“Another visit from Ursula.” Paul explained her latest escapade.
Konrad’s frown deepened. “Heidi, you may need to go back to Hagen to get away from his control.”
Tears slid down her cheeks. “Maybe.”
Her brother tapped the box. “I just received a shipment of books to store for a friend. Hopefully, Paul, we’ll find your new identity papers in here.”
Toward the bottom, tucked into an electricity handbook, they found an Ausweis der Deutschen Volksliste. Paul flipped it open. “My very own I.D. card, complete with a German eagle stamped on my picture. My correct birthdate. Born in Gross Tychow. Granny would be pleased. Is that a real address?”
“Not necessarily, but memorize it. If you’re ever asked, you can’t hesitate. Here’s your Soldbuch with a good clinical diagnosis to back up your traveling alone, returning to your unit in France after hospitalization and recovery. Memorize this too, where you served, the dates, the units, everything.”
Heidi pulled a loose paper from a book, scanned it, and offered it to her brother. “This makes no sense.”
Konrad studied it. “The underground has had to lie low due to increased Gestapo activity. They know you’re here, Paul, and will work you into the loop, but it could be several more days.”
Paul looked around. The incidents with Rudy and Ursula had been graphic illustrations of how easily things could go wrong. The Steinhorst siblings knew who he was and accepted the danger, but what about the Ziemers? Was it fair to the couple who had welcomed him unreservedly to endanger them with his secret?
Find Heidi. When he first landed in Germany, God had led him here. He believed that wholeheartedly. And God was bigger than the Gestapo. He already knew how He would get Paul out of Germany. He would take care of the Ziemers. All Paul had to do was trust Him, and not take any foolish risks.
But what about the trouble for Heidi with the Gestapo goon? Why did he have this sense of impending disaster?
Chapter Fourty-Seven
Bickenbach, Germany
Tuesday, June 13, 1944
The strawberry crop looked and smelled mouth-watering. Heidi added another plump berry to her basket as Paul brushed one off and took a juicy bite, licking the juice from his lips. “I don’t believe it!”
His head jerked up at her exclamation and his gaze swept the area. He quirked a brow. “What don’t you believe?”
“Rachel once wrote about your insistence on cleanliness, and yet you just ate an unwashed strawberry fresh from the ground!”
A frown touched his brow and disappeared so quickly, she might have imagined it. Come to think of it, Rachel had also mentioned Paul’s unhappiness with her lackadaisical housekeeping. Their opposing ideas of hygiene may have been a point of contention in her friends’ marriage. Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything.
Beyond the garden, Fritz whined. Counting on his dislike of Ursula, Paul had parked the puppy between them and the woods with strict instructions to keep watch. Whether the young dog would give them warning of intruders was debatable, and both Heidi and Paul kept looking around. How awful to not feel safe in their own yard because of untrustworthy neighbors.
Paul’s smile returned. “Ha! Strawberries are above ground, my dear, not from the ground.”
“Right. Above ground where bugs and small vermin can walk on them, doing whatever they please. A little dirt from growing below ground might actually be cleaner.”
Paul narrowed his eyes. “Are you deliberately trying to ruin my enjoyment of this delectable snack?”
Heidi grinned. “You can’t claim to have learned to pardon a little dirt from living in a foxhole.”
“Nope.” He dropped a handful of berries into his pail. “I learned at 25,000 feet in a freezing, flying coffin not to take life too seriously. If I was killed the next day, what would it matter if I’d eaten a slightly dirty strawberry?” He selected another fat berry, brushed it off, and savored a bite with a loud slurp. Saluting her with it, he added with an impish grin, “‘Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.’ That’s Biblical.”
“Oh, sure. Very Biblical!” Heidi laughed. “It’s in the Bible as an example of how not to live. The very next sentence, I believe, is God saying, ‘Fool!’”
“You’re right, although I don’t think you’ll find the ‘tomorrow we die’ bit in that passage. The idea, though, has some merit.” Paul stepped across the rows of strawberries to join her at the garden’s edge and knelt down. “I need to remember that life verse you reminded me of. I trust in the Lord. He is my God. My times are in his hands. All of our times. We’re living through bad days right now, but our God is bigger than Hitler and all the other bad guys, and we’re in His hands. I have to keep reminding myself that God is still in control, like when Rudy barged in. We dodged a bullet with that little episode.”
