War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 209

Chapter 23: Anna

A

fter her shift at the Charité Anna rushed home to bring her mother and sister the good news.

“Mutter, Ursula! You have to hear this!”

Both women appeared in the hallway, their faces lined with worry. Mutter looked tired in her mended black dress. The long shifts at the ammunition factory she’d been forced to work, combined with the nightly air raids, were taking a toll on her.

“What’s wrong,” Ursula asked, holding Evie on her hip.

“Nothing.” Anna grinned. “I’m bringing good news, very good news.”

“The war’s over?” Hope lit up in Ursula’s face.

“Not that good.” Anna thought for a moment how to best break the news. Ursula knew about Stan’s and Anna’s role in saving him from the camp, but Mutter didn’t. “So there’s this Polish soldier at the hospital…”

“An enemy soldier? Isn’t that dangerous for the nurses?” Mutter asked.

“No, Mutter. In fact, he’s a kind person and…he knows Richard!”

“Richard?” Mutter and Ursula yelped in unison. “As in our Richard?”

“Yes. Can you believe it?” Again, she paused for a moment, considering how she could spoon-feed her mother with the details. “Apparently Richard is hiding on the farm of a friend of his. Richard is alive!”

Her mother squinted her eyes and Anna knew she wasn’t buying into the story. “So, how exactly did you and this prisoner get to talk about your missing brother?”

“Well,” Anna ran a hand across her straight blonde hair, seeking help from Ursula. But her sister only gave her an apologetic shrug. When Mutter was on a quest to get to the bottom of things, nothing and no one could stop her.

“Well?”

“Since it was Christmas, I showed him some family photographs and—”

“You did what? Sharing family memories with an enemy?” Mutter scolded her.

“He’s not an enemy.”

“He’s not? Last time I checked the Poles were our enemies. What aren’t you telling me?” Mutter insisted.

Anna didn’t have to answer the question because the door opened and Jan came inside carrying heavy bags laden with groceries.

“I got almost everything that’s on our ration cards, but I had to queue at three different stores.” He beamed with pride and then tugged at Anna’s sleeve. “Can I visit Uncle Stan again, please?”

Anna felt the blood fleeing from her head at the same time as her mother furrowed her brow. “Who is Uncle Stan?”

Jan’s childlike innocence didn’t allow him to understand the brewing thunderstorm he’d caused with his remark and he gleefully answered, “He’s my dad’s brother and he’s a patient in Anna’s hospital.”

“Would you be a darling and store the groceries in the pantry, Jan?” Mutter asked, before she gave Anna a dark stare.

“I’ll go and help him,” Ursula added, fleeing the room and the upcoming scolding.

“I reckon this Uncle Stan is the Polish soldier you just mentioned?” Mutter’s voice dripped icicles.

“Yes, Mutter.” Anna lowered her head.

“And you somehow forgot to tell me this detail?”

“I didn’t want to upset you,” Anna whispered.

“I’m upset. Very much so. And not about some enemy soldier, but about the fact that my own daughter is keeping information from me and lying to me.”

Anna nodded. There wasn’t really that much to say. “I apologize. It was wrong not to tell you. I did it to keep you safe. The less you know…”

“…the better it is for me. I know all this and I don’t agree with it. You and Ursula have brought enough trouble into this house and…” Mutter raised a hand to her chest. “God knows I have raised you to be loyal and decent women.”

“Mutter, please. You did raise us to have moral values. But,” she lowered her voice to a whisper, “Hitler is trampling those values with his feet and we must stand up to do the right thing. Stan is Peter’s brother and would have died in the camp, so I persuaded Professor Scherer to have him transferred to the Charité.” Anna did not elaborate on the lies she’d had to use to make this transfer happen. “Fact is, Stan has last seen our brother near Lodz less than half a year ago. He even helped him to escape to a friend’s farm, posing as a Pole.”

“I’m getting too old for this,” Mutter said. “I just hope we all survive this god-awful war.”

Sometime later,

Ursula and Anna sat in the kitchen drinking

Ersatzkaffee

.

“I never get used to this stuff. It simply tastes awful.” Ursula sighed.

“The plan to make Germany great again didn’t turn out so great, did it? We don’t even have coffee anymore. Or fresh fruit, or enough food, or clothes…or shoes,” she said, thinking about Jan’s toes wedged in his too-small shoes.

“When will it finally end?” Ursula asked, spoon-feeding Evie with mashed potatoes.

“I wish I knew the answer.”

“It’s frustrating. We’re sitting here, waiting for what? Conditions are deteriorating faster than Berlin’s ruins when the bombs are falling.”

The baby spit out mashed potatoes and Anna hurried to wipe the mess away. “Evie is the sweetest baby I know.”

“For now,” Ursula agreed, worry evident in her voice.

Anna grew somber and looked her sister in the eye. “You need to consider leaving Berlin.”

“You know I can’t do that,” Ursula argued.

“Can’t or won’t? They are very different things. I understood you wanting to stay here before the birth, but now with Pfarrer Bernau gone, and the

Ivan

approaching… you need to consider her safety.”

“The Russians are still far away…” Ursula protested.

“They are coming closer every day. And you heard the stories. They stop at nothing. Not even baby girls.” Anna couldn’t bring herself to pronounce the word rape. It held too many awful memories. Memories she never wanted to revisit in her entire life again.

“I can’t leave,” Ursula repeated, even as she paled and hugged Evie close. “Tom said he would come back…”

“When the war’s over,” Anna reminded her. “He’ll return when things have settled down and he’ll find you. I’m not saying you need to stay out of Berlin forever, just until the war is over. Do it for Evie.”

“Where would I go?” Ursula asked, even though they’d had this discussion multiple times.

“Back to Bavaria with Aunt Lydia. You know she didn’t want you to return here in the first place. Berlin is not the best place to be right now.” Anna shuddered. Even if she wanted to, she wouldn’t be allowed to leave the capital. Hitler denied even the remotest possibility that Germany might lose this war. As a nurse she was considered indispensable to the war effort.

“But Tom…”

“

Schwesterherz

, I’ll have to stay here to the very end. My work at the hospital and Stan…what I’m saying is that I’ll be around to tell Tom where you are if he shows up.”

Ursula gave a doubtful nod and took a sip from her

Ersatzkaffee

. “What about Jan?”

“What about me?” Jan asked, appearing in the doorway to the kitchen.

“Aunt Ursula is going to take Evie to a farm in Bavaria while this war comes to an end. I want you to go with her,” Anna said after giving him a once-over.

“No. I’m not going.” He put his feet hip-wide apart and pushed out his chest. A wave of nostalgia swept over Anna.

He looked just like his father.

“Jan, it would be safer…”

“You womenfolk need a man in the house. And Uncle Stan...” His glacial blue eyes sparkled their defiance. If the situation weren’t so dire, Anna would laugh at his antics. She sent Ursula a glance, thankful for the way they could communicate without words, when her sister nodded and said, “I’d better put Evie to bed.”

Anna pointed at the vacant chair. “Sit down.”

Nobody had ever taught her how to debate a twelve-year-old. When she was his age it was absolutely unheard of to even question the wishes of your parents. She shook her head. Things had changed so much in ten years, it was unbelievable.

But Jan didn’t sit on the chair, instead he snaked his arms around her and hugged her tight. “Please don’t make me leave. Please? I promise to be a good boy always.”

As her heart constricted, words failed her. “Alright. You can stay here with me.”

Not making Jan’s safety her top priority might come back to haunt her, but she couldn’t deny having him around brought her joy and comfort. Together they’d withstand the anxiety and sorrow until Peter returned.