, snapping photos and stopping in the local shops. The students were easy to pick out in the busy square, usually simply hanging out with their friends. Lively, young adults, unencumbered by the many burdens adults faced later in life.
He longed for those days.

  “I made it.” Anna approached, smiling, perhaps over her accomplishment.

  “So you did. How was your walk?” He pushed himself away from the edge and went down the steps.

  “Nothing short of amazing. It’s like stepping into a fairytale.”

  As he neared her, the smoke from his cigarette drifted her way and she stepped back, away from it.

  He took one more drag and tossed the cigarette into an iron ashtray stand. “Do you not approve of cigarettes?”

  “I’m just not a fan, for myself.” She shrugged, gave him a quick smile.

  He went up the steps and grabbed his cane. “I had quit for a long time. Recently, I started up again.”

  “It happens. Hopefully when you’re ready to quit again, you will have the same success.” She tucked one side of her hair behind her ear. “Thank you for taking me into town. It’s awesome.”

  “You are welcome. You’re right about this place. It does feel like we’re in a fairytale up here, compared to the newer parts of town. The Grimm brothers actually went to the university here.”

  “Are you kidding?”

  “Do I kid?”

  “Not from what I’ve seen.”

  She laughed and he did, too, because he’d forgotten how to laugh at himself lately. “Touché.”

  Her smile faded, but merriment still showed in her eyes. “I’m teasing, you know?”

  “I know.”

  Seeming satisfied, she turned in a circle, her eyes going wide as she took in the square. “So this is the upper town. I feel like I’m back in the seventeen or eighteen hundreds and should be wearing a long hooped dress, with a fancy hat decorated with ribbons and feathers. And you.” She scanned him from top to bottom. “You should be wearing a jacket with tails and a top hat, and you’ve already got a classy cane.”

  He blurted out a laugh. “Not once have I thought about this as classy.”

  “Because you weren’t using your imagination.”

  The shift in her mood and excited glow in her eyes was everything he’d wished to see by offering her this side trip. A fact he didn’t realize until this very moment. “Mine is boring. I would rather see what you envision.”

  “I suppose we might have ridden a carriage into—” A loud chime rang through the air as the gothic town hall clock noisily struck the noon hour. She turned to the sound just as a trumpeter statue beneath the clock began to rotate and toot.

  “Would you look at that,” she whispered and pulled her cell phone from the pocket of her baggy khakis. After she snapped a few pictures and waited for the full twelve toots, she turned to him. “Where to now?”

  “Lunch?”

  “Sure. Then the castle?”

  He laughed. Her energy had a hold on him. Contagious, persistent. And endearing. “Yes, some of the town, and then the castle.” He motioned up the street. “This way.”

  At first, she walked at his side, kept his pace. But soon she wandered ahead, disappearing into shops and looking at merchandise while waiting for him to catch up. At her third stop, he found her looking at guidebooks and asking the old man who ran the place if they stocked any books in English.

  “Englisch? Nein. Nur auf Deutsch.”

  Before Josef could translate, Anna grabbed the German guidebook off the stand, pulled a five euro note from her pocket, and handed it over to the shop owner.

  As she slipped the purchase into her bag, Josef came up behind her. “You know you just bought a German book?”

  “I know.” She pivoted around and tossed him a coy smile. “I figured you’d help me read it.”

  “Oh, did you now?”

  “Yup.” She looked up and down the street with a grin on her lips. “Where should we eat?”

  He pointed down the road. “We’re not far from a place I remember from my last trip here.”

  Turned out, the place was no longer in business. Another place nearby looked good so they took seats at an outside table, and a few minutes later ordered food. While waiting, she flipped through her new book. He enjoyed watching her reactions to the photographs with little exclamations of “Oooh, so pretty” and remarks like “I can’t get over how old everything is.”

  “Look at the organ in the…” She twisted her lips and narrowed her eyes. “Elizabeth-kerch? Did I say that right?”

  “Almost. Kirche means church. The ch and r are soft sounds.”

  She tried a few times and he corrected, but she hung in until saying it perfectly.

  She turned the page in the guidebook. “Oooh. The castle view looks incredible.” Positioning the book to face him, she pointed to a caption beneath the fortress photo. “What does this say?”

