The Girls from the Beach

by Andie Newton

  Red took me by the elbow into the back bedroom where we found two more dresses and put them on in a rush.

  Roxy snagged a jar of beans off the counter as we ran out of that house, leaving the woman where we’d found her in the floor, and hoping her daughter or her son wouldn’t find her, but that someone else would. In the pasture right before the trees, we learned of her husband. A tombstone with a bouquet of simple flowers marked his grave. I looked at my hands, stained pink and sticky, and giving them a swipe down my dress.

  Roxy looked back at the house, almost looking sad, when Gail walked past us both, holding her arm. “They’re German,” Gail said, as if to remind us.

  Roxy put her arm around me. “Come on,” she said, and we walked the tree line away from the German mother’s house until we couldn’t see it.

  We stopped at a rain puddle so I could wash the tinge of blood off my hands. I scooped up a handful of water, splashing it over my hands, down my fingers, coloring the water a muddy pink. I wondered if anyone at our hospital noticed we were missing. Nosy Noreen most certainly had been in our tent. I felt it, her hands on my bed and looking over my things. “What time is it?” I said, shaking my hands out. “And where are we going? Where’s the river?”

  Red looked into the sky, guessing what time it might be, before pulling out Jack’s map. Lichtenau was to the west on the other side of the trees. There was another village in the east, and we’d be able to hug the tree line, but it would take longer and we’d be traveling deeper into Germany.

  Gail took a step toward Lichtenau, but Red stopped her with her voice.

  “We have to go through the next village, in the east,” Red said. “It’s the best way to make it to the river. What if someone recognizes us in Lichtenau—the women who ran?”

  I shook my head. “No, Red… It’s longer. And we have Gail’s arm to think about.”

  Red pointed up. “See those ducks? They’re eating corn. You want to go through that cornfield again?” she said, and Gail and Roxy immediately shook their heads. “We have to go east, the long way around. But look at us. We look a lot better than we did before in these new dresses. And we’ll do what we did in Lichtenau.” She pulled some flowering weeds. “Walk straight on through. The river bends that way, and we’ll be within running distance after we clear this other village. I know it.”

  “But what if the butcher and crazy Gilda are there?” I said.

  “They won’t be, you hear me?” she said, but I knew she had no way of knowing if they were down there or not.

  “All right. I’ll go through the village,” I finally said, but when I closed my eyes, I heard Gilda’s girly giggle in my head and a shiver shot up my spine. We were going east.

  “But nobody talk,” Red said. “Not even you two.” She pointed to me and Gail. “Unless you have to. Like I said, we walk straight on through.” She nodded once, and we nodded back.

  We gathered up our flowers and started walking toward the village but came to a grinding halt. A wide-open field, many yards long, separated us from the next tree line. Red kept walking as if it wasn’t an issue, but it seemed like a very big issue to me. “We have to go through it,” Red said.

  “We can’t!” I said, looking left then right, and up, standing still, holding the lumpy end of the bag close. “Red—” The strap slipped off my shoulder and slid down my arm.

  Red turned around as she walked. “See those trees on the other side,” she said, pointing. “Keep your eyes on those.”

  Gail followed Red, and after standing for a moment shaking in the weeds, me and Roxy stepped into the open field.

  Nobody talked, but it was our silence, and the odd crack in the trees behind us, and the crunch of the weeds under our feet that made our thoughts feel like spoken words. If we ran, it would be suspicious. If we walked too slow it would be suspicious. If we didn’t walk straight through it and tried hiding, it would look suspicious.

  “I don’t feel good about this,” I said, halfway through.

  Roxy looked left then right, and up, gulping. “Me either, toots. Almost there, almost there. Keep walking…”

  Gail sang softly, trying to keep our minds off how exposed we were, holding the werewolves’ diamonds—Americans in Germany for all to see, when Roxy joined in, humming shakily along. Then me too, step by step, with our eyes left then right, and up. Left then right, and up. Left then right, and—

  We all stopped, hearing the sudden rev of a plane buzzing overhead. Roxy covered her mouth and Gail too.

  “Where is it? Where…” I said, breathless and scared, twisting and turning in place trying to find it in the air.

