The Woman with the Blue Star, Pam Jenoff [highly recommended books txt] 📗

found him here. My insides recoiled and I was seized with the urge to turn and leave. But I had to find Krys.

I walked toward her with determination. “Hello, I’m looking for Krys Lewakowski,” I said bluntly, waiting for a sign of recognition on her face. But her expression remained unchanged. “I saw you together,” I added. “I know you know him. He said he is staying here.”

“He isn’t here,” she replied coldly.

“I need to find him. It’s important.” She stared at me for a beat, then turned and disappeared into the back of the café. He wasn’t here, I realized with disappointment. I contemplated what to do next, whether to try his parents’ house at such a late hour.

“Ella?” Krys appeared suddenly through the door behind the bar. The woman had been lying; he was here. He hurried toward me. “What is it? Is everything all right?” I had worried that he might still be angry from our last meeting. But his expression was a mixture of surprise and concern.

“Yes... That is, no.” I paused, trying to figure out the best way to tell him the secret I’d been keeping. I lowered my voice. “When they cleared the ghetto, some of the Jews managed to escape and go into hiding.”

He nodded. “I’ve heard rumors of such things.”

“A few escaped to the sewer.”

“The sewer? But even if that were possible, where would they go?”

“They didn’t go anywhere. That is, they’re still in the sewer, close to the Dębniki market. I’ve been helping one of them, a girl.”

His eyes widened. “So that’s why I kept seeing you there?”

“Yes. But now their main source of food is gone. I need to help her find some food to take back to the others.”

Remembering how I had refused to help him with his work for the Home Army, I thought he might say no. “How many people are with her?”

“Four I think.” I watched as he processed the information. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” I expected him to be angry with me. He ran his hand along the back of his head, seeming to think.

“When do you need it?”

“Tonight. Can you help?”

“I don’t know. There’s so little food now in the city, Ella.”

I nodded, acknowledging the truth of what he said. The faces of the people at the market seemed more gaunt by the day as they left with their baskets still largely empty. “Surely through your army contacts, you can manage to find something.”

“I’ll try, but it is very difficult. The Home Army is complicated. It’s big and it’s got a lot of people with different aims. There is this one black marketeer, Korsarz, who sometimes helps the Polish Army get what it needs.”

“Korsarz,” I repeated the code name, which in Polish meant pirate. “Do you think he can help?”

Krys shook his head grimly. “I don’t know, but I’d rather not find out. He’s an unscrupulous character and he’ll deal with anyone—including the Germans—for a price.”

“If it’s a question of money...” I began, picturing Ana Lucia’s grand belongings and wondering which I could steal that would be most easily pawned for cash.

“It isn’t that. Korsarz has done some awful things and I won’t deal with him, at least not if I can help it. I’ll try to find another way. I need to reach out to my contacts and find a way to get extra food without attracting attention. It will take a few days, a week at most.”

My shoulders slumped. “We don’t have that kind of time. They need food now and I need to get Sadie back to the sewer.” It was the first time I shared her name and it felt somehow vulnerable.

“She’s out?” I nodded. Alarm crossed his face. “Where is she?”

“I hid her in the alleyway.”

“Do you want me to get her out of Kraków?”

I considered the idea. Sadie was out of the sewer now, and this could be her only chance for freedom. The offer was a big one, I knew. Getting a Jew out of Kraków now would not be easy and I was grateful to Krys for suggesting it. But I knew Sadie would never accept. “I’ll ask her, but I doubt she’ll agree. Her mother is down in the sewer. She has to go back. Either way, she won’t abandon the others to starve. I just need to get her food.”

“Just? I wish it were that simple.”

“If you can’t do it, I understand.” I struggled to keep the disappointment from my voice. Krys didn’t owe me anything anymore. “Thanks anyway.” I started away, thinking about how I was going to tell Sadie I had failed her.

“Wait,” he said. I turned back. “Let me see what I can do.”

“Really?”

“No promises, but I’ll do my best.” A wave of hope and gratitude rose in me. Despite our quarrels and the difficulty finding food, Krys was willing to try. I could see his mind working, trying to figure out how to make the impossible happen. “Give me a few hours.”

I looked up at the night sky, trying to calculate how much time we had. “She has to go back before daybreak.”

“Where does she go underground?”

“There are concrete steps down to the river near Podgórze. About twenty feet to the east of there, you will see a sewer grate. Do you want me to come with you to get the food?”

“Yes,” he said bluntly, an unmistakable note of affection in his voice. The woman who had summoned him for me was behind the bar again, and though we were too far away for her to hear our conversation, I could feel her watching us. “But I don’t think that’s our best plan. You go with your friend and hide her somewhere safe. I will meet you by five o’clock by the grate with whatever I have—if I can find anything at all.”

Before I could thank him, he turned and walked through the door behind the bar. I started out the front door to find Sadie.

When Sadie