  He leaned closer, suddenly very aware of her creamy skin, her lightly floral scent. He cleared his throat and focused on the words. “‘Origins date back to around 1000 whereby the Landgrave Castle was counted among the first hill castles in Germany and the starting point for the development of Marburg.’”

  “That’s old. Back home, anything built in the sixteen hundreds is ancient.”

  “You are a young country.”

  She nodded, took back the book, and continued flipping through the pages.

  “So, what does your husband do for a living?”

  She slowly lifted her head and her cheeks blasted crimson red. “Investment banker. Why?”

  “He did not accompany you on this trip. I figured work must keep him busy.”

  “Yes. I suppose it does.” She stared at her open book, so still he was sure she wasn’t reading it. Her head slowly lifted and she looked him in the eye. “I didn’t want him here and—I can’t believe I’m telling you this—but I left New York to get away from him.” She paused, blinked back at him for a few seconds. “Two days after I arrived here, I had divorce papers served to him.”

  Missing ring explained. “Oh. I am sorry.”

  “Thank you, but no need to be sorry.” She closed the guidebook. “It was for the best.”

  “Were you married long?”

  “Two years.” She drew in a breath and he waited. “The marriage had—well, he was—it wasn’t working out. He had some issues.”

  The bruise he’d seen on her arm. Her reaction when he asked about it. Another on her thigh. Had her husband hurt her?

  A loud wail came from the street.

  He turned just in time to see Anna spring from her seat and run to the side of a young boy, maybe around five or six, who’d fallen off his bike. The child lay on his side on the street’s smooth stones.

  Anna crouched down next to him, helping him into a seated position. “Gosh, I’ll bet that hurt.”

  The young boy’s face contorted as tears sprang from his eyes. He spoke to her in German, pointing to his scraped elbow. She responded in English, and though they didn’t speak each other’s language, the smooth tone of her voice somehow settled him down.

  “Where is your mother?” she asked, and he just stared at her.

  Josef stood and went over, smiled at the boy. “Wo ist deine Mutter?”

  The child pointed down the road and answered.

  Josef looked at Anna. “His mother owns a shop down the road and is working.”

  She nodded and gave the boy her attention. “Can you bend it?” She moved her arm at the elbow a few times. The child tried with success. She nodded. “Good.”

  She motioned for him to come to the table and take a seat. While searching through her bag, she babbled in a soft voice about how she’d fallen off her bike at his age, too. The boy listened, staring curiously at Anna and no longer crying. She removed two antiseptic cleaning wipes and cleaned near the scrape. The boy winced as she carefully dabbed the cut.

  Josef soaked in the warmth of such genuine care. For a child she didn’t even know. A reaction that seemed, for her, as natural
as breathing. He leaned close, made a little joke to the boy, who laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Anna wrapped the dirty wipes up in a napkin.

  “I just told the boy I think you are like Marburg’s own Saint Elizabeth, of the Elisabethkirche.”

  “Why?”

  “She dedicated her life to the sick. The reason they built her a church.”

  “Oh, really?” Her gaze swung between the boy and Josef. “She sounds like a decent person.”

  Their food arrived. She gave the boy a hug and told him to be careful.

  “Danke, Fräulein,” he said and smiled.

  “You’re welcome.”

  He lifted his bike, hopped on, and took off down the road, good as new.

  Anna cleaned off her fingers with another wipe. “Where’s this Elizabeth Church?”

  “In the main city. We can stop in on the way out, if you like.”

  “I’d like.” She smiled, and his chest lifted with a kind of joy he hadn’t felt since his accident.

  As they ate, he enjoyed watching her tackle the Flammkuchen, devouring the German version of thin-crusted pizza with gusto. The sensation inside his chest lingered, enough so that it couldn’t be ignored.

  In between bites, they talked about the town, cuisine, and how much she liked being at the guesthouse. But his thoughts were preoccupied with the way Anna had helped the boy. She possessed goodness, neatly wrapped in a protective layer. Guarded and fragile. Fragile and strong. Strong enough to have left a bad marriage.

  * * * *

  Anna kicked off the covers, crossed the dark bedroom, and pushed open the French doors. The night air rushed inside and cooled her warm skin.

  She sat on the mattress edge and reached for her phone. One a.m. She’d gone to bed over two hours ago. Marburg had left her exhausted, yet she still couldn’t sleep. Too many questions plagued her since coming back to the guesthouse. Mostly about Patrick’s state of mind since he received the divorce summons two days ago.