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

few days passed sadly for all of us. Bubbe’s loss was much harder than I imagined. The chamber felt empty and cold without her. She had been grumpy as the elderly could be and sometimes harsh, yet she had helped my mother deliver the baby and had comforted me after Mama left. Her death created more of a void than I would have expected. Now it was just Saul, his father and me. Our numbers were shrinking day by day and I could not help but wonder who would be next—or how much longer it would be until we were all gone.

21

Ella

One evening in early August, I sat alone in the garret, too restless to read or paint. The house below was still. Ana Lucia had not hosted any of her gatherings in more than a month. The mood of the Germans on the street had changed perceptibly as reports of their struggles in battle against the Soviets to the east, as well as Allied advances in Italy, became too frequent to doubt. I imagined that the guests who had once enjoyed my stepmother’s parties were in no mood to celebrate. It was just as well. With the dwindling food supply, she would not have been able to entertain in her usual style.

My eyes traveled to the photo of Krys on my desk. More than three weeks had passed since I had gone to the café to seek his help locating Sadie’s mother and found him missing. I had not heard from him since. I should not be surprised, I told myself. We had quarreled the last time we met and parted badly. I had hoped, though, that my leaving the note with Kara would have mended all of that. But I didn’t know if she had even seen him since to give it to him. More than once when visiting Sadie, I had considered making the short trip from the grate by the river to the café in Dębniki and seeing if Krys had returned. But my pride always stopped me. I had pined for Krys once, waited for him, and it had backfired horribly. I would not make the same mistake again.

Instead, I passed the days by visiting Sadie, bringing her what little I could. I still had not told her the truth about her mother. It was the right decision, I tried to reassure myself more than once over my own doubts. It was growing harder to find hope in Sadie’s eyes as her time in the sewer without her family dragged on. I couldn’t make it worse with more bad news.

I changed into my nightgown and climbed in bed, trying unsuccessfully to sleep. Sometime later, I heard Ana Lucia and her new companion come in and traipse up the stairs to her room. Colonel Maust was gone, transferred to Munich for reasons I did not know. I had wondered if without him Ana Lucia might lose the favored status she enjoyed with the General Government. But she quickly replaced him with an even higher-ranking German, whose name I had not bothered to learn. A gruff, silent officer, he made no effort at pleasantries, stomping into the house late at night and leaving just the same before dawn instead. Hanna had whispered once that he had a wife and children back in Berlin. He was an awful sort, seeming to shout rather than talk to my stepmother. The sounds that came from her bedroom these days bordered on violent and I often wondered if I needed to go downstairs and intervene to help her.

A few days earlier at breakfast I had noticed a bruise under her eye. “You know you don’t have to be with him, or to let him do that,” I offered. Even though she was awful to me, I could not help but feel sorry for her. “We would be fine without a German to protect us.”

Embarrassment flashed across her face. “Who are you to advise me on my personal affairs?” she flared, covering it quickly with anger. I did not push the point further.

Finally, I blocked out the noises from Ana Lucia’s room below and settled down. Suddenly, a sharp rapping sound jarred me awake. I rubbed my eyes as the sound came again. A stone, then another, hit my window. I sat up. Once upon a time, Krys used to signal me that way, our covert sign that I should come down for a secret rendezvous. I smoothed my hair, wondering how long he had been back from his errand. Had Kara given him my note, or had he simply decided to come see me on his own? It seemed rather presumptuous, given our last quarrel and the time that had passed, that he would expect me to meet him now. I walked to the window.

To my surprise, standing on the street below was not Krys, but Kara.

“What is it?” I asked, equal parts disappointed and curious and annoyed. Krys had obviously told her where I lived. Why hadn’t he come himself?

Kara did not answer, but gestured for me to come down to the street. I dressed and started downstairs quickly, careful not to make noise. I worried that Ana Lucia and her companion might have heard the stones hitting my window. But they snored, sleeping deeply from too much wine. I slipped outside. “Come,” she said, starting to walk as soon as I closed the door behind me.

“Where are we going? Did something happen to Krys?”

“He’s fine. He needs you to come right away.”

“Why? Is something wrong?” I wondered if he had decided to accept my offer to help with his work. But Kara shook her head, unwilling to speak further or answer my questions on the street. She walked at a swift pace, nearly running, and despite the fact that my legs were a good deal longer, I struggled to keep up.

When we reached Dębniki, I expected Kara to lead me to the café. Instead, she started in the