War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 295

Chapter 14: Tom

A

fter several weeks in Berlin Tom finally found the opportunity to explore the city on his own. He jumped off the recently repaired tram and walked with determined steps down the street toward the location of Ursula’s apartment house.

The area looked only faintly familiar. It had been damaged two years earlier, but the destruction he and his bomber pilot colleagues had caused in the two final war-years was staggering. It looked a hundred times worse than in London. Some buildings were only empty shells, a wall or two rising into the air, a dark charcoaled shadow against the bright blue summer sky. His pulse ratcheted up and he started running, afraid of what he might find.

He reached the five-story building where he’d spent several days in hiding and glanced up. It appeared to be holding together only by the inertia of masses and patches of mortar. Unprecedented emotions hit him. Fear combined with joy. Hope, desperation, love, and agony, all lumped into one stabbing pain making him immobile. He bent over to catch his breath – and his bearings. For a split-second he considered walking away. Too overwhelming was the fear of receiving bad news about Ursula.

He shook his head, gathering his courage around him. Either way, he had to find out the truth. He hadn’t waited, yearned, and worried for her for two long years to give up moments before possibly finding her. Although it was unimaginable how people could live in this building.

Back in his barracks he’d struggled for the longest time whether to shed his uniform and wear civilian clothes during this illicit visit with a German family. He’d finally decided on staying in uniform because it facilitated easier travel between the British and American zone. Otherwise, he might have been picked up by patrols and asked endless questions. Now, lingering in front of the building, he wished he were wearing something more inconspicuous.

“It is as it is,” he said to himself and walked in through the empty doorframe and up the stairs. He remembered Ursula’s flat was located on an upper floor, but wasn’t exactly sure which one. But thanks to German neatness, while the building itself was in shambles, the name plates on the doors were not. He quickly found the plate reading “Klausen

Hermann

Zdanek” on the fourth floor.

His hand half lifted as if to knock, but nerves and the danger surrounding his visit caused him to pause and sent him on a quick trip down memory lane. He exhaled deeply and then tapped on the door, shifting nervously from foot to foot.

The sound of footsteps approached from the other side and then the door slowly opened. Tom could only stand there and stare at the beautiful woman on the other side. She was just as beautiful as he remembered, and yet, something didn’t seem right.

“How can I help you?” she asked, eyeing his uniform with a weary expression on her face.

Her voice was definitely wrong. That wasn’t his Ursula. Speechless, he searched his brain, until he remembered. That must be her sister, Anna.

“Sir? Why did you come here?” she asked with a slight irritation in her voice at the British airman knocking at her door and then standing there like a dumbstruck fool.

He cleared his throat. “I’m Tom Westlake and I came in search of your sister Ursula.”

The young woman gasped and then quickly looked up and down the hallway. “Come in before anyone sees you.” She pulled him inside and shut the door. “How in the world did you get here?”

He grinned, happiness flooding his system. “I’m stationed at RAF Gatow, flying supply runs for our British sector. Is Ursula… is she…?” Suddenly, the air escaped his lungs as he hoped against hope Anna wouldn’t give him bad news.

“She’s alive.” These two words took a load equivalent to a tank off his mind. “But she isn’t here. She’s in Bavaria with…” Anna hesitated and then said, “… with our aunt.”

“In Bavaria?” The jubilation left his heart and his legs threatened to give out beneath him.

“Yes, it was the best for her and… to leave the city. Thanks to you and your colleagues showering us from above.” The cool tone of her voice stabbed at his heart and she looked at him with barely concealed disgust.

“I’m sorry.” There was nothing else he could say.

“Why are you here?” Anna asked, as they still stood in the small hallway of the flat.

“Isn’t it obvious? I came to find Ursula.”

Her eyes narrowed into tiny slits. “Fraternization is forbidden.”

“I know that, but I don’t care. I want to see her, need to see her.” She didn’t seem convinced. “Look, Anna, I don’t expect you to understand, but I love your sister. Two long years I’ve waited for this day and I’ll do everything within my power to see her again.”

“Come in,” she finally said and he followed her into the kitchen he vaguely remembered. “I can’t offer you anything but water.”

“I’m fine. Thank you.” He looked at her. She was rail-thin, skeletal even, and it squeezed his heart thinking that his Ursula was equally starved. He cursed himself for not having had the foresight to bring some food with him. It would have been the obvious thing to do, but he’d been too nervous to think straight. “Will you tell me where she is, please?”

Anna sighed. “She’s in Kleindorf. That’s a tiny village near Mindelheim.”

In the American sector

, Tom thought. That wasn’t ideal, but a million times better than if she’d been in the Soviet sector. It would have been next to impossible for him to travel there without causing major suspicions.

He heard the door open and moments later a deep voice called out, “I’m home, sweetie.”

“In the kitchen,” Anna called back.

Moment later a big, yet emaciated, man entered the kitchen and stopped in his tracks when he saw Tom. Giving him a hard look he asked Anna, “What’s he want?”

Anna gave a theatrical sigh and said, “This is Tom Westlake, the British pilot my sister has been pining for all this time.”

Tom almost jumped up in delight.

So Ursula still is in love with me

.

“No shit.” Peter flopped on the chair and gave Tom a once-over. “You have balls, that’s for sure. Walking in here in your uniform and asking for Ursula. I’m Peter Zdanek by the way, Anna’s husband.”

“Nice to meet you,” Tom shook Peter’s hand, doing his best not to recoil from the touch of the skeletal hand. “Where have you been?”

“Germans took me POW in the Warsaw Uprising.”

“You fought there? We heard great stories about you lads. Sorry for the lack of support you received.”

“You could say that.” Peter’s jaw tightened.

“For what it’s worth, I was one of the pilots flying in from Italy dropping supplies. Wish we could have done more, but the higher-ups didn’t want to enrage Stalin.”

“Let’s not talk about this,” Anna interjected, as she gazed at the darkening expression on her husband’s face.

Tom nodded. “You’re right. It’s over now. What can I do to help you?”

Anna shook her head. “You can’t return here. Ever. You’ll only get yourself into trouble.”

Despite the truth of her words, they didn’t make him feel any less shoddy. The least he could do was return with a bag full of food. Peter seemed to read his thoughts, because he said, “Look, man, if there’s anything you want to give Anna and her family, the two of us could meet casually in a bar.”

“How?” Tom didn’t quite follow his train of thought.

“I’m not a German and I even work for the British administration. So, no rule keeps us from downing a beer together,” Peter’s ice-blue eyes shone brightly as he chuckled. “That is, if you pay.”

“Grand idea. I’ll get in touch with you.” They exchanged contact information and Tom promised to arrange for a meeting as soon as he had another day off. But the next time he’d come prepared with a bag full of food.

With that promise, he left Anna and Peter and returned to his barracks. His heart was light with the knowledge that Ursula was alive, but hurting that she was out of his reach.

Somehow he needed to find a way to travel to Kleindorf.