  Gail pointed. “There it is!” and she tried to run, but Red stopped her.

  “Wait! We’re in Germany,” Red said. “The Luftwaffe isn’t going to fire on us. They think we’re Germans. Wave,” she said, and we all looked at her as she waved to the pilot, who most likely only saw her a speck, a waving speck from a German woman. She elbowed me. “Wave, dammit!” And we waved, watching the plane fly over the trees, the roar of its engine revving and fluctuating as it dropped lower in the sky flying toward us.

  “Bastards,” I said. “I hope we blow you out of the sky.”

  “Yeah,” Roxy said, “you dirty, no good pile of—”

  “Just wave, will you?” Red said, and we continued waving, but it was flying much lower than I thought a plane should.

  I put my hand back to my eyes, shielding a glare. “Why is it so low?” I said, and my arm dropped to my side. “Why—”

  Bullets sprayed the field in front of us. Zap, zap, zap, zap…

  “Run!” I yelled, and Gail and Red took off for the trees screaming, but Roxy stood shaking in her shoes, fixated on the firing plane coming straight for her.

  21

  KIT

  I slugged Roxy’s arm, and she snapped from her fog to run with me into the trees, leaping to the ground and covering our heads as the bullets punched the very spot where we’d been standing. I rolled over as they flew off, catching sight of the American star on the fuselage, and closed my eyes, blowing air from my mouth.

  “I’m really sick and tired of getting shot at!” Roxy said, and she let go of the flowers that somehow managed to stay clutched in her fist. “Ahh, and I broke the jar of beans.”

  “They didn’t know we’re American,” I said, and I flopped backward after trying to get up too soon, feeling my chest.

  “No, but they saw that we were women,” Gail said, and we were quiet, lying in the grass.

  “It’s war, ladies,” Red said, after a pause. “We can’t judge. Not us. Not after what we’ve been through. And what we’ve done.”

  I got up slowly, slinging the bag of diamonds over my shoulder.

  Red asked Gail how her arm felt, and she shook her head vigorously that it wasn’t good. “We’ll be in France tonight,” Red said. “We’ll get you the best surgeon in reconstruction. There might be a remedy for the poison—”

  “I’m worried,” Gail said, and her eyes had teared up but she wouldn’t let them fall.

  “I know you are,” Red said, and Roxy looked at me, and I knew she was worried too. We all were worried. It had been a day since she’d bought that bullet, and although one stiff finger sounded like she got away lucky, we were trained to know the worst wounds often revealed themselves days later.

  We dusted the grass from our dresses and fixed our hair, using some of the ribbons we took from the German girl’s bedroom. Red fixed her kerchief, tucking her hair underneath until only the wispy strawberry-blonde parts showed. “A quick and easy walk-through,” Red reminded us, and we followed her into the trees and down to the village.

  We should have known it wasn’t going to be a quick and easy walk immediately after Red said those fateful words, because anytime someone was certain, there was always something unexpected waiting for us. We walked through a grassy area nearing the village.

  “What’s that noise?” I said, and it sounded like a crowd,
laughing, and the din of many voices talking, but Red shook her head.

  We made it to a cobblestone road, and although we’d heard the crowds first, we didn’t know what we were in for until we got up close. Roxy elbowed me, but I was too stunned to elbow back. Red and Gail stood with their mouths hanging open.

  Nazi flags unfolded from second-story windows over the heads of children standing at attention along the curb, waving miniature Nazi flags, while others talked proudly about the Wehrmacht.

  A parade. Ah, hell. We’d walked into a damn military parade. I shook myself to, pushing Red backward where nobody could hear us, and Gail pushed Roxy. “A walk-through, huh?” I said. “The Wehrmacht’s here!” I looked back, making sure nobody was walking up on us.

  “How was I supposed to know?” Red said. She peeped over my shoulder. “Looks like they’re passing through.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “And where do you think they’re going? We have to go around,” I said, and I clutched the bag of diamonds close. “I have the Reich’s jewels for crying out loud. This is the last place we should we walking through.”

  “Yeah, Red,” Roxy said. “What if—”

  “No,” Gail said, and we all looked at her. “It’s the quickest way now. We have to get across the river.”

