The Copper Series

by Suzanne Woods Fisher

  I heard their voices, a happy chaos, and my heart melted. From somewhere deep inside of me, joy bubbled up, dispelling doubts Karl had planted. We weren’t a perfect family, but we loved each other. We belonged to each other.

  Later that night, just after switching off my bedside light, I peeked over Robert’s shoulder to see if he was still awake. “Robert?”

  “Hmm?” he mumbled.

  I put my chin on his shoulder. “I know I’ve told you I love you, but have I ever told you that I’m in love with you?”

  He yawned. “Is there a difference?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe not. I just wanted you to know.”

  He rolled over, looked at me curiously for a moment, then pulled me close to kiss me.

  * * * *

  After that upsetting conversation with Karl on the piano bench, I decided not to be alone with him any more. I made certain Elisabeth was included for the remaining practice sessions.

  When the night of the concert finally came, we waited in Robert’s office for the church to fill. As I finished putting a large bow in Elisabeth’s hair, suddenly she looked unsure. “Do you really tink I can do dis, Louisa?” she whispered.

  I smiled at her solemn, hungry eyes. “I know you can, Elisabeth.”

  Karl stood up, cucumber cool. “Ready, ladies?” He opened the door for us. I took Elisabeth’s hand and we walked into the church, as ready as we were going to be.

  Afterwards, when the concert was over, the three of us stood in front of the audience and took a bow, one by one. I bowed first, cheeks blushing as I caught the look on Robert’s proud face with baby Meg in his arms. Next to him, standing on his chair, William clapped wildly. Even Aunt Martha couldn’t hide her pleasure, but it might have been because the judge was seated next to her. Cousin Ada was seated on the other side of the judge. She looked as if she might faint from an overdose of happiness, though that was not an uncommon look for her.

  Next came Karl’s turn to bow. The audience’s applause grew even louder, just as I would have expected. I played well, Elisabeth played even better, but Karl played brilliantly. As if his life had never been interrupted by a world war.

  How foolish it was for him to think that he needed to bump me out of the competition years ago. Karl’s talent far exceeded mine or anyone else’s. He was always the best.

  But then Elisabeth took her bow, and the entire audience rose to their feet. She looked puzzled at first, not understanding. Then her face erupted into joy.

  Smiling, I glanced at Karl. As he realized that Elisabeth was receiving a standing ovation, I saw a dark shadow flit across his face.

  Suddenly, what had been a blur for me came into sharp focus.

  The Ladies Altar Guild held a reception for us in the church basement. As we headed down the stairs, Ada swooped toward us. “Louisa, I insist that you let me have Elisabeth for the summer. I know a music teacher in Phoenix who can prepare her for Julliard. That talent must be developed! Surely you agree! It won’t happen here in Copper Springs.”

  Aunt Martha interrupted. “She’s not your show pony, Ada.”

  Robert and I exchanged a look of surprise. Aunt Martha seemed bolder with Ada now that the judge seemed to be courting her openly.

  Uncharacteristically, Ada raised an eyebrow but let that comment pass by.

  “You should go this summer, Elisheva,” Danny volunteered.

  Elisabeth turned to look at Danny, chin quivering, her face filled with a painful awareness. “You vant me to go avay?”

  He nodded. “You have a chance to develop God’s gift. You should go.”

  She looked as if she was about to cry. “Fine, denn. I vill go,” she spat out, before turning and running back up the stairs.

  Danny watched her go, undisturbed, and turned to me. “Vhat is Julliard?”

  “It’s a university for musicians.”

  “She should go.” He spotted William, already down at the cookie table, stuffing cookies into his coat pocket, and hurried to join him.

  I followed Robert to the punch table and asked him why men were so oblivious to women’s feelings.

  “How so?” he asked, pouring a glass of punch.

  “How could Danny not even realize that Elisabeth is in love with him?”

  “What?!” He roared, spilling the punch down his trousers. He grabbed some napkins and started to pat his pants down. “Don’t tell me I brought two teenagers in love into our home? Please tell me I didn’t do that.”