He rolled stiffly off his knees with a groan, and sat down in the dirt. Now his pants were thoroughly messed up front and back. Heidi hid a smile. Maybe Rachel’s influence had rubbed off on him.
“Do you think of her often?”
Paul’s gaze rose slowly to meet hers. He didn’t need to ask whom she referred to.
“Yeah, although it’s funny. I recall incidents that may have happened years ago, but I have difficulty sometimes remembering how she looked the last day I saw her alive. Even though it’s been less than a year.” He brushed dirt from his hands, and stared into the distance. “Maybe that’s healing. I’d rather not remember those last days.”
“Why not?” Those last days with Erich were precious memories. Of course, they didn’t have the lifelong history her friends shared.
“They were… difficult.” He pulled up his knees and wrapped his arms around his legs. His head tilted back, his eyes tracking a meandering cloud. “I knew I’d be drafted after graduation. It was inevitable. So I enlisted, hoping I could choose where I served. Here was my chance to fly. If I had to go to war, I wanted to be in the air corp.”
Heidi nodded. He’d made no secret of his desire to fly. She looked up too. No enemy planes, or friendly planes, appeared in the sky. Only the fleecy clouds scudded along. She took a deep breath. The air smelled deliciously of strawberries. Birds twittered in the trees. Sunlight splashed across the garden. Sheer contentment. Here the world was at peace. Strange thought, in the midst of war.
Paul studied a berry like he’d never seen one. “Rachel wasn’t pleased. She couldn’t, or wouldn’t, understand my logic. She wanted me to stay home as long as possible, even if it meant going into a service I did not want.” He huffed a laugh. “She even gave the house a good cleaning, despite her aversion to housework. By demonstrating she could be a good wife, she’d get me to change my mind. Maybe she was already feeling the effects of the illness that took her life, I don’t know. She wasn’t stupid, but she wasn’t thinking straight.”
“She was afraid for you.” That was understandable. “I didn’t have a premonition of disaster when Erich left for his last sea voyage, but I’d known more and more U-boats were being lost.”
“I suppose. At least she came to grips with the situation. I think her mother had a talk with her. She put on a brave face, anyway. Our goodbye at the train station wasn’t maudlin, and she wrote cheery letters, sharing all the local gossip. And she joined a ladies Bible study. I think that really helped. She didn’t feel so alone anymore.”
Paul was right. Being alone made everything seem worse. Having like-minded friends helped. The steady, regular encouragement of a church family kept away that sense of being adrift in a sea of Nazis. “The church here in Bickenbach isn’t a Confessing Church, so we have to keep up our guard. If I return to Hagen, I’ll have Pastor Stromstad and the other church members around me.” They would be welcome. “But the children won’t be there.” Heidi blinked rapidly. “The children or safety. I can’t have both.”
“If you can call being in a place where bombs may fall ‘safe’.” Paul shook dirt off his hands, and wiped them on his pants. He co
cked his head. “Did you ever feel angry at Erich for dying?”
“At Erich? No!” Goodness, Erich hadn’t wanted to die. “When I received his death notice, and it said he died for Hitler and Germany, that made me mad.” She grabbed hold of weeds with both hands and tore them out. “Erich did not die for Hitler. It’s because of Hitler he died, but… He. Did. Not. Die. For. Hitler.” She pounded the ground with each word. “Hitler killed Erich as much as the captain did for diving their damaged boat, or that plane for dropping depth charges.”
She reached up to rub her forehead, but stopped. Her hands were dirty. “It’s been more than a year, and now I sometimes have a hard time picturing him.”
Paul smiled a sad smile. “I guess that’s where time is healing your wounds.”
After surveying the area, he pulled her basket close to his pail and considered their harvest. “Let’s see. Twenty-six children at three berries each is seventy-eight. Five for each of the ladies would be another twenty-five. Konrad, Herr Ziemer, and I need at least six each. That’s a hundred and twenty-one, plus we need to leave extra with Frau Ziemer for canning.”