  I closed my eyes, sucking air through my teeth. She was right, but it didn’t mean I had to like it. I hiked the bag strap over my shoulder. Roxy hooked arms with Gail, hiding her wound from the locals, and I linked arms with Red. We walked off cautiously, but with forced smiles through the crowds, and I started to think maybe we could get through the village quick and easy with so many people to hide between, as long as we never stopped.

  Squeals and cheers followed the scamper of women running arm in arm for the nearest curb, ribbon tails bouncing off their shoulders and bouquets of flowers shaking in their hands. We got caught up in the fervor, and before we knew it, we were boxed in and forced to stand on the curb with the others, waiting for the parade. I looked sorrowfully up at Red, and we scooted in close when we felt the crowd sway.

  “Victory!” a woman shouted, and a hundred heads turned to look down the street. I held my breath, waiting, waiting for what was to come, then the first line of soldiers marched around the corner, and I covered my mouth. I was both scared and shocked, nothing could have prepared me, then something happened I didn’t expect, and I burst into a shaking, uncontrollable cry on the street from having looked the enemy up close and in the eye.

  Other women burst into tears, saluting as they passed, shouting for the deaths of Americans, and my stomach roiled. “Death to the pigs, death to the pigs!” I heard.

  Gail tossed her flowers at the Wehrmacht’s feet as they marched, following the others. “Victory,” she said in German, followed by an elbow to Roxy, then Red, and to me to follow suit.

  “Victory,” I said, tossing my flowers.

  A Tiger tank rolled in next, rumbling with the clunk of its track beating over the pavement. Tack, tack, tack, tack… I felt light-headed and faint. The tank stopped in front of us, and I couldn’t tell if I was breathing. My chest hurt; my blood pounded. The hatch burst open, and a commander popped out, waving as a collective gasp and awe followed a roar of applause. Children held their Nazi flags high in the air and mothers blew kisses.

  He caught a thrown rose, kissed it, then searched the crowd for a deserving German woman to receive it. Women competed with young girls, jumping up and down, begging for it to be them, when he pointed to me, hurling it through the air from his tank. I gulped, eyes fixated on the rose as it arced like a rainbow, tumbling bloom over stem, right to me.

  The crowd went wild, women wanting to touch the rose he’d thrown but also cajoling me to blow him a kiss. Red jabbed me in the ribs, and I blew a great big kiss off my palm, only to hang my head after, and wipe my eyes.

  We walked away soon after, stiff, numb, and not saying a word until we made it to the other side of the village. “Promise me you’ll never tell anyone about that for as long you live,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Red said. “I promise.”

  “Gail, Rox?” I said, and they both turned to me, nodding.

  *

  We’d walked for what seemed like hours, and there was no sign of the bend in the river Red had talked about. Our stomachs growled, and soon enough Roxy was complaining about her stomach again. “It hurts, Kit,” she said, and I sighed.

  “We’re all hungry,” I said. “Besides, we’ll be in France soon. At that vineyard Jack talked about, and I’m sure they’ll have something there for us.”

  “But where is it?” she said. “We’ve been walking all day. What if someone back at the hospital has noticed we’re gone?” She dug her hands into her sides as she walked, grimacing from hunger pains. “And look.” She pointed. “The sky is turning and it’s getting late.”

  It was getting late, and the all too familiar evening breeze brought with it the usual graying skies. “I know, Rox,” I said, and I shivered, looking up and holding my hand out, waiting for that raindrop to fall. An explosion in the west made us look.

  “The river has to be close,” Red said.

  Roxy stopped abruptly. “What’s that?” She pointed straight ahead beyond a dirt field to an orchard. “Could it… Yes, it is!” She glanced at me over her shoulder, smiling. “Apples!”

  She trotted off ahead, running past Red and Gail straight toward the dirt field. Red tried to grab her. “Wait…” she said in a shouted whisper. “Roxy—wait a minute!”

  “Oh, let her go,” I said, as Roxy skipped off toward the trees.

  “No!” Red said, and she grabbed my arm, and that’s when I saw how manicured the field in front of it was, corded and groomed. “It’s a mine!”