  “I don’t think Danny feels that way about Elisabeth, if that makes you feel any better.”

  “Somehow, it doesn’t,” Robert said, looking pale. “It makes me feel worse.”

  As we got ready for bed that night, Robert asked me if I really thought Elisabeth loved Danny. The thought was bothering him. It bothered me, too, but it was hardly a new thought for me.

  “Haven’t you noticed how she looks at him? Even Aunt Martha has noticed.” And Aunt Martha was not a woman known for noticing.

  He frowned. “But how could I have missed that?”

  How indeed! “Well, anyway, first love is sweet.”

  Still distracted, he buttoned the top button of his pajama shirt and climbed into bed.

  Say it, Louisa. It’s time to tell him. “Robert, do you ever wish we had been first for each other?”

  “Hmm?” he mumbled, pulling the blanket up over him.

  “Do you ever wish we had met each other first? If my father had emigrated before the war, like I had wanted him to, and if we had moved to the United States. Maybe you and I would have met and loved each other first.”

  He gave me a patronizing look. “Louisa, I’m nine years older than you.”

  “Eight.”

  “Nearly nine,” he corrected. “We met when we were meant to meet.” He switched off his light.

  I sighed. This wasn’t easy.

  He rolled over to face me. “What do you mean about loving each other first?”

  “You know.” I meant Ruth. And Karl.

  “I know what you mean for me, but what did you mean for you?”

  I took a deep breath, steeling myself. I should have told him months ago, when I first returned from Germany. “When I first attended University, I met a young man.”

  He propped up his head on his elbow, now giving me his full attention.

  “He became an important person to me.”

  “Just how important?” he asked.

  I looked down at my hands. “We had planned to marry.”

  Robert raised his eyebrows, interested. “So what happened?”

  “He made a terrible decision one night, and it could never be the same between us.” I told him how this man had betrayed my father. Robert listened carefully but I could tell he hadn’t made the connection of Karl yet.

  Lord, please help him to understand.

  “Why haven’t you told me this before?” was all he asked as he leaned back on his pillow.

  I took a deep breath. “Because that man was Karl Schneider.”

  He jerked his chin up and accidentally hit the back of his head on the headboard. “Ouch!” Rubbing the back of his head, he sat up and switched the light on. It looked as if this was going to be a long night.

  There were a number of reasons that I dreaded telling Robert about Karl. Mainly, Robert’s first wife, Ruth, had an affair with Herr Mueller. I thought Robert would immediately assume that he would be betrayed again. I expected him to withdraw, cold and distant.

  Tonight, he shocked me. He calmly questioned me about Karl. I explained how Karl had found Elisabeth. “I had no idea Karl was the one who tracked me to Copper Springs until I saw him at the shelter.”

  I still hadn’t found out how he was able to locate me. Karl gave me vague answers whenever I asked him. That was one more thing that bothered me about Karl. His story wasn’t adding up.

  Robert stood up and went to gaze out the window, crossing his arms against his chest. “What does he want from you now?”

>   “He said he wants me to forgive him.”

  He turned and looked directly at me. “So that’s why he hasn’t left yet?”

  “Yes. No. Well…you see…” This was the other reason I had avoided telling Robert about Karl. I took a deep breath. “I told Karl the only way that I could forgive him would be if he found Friedrich Mueller.”

  Robert groaned, covering his face with his hands. “Louisa, what do you think you will gain by catching Mueller? Do you think you will make right all the wrongs Germany committed?”

  “No, of course not.” But it would be a start.

  “Mueller is long gone, Louisa. How many times do we have to go over this?”

  “But what about the man in William’s photographs?”

  “A drifter.” He sat down on the bed. “The scrounging has stopped, too. If…and I mean this very hypothetically…if Mueller were still here… things would continue to disappear. Mueller still has to eat.”

  “What if he knew Karl was closing in on him? Maybe he is going to Douglas or Bisbee for supplies.”