“Wait one minute, mister. Why do you men get more than we do?”
“We’re bigger. We need to keep up our strength.” He dumped her basket into the pail.
“Oh, really?” Heidi feigned outrage. “Well, you’ve already had at least two, so those can come out of the count.”
“No, those are disqualified because they weren’t clean.”
“That’s the flimsiest excuse I’ve heard in a long time.”
“Why should they count if they make me sick?”
Heidi laughed so hard, tears came to her eyes. “But, Paul,” she gasped, “eat, drink and be merry.”
“Exactly!” Paul pulled her to her feet. “Come on, we need to get these home and washed, or no one will have any.”
He whistled, and Fritz came running across the garden, making a beeline for Paul and barking in excitement. Paul passed the pail to Heidi, scooped up the pup, and cuddled him. “Hey, little buddy. Did you miss me way over there?” He grimaced as he got his face washed. “I’m going to miss this furball when I leave.”
As they approached the house, the youngsters surrounded Paul, clamoring for his attention.
“How about a leap frog race? Dieter, you and Hans will be one team starting here.” He reached out and grabbed another boy. “Bernd, you and Reinhard are here. And Willi and Ludwig here. Okay, here’s how it’s done.”
Heidi took the strawberries into the kitchen, and poured them into the sink.
When I leave. She bowed her head. That day was approaching much too quickly.
That afternoon, the boys mastered the frog jumping technique while Heidi worked with the girls on a sand castle. Christobel tugged on Paul’s arm. “Do you like our castle, Horst?”
Paul gave it grave consideration. “It’s coming along beautifully. How about dressing it up with flags flying from the turrets? Look for twigs with small leaves that can serve as flags.”
Christobel raced off for the nearest tree.
“You could tell her to climb that tree and jump down, and she’d do it.” Gretchen sidled up to Paul. She laid her head on his shoulder and gazed up at him, batting her eyes. “She’s in love with you.”
Paul winked at Heidi before tweaking Gretchen’s braid. “Are you speaking from experience?”
“I’m not telling.” Gretchen spun back to the sand castle with her nose in the air. She grinned at Heidi, but Heidi had trouble smiling back. Gretchen better not have another crush on Paul.
The afternoon sped by as the children romped and played. Encouraged by the older boys’ rough and tumble games, the little ones with Lieselotte and Frau Ziemer began turning summersaults, and Heidi joined the ladies in helping them perfect their skill.
Paul directed the boys in building a human pyramid.
“Reinhard, Willi, and Hans, down on your hands and knees. Let’s see, Ludwig and Dieter next. Ludwig, put your left hand on Reinhard’s shoulder and your knee at his hip with your right on Willi. Dieter, get up on Willi and Hans. There you go. And now Bernd, let’s get you up on Ludwig and Dieter, like that. There. You’re a pyramid.”
“What do we do now?” Ludwig’s hair was green with grass.
Paul shrugged. “Nothing.”
Reinhard started laughing and the pyramid collapsed into a mass of wiggling arms and legs. Fritz hopped up on the boys and began licking faces. The adults laughed as Paul pulled the boys out of their pile-up. Soon they were all on their feet, eager to try it again.
Konrad remarked to Heidi, “What are we going to do without him when he leaves?”
He may as well have doused her with a bucket of cold water. “I’ve been thinking of that.” Her voice came out shaky and she bit her lip. “In two short weeks, he’s drawn Dieter out of his pain into a laughing, mischievous imp. Will he revert into silence when Horst suddenly disappears? And Sabine always wants to share Horst’s lap during story times. She’ll be bereft when he leaves.”
“Not to mention yourself.” Konrad watched her with a knowing gleam.
Life had gotten so confusing. She’d agreed to help Paul escape from Germany for Rachel’s sake. Erich was still the love of her life. Wasn’t he? Lately, Paul, not her husband, consumed her thoughts. She hunched her shoulders. She shouldn’t have a guilty conscience. Surely she wasn’t falling for her friend’s husband. But Rachel and Erich were dead. She and Paul still lived. But she couldn’t love Paul. He’d be leaving in a matter of days. If only she could talk with Mama. Or Papa. She have the opportunity soon, if she returned to Hagen.
