by L. E. Waters
Juliane runs to wash her hands in the bathroom as Verena leaps up and corners Dr. Wurst. She brings her face close to his. “So you think I’m too old now, Doctor? I can still get your heart racing.” She plants a bare leg on one side of him and keeps one strong arm up to complete the trap. With her free hand she pops open the top three buttons on her sweater, revealing that she has no shirt underneath. Verena then runs a finger down from his mouth down to his tight crotch, where she grabs. “I’ve still got it.” She spins away from him with a witchy giggle and he scampers along the wall like a mouse, clutching our files like a shield.
Ursel screams, “It’s a good thing you can’t see the shadow person that’s following you out of here, Doctor!”
Frieda finally shoos Minna, Ursel, and Sibylle off of Bathilda. Bathilda fumes, “We need tranquilizers! They’re rioting!”
“No, they’re not, Bathilda. I’ll get them into their rooms. We don’t need to drug them.”
Bathilda grabs a chair and holds it in front of her as she backs into the safety of her office.
Frieda shakes her head in disbelief. “This is going to be very bad.” Odelia starts sobbing, and I turn to a frozen Gitta, who’s having her first seizure in months. The rest of us hang our heads like old sunflowers in an unharvested field.
Chapter 22
Dr. Evert still doesn’t walk in the next morning or the day after that. Kathrin does return, though, and she can tell by the look on my face something terrible has happened.
“What’s wrong?” She pales.
“It’s Dr. Evert. He’s gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?”
“No one’s seen him since he met with Luther to discuss getting me out, and his office has been cleaned out.”
“Do you think he would come to say goodbye to you if he left?”
I nod. “He didn’t want to leave.”
“Do you think he was forced to leave and couldn’t come to say goodbye?”
“I think something horrible happened to him.” I clear my throat, which has closed up. “The doctor that reexamined us two days ago mentioned that he was taken away for political crimes. Bathilda reported him.”
“What do they know? They could just be saying that. He might still be safe.”
“I feel it in my gut that he’s not safe.”
She tries to change the topic. “Well, I’m sure that you’ll be released soon after they examined you.”
I shake my head.
“You didn’t tell them that you believe in past lives, did you?” Her eyes seem so heavy.
“I don’t want to talk about it, but all I will say is that it did not go very well for any of us.”
Her shoulders slump and she can’t say anything.
“Odelia’s husband is going to look into Dr. Evert’s disappearance, and he’s vowed to get us released.”
“No, I know how to get you out.” I lose her to a far-off look.
I reach across the table to bring her back to me. “We are not at that point yet, Kathrin. Give Gustav a chance. Even Dr. Evert might still return to help us after all. Maybe he had to leave in order to free us. Maybe that’s why no one’s come to take us away yet.”
She locks eyes with me and gives me a knowing look. “I won’t be able to help you once you’re on one of those trucks. I have to help you while I still can.” She flips the clasp on her purse and takes out a mirror to check her hair.
“At least try to contact Gustav Steinthal. Maybe the two of you can work together.”
She smacks her lips together after she finishes applying bright red lipstick. “I will do that as well.”
She reaches over the table to give me a red kiss, but I hold on to her. “No, Kathrin, don’t do it. Luther is a dangerous man. Go see Gustav first, please.”
“Only if you give me that number Gordon gave you.” She holds her dainty hand out.
I try to imagine what she will do with it and hate to part with it, but I’m just glad she’s considering other options. I take the crumpled piece of paper out of my brassiere and lay it in her hand. “Only call when you need to.”
She closes her hand around it and tucks it into her purse “I love you,” is all she says before she walks away. I stand at the window, trying to see which direction she heads, and everything inside me sinks when I catch her clicking her heels down to House C 16.
Ursel slides up beside me and Elfi flanks the other side. “Where’s your sister going?”
“She’s trying to get us out of here,” I say, but bite my lower lip after I say it.