  Again, Robert rolled his eyes. “Louisa, Mueller is a very rich man. Why would he be hiding in Copper Springs, stealing food out of your little garden? It’s preposterous. Mueller is in some remote part of the world, having a heydey with all of the other Nazis.” He leaned over to switch off the light. “It’s time to put an end to this, Louisa. As long as you think you can find him, you are still letting him control our lives.”

  He stretched out on the bed. Suddenly, he bolted up and switched the light back on. “What did you just say? What did you mean when you said Karl was closing in on him?”

  Oh that. I explained that Karl thought he had found some evidence Herr Mueller had never left the area after killing Ruth, Robert’s wife. He had disappeared without a trace.

  Robert hung his head, as if he couldn’t believe what he had just heard. I braced myself for a stern lecture about Herr Mueller. Again, I was wrong. Instead, he said, “Look at the lengths Karl has to go to, in order to earn your forgiveness. I never imagined you as a hypocrite.”

  My eyes grew wide.

  He reminded me of the many times I had admonished him to forgive others. “Most recently,” he pointed out, “my sister, Alice. You invited her to our home and practically demanded that I forgive her! But you were right, Louisa. It was wrong of me to hang on to old bitterness.”

  I shifted uncomfortably on the bed. I hadn’t expected this line of reasoning and wasn’t prepared for it. “You can’t compare a runaway sister with a man who was responsible for the death of my father.”

  “What about Ruth, then? You told me I needed to forgive her, too.”

  He had me there.

  “So there’s a limit to forgiving someone?”

  I glared at him. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Louisa, you told me if someone asks for your forgiveness, it would be a sin to withhold it. You said that.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Why are you always so sure about others and so blind about yourself?” Now he was starting to use his pulpit voice.

  I tried to jump in to cut off his sermon, but he held up a hand to stop me from interrupting.

  He listed all of Karl’s sincere efforts to seek forgiveness: finding Elisabeth and tracking me down to reunite us, delivering Danny to Copper Springs.

  My excuses faded. I never dreamed I’d be listening to Robert defend Karl Schneider.

  “And he has asked you for forgiveness, Louisa. How can you refuse someone who asks for forgiveness? It isn’t true forgiveness if it comes with conditions.”

  Maybe not, but if Karl could find Herr Mueller, it would be easier.

  Chapter Fifteen

  At church the next morning, everyone flocked around Elisabeth, like birds at a feeder, to tell her how well she had played at the concert. I loved seeing her shy pleasure. I even enjoyed watching Trudy Bauer bestow temporary favored status on Elisabeth, insisting they sit together for the service.

  On Monday morning, Ada displaced Robert from his office. She said she needed to make emergency phone calls to the Phoenix Symphony to arrange details for Elisabeth’s summer.

  At lunchtime, Robert drove Ada back to Tucson to catch the train.

  The boys had finished making another rocket and were eager to set it off, so I borrowed Rosita’s Ford truck and took Danny and William out to the desert where Robert had taken them for launches.

  “We can’t stay too long,” I told the boys. “I have to be back before the baby’s nap is over. Aunt Martha said she would only babysit if Meg slept.”

  “Last time, Mom, the rocket shot up thirty feet!” explained William solemnly.

  Danny corrected him. “Only four feet, Vilhelm. Scientists do not exaggerate.”

  Today, though, the rocket didn’t go straight up but tipped over and streaked toward an abandoned cave. William volunteered to retrieve it and ran off to the cave.

  Danny face was crestfallen. “I don’t understand vhat I did wrong,” he murmured to himself.

  I looked at the launch pad. “Maybe the platform wasn’t sturdy enough.”

  Danny frowned as he examined the pad. “Vhen vill the Reverend get home?”

  “By dinnertime. He’ll know what went wrong with it,” I reassured.