Karla called them in for dinner. They shepherded the children inside and got them washed up. Weariness smacked Heidi in the face, and the day wasn’t even over. She stifled a yawn.
“If you’re too tired to eat, I’ll be glad to have your share of the strawberries,” Paul whispered in her ear.
Heidi’s eyes snapped open wide. “Don’t you wish!”
She was in her seat before all the children were seated, Paul quietly chuckling. Nothing was going to deprive her of spending every possible moment with him. She’d sleep when he was gone.
Chapter Fourty-Eight
Bickenbach, Germany
Wednesday, June 14, 1944
Early the next morning, Heidi looked around the yard. Where had Paul disappeared to? Konrad was also missing, as well as some of the older boys. Faint sounds of laughter and barking came from the woods. She headed in that direction.
Her jaw dropped at the sight that greeted her. An old feeding trough had been dragged into the woods alongside the creek. Paul was stripped to the waist and the boys...
“A girl!” The alarm was raised by Bernd, and four naked, dirty boys scampered for cover.
Heidi kept her distance.
Their task became clear. Konrad had come home with a large supply of wood chips from the local cabinetmaker. The boys had placed the chips in the trough and added coal dust and water. Dieter and Reinhardt mixed the mess in the trough with their feet, like they were crushing grapes for wine. Paul and Konrad helped Bernd and Willi form baseball-sized shapes that, when dry, would make long lasting fires. “Looks to me like we’ll stay warm next winter, despite the short supply of fuel sources.”
Paul left the work party and crossed the small clearing to join her. “Indeed you shall.” His elegant words were incongruous with the black streaks decorating his face and chest. He smiled. “I’ll have to remember how to do this when I get back to England. We never have enough coal to keep the huts warm.”
Heidi tapped a finger on his chest. “Compliments of German ingenuity.”
“Hands across the waters.” He grabbed her hand and raised it to his lips. “Like us providing you with toilet paper.”
“Are they kissing?” Outrage filled the young voice.
Heidi and Paul whirled around. Willi stood with hands on his hips and lips pressed together. Konrad’s shoulders shook with silent la
ughter as he wagged a finger at them. Bernd dove behind the trough.
“Heidi, you shouldn’t be here. You’re embarrassing the little boys.” Paul’s grin told her he didn’t care if the little boys were embarrassed.
“Hmm, they’re wearing enough coal dust to be well covered.” She laughed. “They look like chimney sweeps.” Heidi looked him over. “And just look at your pants.” She brushed at a streak and her hand came away with a smear of dust. “Maybe you should have undressed further.” She dug her nails in her palms as soon as the words left her mouth. What must he think she was suggesting?
Paul shrugged, unbothered by her gaffe. “Life can be messy. We’ll get everyone cleaned up before returning for lunch. And,” he bowed, “without any extra work for you. That was nice of the coal man who delivered your ration to offer Konrad some cart loads of the dust so we could make your own briquettes.”
“Most folks are sympathetic to the children here.” She watched as Dieter, hunched down in the trough, held up a handful of the mixture. “I would think stepping on those chips would be painful.”
“They’re red-blooded Amer—, uh, German boys. They’ll never admit to a little pain.” Paul grinned. “Although we may have to inspect for splinters when this is done. I've seen a grimace or two.”
He stepped away, but before returning to the boys, Paul whistled. Fritz raced to his side. “Will you take Fritz back to the house?” He leaned close and whispered, “He wasn’t invited.”
“Oh, poor Fritzie.” She scooped him up and left the boys in privacy. “You’d rather play with the girls anyway, wouldn’t you? They’re having a tea party with mud cakes.”
Fritz licked her chin.
The rest of the morning passed while the children chased each other in what might have been a boisterous game of tag, or possibly keep away. Paul sat on the picnic table, his feet on the bench. With his elbows propped on his knees and his chin on his laced fingers, he was an island of calm in the chaotic yard. Adding to the mayhem, Fritz barked and bounced around, determined to join in the children’s play.
Friends & Enemies (Promise for Tomorrow Book 1) Page 26