“The little Asian woman that follows me around told me to tell you we need to get out of here.”
This distracts me for a moment. “What Asian woman?” I try to think back to all of her hallucinations: vampires, shadowmen, dancing kittens, unicorns, fairies, gnomes…yep, no Asian woman.
“She’s just a lady who watches me. Sometimes she talks to me, but not very much.”
Elfi asks, “Is she dangerous?” She searches behind Ursel. “Is she watching us right now?”
Ursel points casually to the chair in the farthest corner of the room. “Yes, but she’s harmless. Actually, she told me to come to this hospital and now she’s telling me it’s time to go.”
I venture, “Did she tell you that she’s your spirit guide?”
Ursel laughs. “No, I don’t see spirits.”
I feel like I’m talking to a two-year-old. “Everyone has a spirit guide.” I try another tactic. “Did she say how we could get out of here?” Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Ursel points. “We’ll just walk out the door, then out the gates.”
Did I actually think her spirit guide—if that’s what she is—could tell me how we’ll escape?
Elfi stares where she supposedly is sitting. She whispers, “Don’t you hate that she’s watching you all the time?”
Ursel shrugs. “It’s the ones that scream in my ear, pull my hair, or tell me lies that make my life miserable. I don’t even think about her that much, she’s so quiet. I wish they all were like her, then no one would think I was crazy. I could ignore them then.”
Elfi checks each the corner. “I wish I could see mine. Maybe they could warn me and keep me out of danger.” Her eyes get wide. “Maybe I don’t have one. Maybe that’s why I never feel safe.”
“Most people can’t see their guides. They protect us and give us messages in other ways,” I say, and Elfi’s eyes relax a little.
“Can you see yours?” she asks.
“Only in my dreams sometimes.”
“Why don’t you ask yours, then?” Ursel looks at me like I’m crazy.
“It doesn’t always work that way.” Even though I wish it did.
Ursel spurts out, “Mine is jumping up and down right now, pointing at the gates.”
The sound of clanking gates outside the hospital catch my attention.
“Let us in!” an older man hollers at the two guards standing on the other side of the locked gate. The guards turn their backs on the small gathering of people but keep their hands clenched on their guns.
“Where is our son?” an older woman cries.
A guard shouts back, with a laugh in his voice, “They have been transferred.”
The woman cries, “We went to see him and they said he died of pneumonia.”
“They said my sister died of pneumonia too,” another man shouts.
A large man shakes the gates. “How can they all die of pneumonia? All in the same week?”
The guards say something to each other and have the nerve to chuckle. They keep their backs turned.
“Show us their graves, then,” a young, handsome man yells. “Why aren’t there any graves?”
More gate clanging.
A soft-voiced woman begs, “Please”—she wraps her delicate fingers around the cold iron gate—”tell me what you saw in there. Where are all the patients?”
&nb
sp; The guards now look wary.
“Look at us!” a mother screams. “We aren’t going to go away. We are going to find out what’s happening here.”
One guard turns around finally and the crowd backs up as he swings his gun in their direction. “Leave now, or I’ll summon the Police Leader.”
“Everyone will know what’s happened to our little Heinrick.” A man clasps his small wife. “We will be back and you’ll all hang for this!”
Fists are thrown in the air and they slowly walk back down the road, away from the entrance.
I knew families weren’t going to accept this. My heart lightens at the promise of such devotion. Devotion Dr. Evert didn’t think existed here.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Kathrin’s back the next day, flapping a piece of paper in the air. She whispers once she reaches the table I’m sitting at, “Come on, Annelie. You’re getting out of here today.” Her face is triumphant, but her eyes are stone.
“Today?” I look around at the place I’ve grown so used to.
Her presence draws Bathilda out.
“Oh, Bathilda. I brought some sweets for the patients. They are the finest chocolates from Berlin.”
Bathilda appears to sniff the air. “Are they from the same place the last ones were from?”
