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

looked up and I could see him wrestling with his fear and dread of the horrors on the street above. Sadie walked over to the two men. “I promise,” she said solemnly, “that no harm will come to your son.” At first, I doubted he would believe her. But he reached out his hand and I could see the bond they had developed. Sadie helped him to his feet. He walked across the chamber and pulled the mezuzah from the door.

Together we started into the tunnel. I saw Sadie look over her shoulder for a second at this small, awful space that had been her home for several months, which she was now leaving forever, saying goodbye to the place that had been their sanctuary. Then she turned to me. “How? I mean, where are we going? Did Krys arrange some sort of transit for us?” I did not want to tell her the truth about Krys. I feared that if she knew he would not be there to meet us on the other side and guide us away, she might decide not to go after all.

But I could not lie to her again. “Krys was arrested,” I told her at last. “Taken. He went to try to intercept the munitions and he was caught.”

A horrified look crossed her face. “Arrested?” I expected her to panic. “Oh, Ella, you must be so worried.” Her voice was laced with concern. “You have to go to him, to help.”

“There’s nothing I can do for him now,” I said, willing my voice not to crack. My stomach twisted anew at the thought of Krys, arrested or worse. In that moment, I would have done anything to help him. But as Kara had said, that was not what Krys would have wanted. My place was here, rescuing Sadie. “This is what he would have wanted me to do.” I hated how I spoke of him in the past tense instinctively, as if he were already gone.

“But without him, how can we possibly escape?” Her doubts seemed to double anew.

“I know the route,” I said, which was partially true. “Kara, the woman from the café, told it to me and said she’d help. I can get us to safety.” I tried to force confidence into my voice. I just had to get Sadie and the others out of the tunnel on my own and then Kara would help them reach Kryspinów. I could do this. “Come.”

We walked through the tunnel in silence. I led the way, with Sadie right behind me. “I’m so sorry about your mother,” I said. It was perhaps unwise to bring up the subject again and upset her just as we were leaving. But I felt that I needed to say something.

She sniffed. “There was some part of me, I think, that already knew when she hadn’t returned after so long.”

Behind her, Saul helped his father, who moved slowly. Convincing them to leave had taken longer than I had anticipated and I wanted to urge them all to hurry. The old man had been crippled by the months in the sewer, though, and could barely walk. I concentrated on the path ahead, trying not to think about the mines. I had no idea what they looked like or how we might avoid them and it seemed that every step might be our last.

We made our way toward the grate where I had first met Sadie, the one near the Dębniki market. I didn’t know how we would all get out, or avoid being seen, even at night. I prayed Kara would be there to help us. One step in front of the other, I heard my brother Maciej’s voice say, as he used to during tough times. That is all you can do.

Suddenly there came a rumbling sound. At first I thought it might be an air raid, but it was too close and intense. The walls began to shake. Sadie stumbled and I could not reach her, but Saul grabbed her before she could fall.

One of the mines had detonated.

“Ahead, quickly!” I cried. Perhaps just one of the mines had gone off accidentally. The Allies were nowhere near Kraków yet; surely the Germans had not set them all off. But there was another explosion and another, the first detonation setting off some kind of chain reaction. These sounds came not from above, though, but from below the ground, close and soul shaking.

There came another explosion that threw us to the ground. We all lay motionless for several seconds. I could not move and it seemed as if I was already dead. We pulled one another to our feet and brushed off the rubble. Dust and debris filled my lungs and I coughed and spat to clear them. The air was so choked with dust I could no longer see. Someone took my hand and pulled me. I recognized Sadie’s delicate fingers in mine as now she took the lead. We pressed onward.

Behind us there came another mighty crashing sound as though the walls were falling in around us. Sadie stumbled, nearly taking me to the ground with her. Saul tried to help her, but she shook him off. “Help your father.” She pushed the two men ahead of us.

At the end of the tunnel, I could make out faint light from the street above the grate. Krys, I thought. For a second, I imagined that his arrest had not happened and in spite of everything he would be waiting for me. Of course, that was impossible. I turned back toward Sadie. “We made it,” I said. I expected her to look happy, but she did not. Instead, her eyes widened with horror as she looked over my shoulder. “Ella!” Her mouth formed my name as a loud rumbling all around us drowned out her voice. The sound was different this time, not a bomb detonating—it came from within the walls themselves. The explosions had loosened the tunnel walls, which began