  It took William a long time to retrieve the rocket. Danny and I had already packed up the platform and climbed into the Ford to wait for him. When William finally returned, he had something tucked under his shirt. I was just about to ask him what it was when Danny distracted me by shouting, “Look!” He pointed out a motorcyclist passing by on the highway. It was Karl. “Vhere is he going?” Danny waved but Karl didn’t notice. No wonder; we weren’t in the Chrysler.

  “I don’t know,” I answered. “Bisbee, I guess.”

  “Isn’t Bisbee the other way?” William asked.

  I glanced at Karl’s figure, receding down the highway. On the back of the motorcycle was a crate filled with grocery bags. Where was he going?

  William pointed to the odometer. “How far are we from town?”

  “Only three or four miles,” I answered, turning the truck onto the highway. “Why?”

  He shrugged, but seemed preoccupied for the rest of the trip.

  The Chrysler was parked in the driveway when we arrived home. I could hear baby Meg howling for dinner. I hurried inside to rescue Aunt Martha, but it was Robert walking the baby around, trying to settle her. Aunt Martha was in the kitchen, making dinner, with ear muffs on as if she lived in Alaska. Looking panicked, Robert held the baby out to me, eager to pass her off. I rushed upstairs to nurse her.

  Just as I was shifting the baby to the other side, Elisabeth burst into my room. She crossed her arms and stuck her chin out. “I wish dat Reverend had never brought Danny here.”

  Baby Meg heard Elisabeth’s voice and jerked her head to look at her, smiling.

  “You don’t mean that,” I said.

  “Ja, I do.” She plopped on my bed and stroked the baby’s foot with her finger.

  The baby started kicking her, giggling. Dinner was over, I decided, lifting the baby up onto my shoulder. I looked over at Elisabeth as she watched the baby. “Don’t you think Danny is happy here?”

  She scowled. “I don’t tink it matters vhere he is.”

  In an odd way, she was correct. Danny was completely content, serene in his circumstances. That remarkable quality was probably why he not only survived the camp, but helped others survive it, too.

  But that was not what Elisabeth wanted from him.

  “Elisabeth, Robert brought Danny here so he would have a family.”

  Her frown deepened.

  “Everybody needs a family.”

  She stood up to leave.

  “Danny does care about you. He just isn’t thinking about you the way you think about him. That’s the way boys often are.”

  She didn’t want to hear that. She put one hand on the door handle. “I tink dat stupid Trudy Bauer vants
him for a boyfriend. She vaits to valk home vit him every day.”

  “I think Danny probably has his mind on rockets and not on Trudy.”

  She brightened. “Really?”

  I nodded. “You can count on it.”

  When I tucked William into bed that night, I noticed today’s newspaper rolled up and stuffed in his jacket pocket. When I asked him about it, he pretended to fall asleep.

  Early Saturday morning, Aunt Martha banged on our bedroom door. “William is gone!”

  Robert jumped out of bed and opened the door. Aunt Martha held out a note to him. I went on a bike ride. Back by lunch. Dad, do not worry. William

  In the kitchen was evidence William had made his own breakfast. Sticky jam was all over the counter, a loaf of bread was out, and Dog was settled in the corner, licking clean an empty peanut butter jar. Hearing the commotion, Danny wandered into the kitchen, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “Danny, do you have any idea where William went?” I asked.

  He shook his head, yawning. “Nein.”

  I looked at Robert. “Should we go looking for him?”

  Robert scratched his head. “Maybe we should.”

  We spent the morning searching the streets for any sign of William. Finally, around lunchtime, as promised, he peddled up to the house as if he had just gone around the block. Angry and upset, Robert ran outside to meet him. “Where did you go?”

  William hopped off his bike. “On a bike ride.” He kept his chin tucked down.

  Robert stepped in front of the bicycle. He crouched down so William would have to face him. “Seven-year-olds do not just disappear on a bike ride at the crack of dawn. You gave us a scare.”

  William gave him a sheepish look. “But I left a note. I told you not to worry.”

  I opened the kitchen door as they came in. William hurried past me, avoiding my eyes. Robert held up his hands, exasperated.

  William was definitely up to something.