  Roxy stopped on a dime, arms flung out, careful not take one more step. “Oh my God!” She looked over her shoulder to us, then back at her feet, inches from meeting the dirt.

  We ran after her, but it was Red who walked her last steps with a determined gait that would have made any one of us shake in our boots. But instead of smacking Roxy upside the head like I thought she was going to do, she ended up hugging her. “Dammit, Roxy.” She squeezed Roxy tightly before letting go. “Don’t do that again. You almost gave me a heart attack.”

  “You?” Roxy looked completely mortified, clutching her chest. “I could’ve been blown to bits!”

  “Come on,” Red said, and we walked around the dirt field into the orchard, which was cool and damp with shade, and dirty. Weathered leaves collected around the base of each tree. Enough kindling to light up the entire orchard with the strike of one match, had it not been for the rain last night.

  “Can’t we please rest, Red,” Roxy said. “Two minutes. I beg you.”

  “No,” Gail barked, and she looked over both her shoulders while clutching her arm. “We have to keep going. I know the river is close…”

  “Two minutes,” Roxy said. “Please. Two. Minutes. I don’t have any strength in my arms or legs and I’m worried about the swim.”

  “I’m too nervous to stop,” I said. “Someone could be following us.”

  Red stopped walking and Roxy thanked her repeatedly, while Gail held her arm, wincing, taking occasional glances through the trees, looking for the butcher, the enemy, and anyone else. I held the bag of diamonds close.

  “All right. Two minutes. But that’s all,” Red said, and then she turned to me and Gail. “She needs the food to make it across the river.” She pointed to a tree. “Might as well have an apple.”

  We stood under one of the heartiest trees with low-hanging branches. Roxy moaned and groaned like an old woman flopping to the ground with one hand on her back. She pulled an apple off a branch above her head, taking a big bite. “Man, oh man. Will you get a load of this?” She shook the apple in her hand. “Something the Germans did right. Apples.”

  “Everything tastes good when you’re hungry,” Red said, and Roxy shrugged, taking another bite.

  Me and Gail sat do
wn hesitantly, still looking through the trees, but we had no choice. Red was right, Roxy needed to eat if she had a prayer of making it across that river. I picked an apple for myself.

  “I can’t wait for this war to be over,” I said, and everyone looked at me. “What? Shouldn’t we be thinking about it? Thoughts of hope, something to look forward to.”

  I took a bite of my apple. God, Roxy was right. It was delicious, juicy and sweet.

  “I know what I’m looking forward to.” Roxy chewed up the last bite of her apple, giving the core a toss. “Finding a fella.”

  “You don’t have one already, Rox?” Red said. “I thought you would’ve had all the boys in Jersey by the sound of you—the way you talk to the soldiers.”

  We’d all thought it one time or another. Roxy had a way with the boys. The way she wore her uniform, unbuttoned one button too many, the way she talked, sexy at times, and the way she let the boys touch her.

  “I know what you dolls all think,” Roxy said, looking at us. “But ya know what?” She picked an apple directly over her head, studying it, feeling it in her palm before taking a bite. “I’ve never had a man.”

  “Knock it off, Rox,” I said, and she looked directly at me, eyes pointed.

  “Truth,” Roxy said, and she tapped her heart then pointed to me. “On your life.”

  My mouth hung open before I smiled. “Mother of God.”

  Red and Gail looked surprised too.

  “I’m not the only virgin in Jersey who carries herself like a real broad, let me tell ya… you’d be smart to try it,” Roxy said.

  I moved kindling around in front of me with my apple core, thinking about all the boys back home. Most I’d known since kindergarten, most who’d gone off to war like Sam. The ones who stayed were all older. “Oh, I could never do that in Washington,” I said. “Never.”

  “Well, we’re not in Washington, now are we?” Roxy said. “There’s always Jack.”

  “What?” I yelped. “Because we chatted about home?”

  “It’s more than that,” Roxy said, winking. “Don’t think we didn’t see that lingering touch thing he did with your hand when we left.” She laughed. “Red, tell her you saw it too.” And Red nodded. “Gail too,” she said, and Gail nodded.