Kathrin controls her face perfectly even though I have to turn away so she can’t see my smile. “No, these are from a more expensive place. Annelie deserves the best.”
“I’ll have to inspect them first.” Bathilda can’t take her eyes off of them, and as soon as Kathrin hands them to her, she disappears into her office.
“Good. Now we can talk.” She slides over the guest pass with my name on it.
“Kathrin, what did you promise for this?”
She readjusts her hair. “It’s over and done with and I don’t want to talk about it ever again.”
“I understand, and I’m grateful, but this is only one pass. I can’t leave—”
“Blah, blah, blah. I know, you can’t leave ‘without the others’.” She heaves a tote bag onto the table. “I have a plan. Remember the trick we used to play on strangers? We’ll play it on the guard at the gate, make him think we’ve all risen from the dead.”
I see Síofra’s spark in her eyes. “A plan Redmond O’Hanlon would be proud of.” Our eyes share a secret.
She pulls an old dress of mine from her bag. “Put this on.”
I take it. “The dresses Mother made? I grew out of this years ago.”
She pops her overcoat open to expose the same ill-fitted dress, separating precariously where the buttons strain. “I managed to squeeze into it, if I just don’t breathe too deep. Plus, you’re a skeleton now.”
“But it’s a summer dress and it’s November.”
“It’s the only thing we have that matches.” She sighs loudly. “Just go put it on and I’ll round up the ol’ gang.” She gives me a wink.
“Do you think they’ll be able to pull it off?”
“If anyone can, it’s them.” Her smile hides the doubt she must feel.
“What would I do without you?” I grab her tight.
She pushes the dress at me. “Hopefully you won’t find out today.”
By the time I get back out, everyone has their coats on, stuffed with anything they care about.
“We might not die in the showers after all, Annelie.” Elfi shakes with excitement.
They look giddy, except for Odelia and Gitta. Gitta says, “Kathrin says this is the only way we can get out of here alive.”
“Kathrin’s got a good plan,” I say.
Verena says, “Or Dr. Wurst’s going to come through these doors any minute, armed with nurses with long needles.”
Frieda notices us in our coats and gives a knowing look. She rushes to us. “Girls, it’s not possible that you can get out. I’ve seen the patrols inside the hospital and outside. I can’t let you leave knowing what will be your fate.”
“It will be the same fate we will surely meet if we don’t leave here today, Frieda.”
She nervously looks at Bathilda’s office. “But she will sound the alarm for sure.”
Kathrin laughs. “I don’t think Bathilda will give us any trouble.”
We walk to the office to see the beast sprawled out across the few uneaten chocolates left.
“You’ve killed her!” Minna claps.
Kathrin ducks to check her breathing. “No, she’s still alive, unfortunately. Just very, very sleepy.”
“Hold on a minute.” Frieda walks into Odelia’s room and comes back out wearing her clothes. “Here. They’ll only let you walk around the grounds with a nurse.” She hands her uniform to Verena. “You look like me the most.” Verena strips down right there with no shame and slips it on. Frieda places her photo ID around her neck.
“Wait.” Kathrin fumbles in her tote for an eye pencil. She creates Frieda’s mole by Verena’s eye. “Better.”
“But you’ll get in trouble for helping us, Frieda,” Sibylle says. “They’ll kill you too.”
“I’ll just fall asleep as well.” Frieda eases out the box from under Bathilda’s arm and eats the last of the chocolates. “Good luck. But you must not walk down to the trains, there are guards patrolling everywhere.”
Kathrin says, “I hope we don’t have to.”
“I don’t want to go after all.” Gitta wrings her hands. “What if I have an episode?”
“I’ll hold your hand.” Odelia reaches for her.
Frieda reaches her arms around us all and says, “I will keep praying for your safety. Please send me word somehow.”
Bathilda slips off her desk and crashes face-first onto the floor.
“That’s going to leave a mark,” Verena says, and we laugh as Frieda shoos us down the hall.
Elfi halts at the door to the outside, stopping all of us. “Well, this is it. Once we go out this door, we can’t go back.”
“I think drugging Bathilda was the point of no return.” Kathrin laughs and bundles up her coat in her bag.
Verena pushes ahead of Elfi. “Let’s go, girls!”
Chapter 23
A cold breeze blows against us, making it hard to keep the door open while we spill out. Kathrin shivers immediately and turns to me. “You’re right. It’s freezing.”
I hug myself to try to stay warm as we head across the courtyard toward the gates. Minna and Gitta spin around as soon as they see a guard walking in our direction.
Verena turns them back around and whispers, “Stay quiet and let me talk.”
The guard starts to run to us, only a boy with a large gun. “Nurse!”
Verena straightens her cap. “Can I help you, soldier?” She can’t help but say it seductively.
He stares at each of us and I wish Kathrin still has her coat on since he stares extra-long at our tight, out-of-season dresses. “Where are you taking these patients?”
“To the dining room, for lunch.”
“We’re required to check ID.”
She holds her ID card right above her cleavage. When did she undo all those buttons? He steps closer to look at it and the distraction works. Verena says, “My, my, you’re even more handsome close up.”
I worry she’s going to attract too much attention to us now, but he moves on to check each one of our IDs. He stops at Kathrin, who has her paper visitor pass ready for inspection.
“You’re not allowed to eat with them,” he orders, like she would ever want to.
“I’m leaving.” Kathrin starts to shiver.
He nods and says, “Everyone else, go straight there.”
Verena pretends to shepherd us and, once we’re out of earshot, she says, “That was one of the gatekeepers. I watch all the soldiers. He must be on his way to the toilet.” Sure enough, that is where he turns.
Kathrin clasps her hands together and checks up to God. “Our prayers have been answered. This will
work much better with only one gatekeeper.”
“Wait.” I see the garden. “I have to go get Teresia.”
“The rabbit?” Verena shakes her head. “No, we don’t have time, and how will you carry it?”
I grab Kathrin’s tote. “It will only take me a few minutes.” I look at Kathrin. “No one will feed her and she’ll die within a few days in her cage.”
Kathrin grants me a worried nod and I dash off. I open her hutch in record time, which scares Teresia, sending her into her bedding box. “Don’t go hiding on me now.” She decides to come back out to me and I scoop up her warm body, wishing I could just hold her the whole way, but I place her in the bag. I take the last look at the garden—the place where Georg kissed me, the rabbit hutch and benches Fridric made, the things we brought alive with our own hands, the beauty created out of so much misery. I know that, with either outcome of this plan, I will never see this garden again.
I get there in time to see Kathrin hand Gitta her photoless pass, and she gives me the release order with my name on it. Gitta removes her photo ID. Kathrin then turns to the girls. “Now just look as haunting as you can.” They blink back, naturally looking ghostly from lack of food and sun recently and the spark of a little crazy in their eyes. Gitta shivers.
Sibylle asks, “Do you want to wear my coat, Gitta?”
“No, thank you, I’ve got my wool coat on, but I can’t stop shivering,” she answers through chattering teeth.
I worry this will bring on an episode, so I say, “We have to hurry before that guard comes back.”
Kathrin hugs me one more time and crouches behind us as we make our way up to the gate. As soon as we approach, she ducks behind a large tree.
“What are all of you doing here?” The guard points his gun at us right away. “Go back to your cages.”
“We want to go home,” I say flatly and hand him my pass. He takes it while clutching his gun, and checks my photo ID against the name. Gitta hands him her pass as well. “Do the rest of you have passes as well?”
They shake their heads slowly. He scoffs nervously. “Take them back, Nurse, or I’ll call the Police Leader.” He picks up his keys from inside the gatehouse and unlocks the gate, opening it only wide enough for Gitta and me to slip through. He slams the gate and it locks with a clang. Gitta and I turn around and just stare back at our group.