Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray(128)

“I thought Leon would be back from university by now,” one of the boys said.

“Don’t tell me he’s studying on solstice!”

“I know where he is,” Oskar said. “He was arrested!”

“Leon arrested? What for?”

“For being a traitor! An enemy of the state!” Oskar crowed. “Along with his friend from Berlin, Egon. They were making false documents.”

“Karl, you were friends with Leon.” Werner.

“We were all friends with Leon,” Karl said.

“True. I guess you only think you know someone.” Werner.

“It is only a matter of time until the Obergruppenführer knows of any accomplices.” Oskar beamed at me. “Hanna. You look very pretty tonight.”

Across the square, Sophie was still collecting. I willed her to look at me, but she did not.

I turned to my brother. “Karl, I’ve forgotten the cookies. Will you go with me?”

“I could go with you, Hanna,” Oskar offered.

“Nonsense. You stay here and tend the fire and I’ll save the biggest cookie for you.”

“I would like that. And perhaps later, we might take a walk?”

He gave me such a sweet smile then that I almost felt bad for deceiving him. I told myself that he would forget about me in time. He’d find another girl, more suitable. She would cook rabbit and darn his socks and look after his children and he would be content.

Frau Wiedenhammer stepped to the microphone. She wore a traditional dress and she had braided her hair into a crown. I tried to imagine her as she must have been once, with a sleek bob and crimson lips, singing on a Berlin nightclub stage, flirtatious and sparkling and a bit naughty. But I could not. I could only see the zealot. Herr Wiedenhammer’s accordion played the familiar strains of “Silent Night.”

It was time.

Frau Wiedenhammer’s wobbly soprano rang out with the first lines of the carol the Nazis had rewritten.

Silent night! Holy night! All is calm, and all is bright,

Only the Chancellor steadfast in fight,

Watches o’er Germany by day and by night …

Sophie’s eyes found mine at last. I nodded. Frau Wiedenhammer’s voice made my nerves stand on end. The crowd was singing along now as the three of us made our way through the crowd of neighbors we could no longer trust. We joined in so that no one would think we were disloyal.

Silent night! Holy night! All is calm, and all is bright,

Adolf Hitler is Germany’s wealth,

Brings us greatness, favor and health,

Oh give us Germans all power!

The air was electric. We had only to reach the end of the street and turn and then we would walk as quickly as possible toward the road and the forest. Sophie let us into her father’s new bookshop, still half-finished, where we had hidden the basket with the cookies. That was the only time I feared Sophie’s commitment. She laid her hands on the stacks of books as if they were holy relics. “I wish I could see Papa one last time,” she said.

Karl wrapped his arms around her. “When this is over, you’ll send for him.”

“We have to go,” I said rather forcefully. I did not mean to be impatient. It was my own sadness I could not stand. I was never very good at that.

We passed Oskar’s shop. The road out of town was so close. That is when he arrived. Herr Jaeger. The hunter himself. His eyes had an extra coldness to them. “There you are, Herr Schmidt. I have been looking for you.”

They say that there are moments when time stands still. I could hear the singing in the square and the drumbeat of my own blood.

“Oh. Herr Jaeger?” Karl had begun to tremble. He was never the same after his time as a soldier, you understand. He carried a world of pain inside.

Herr Jaeger was cool as ever. “My car is behaving strangely.”

“Again?”

“Yes.”

“I-I’m sorry to hear it, Herr Jaeger.”

“I am sure you will have it working in no time.” It was clear that he meant for Karl to follow.

“But … it’s the solstice, Herr Jaeger. Surely it can wait until morning?”

“I’m afraid not. I must drive to Berlin in the morning.”

I could feel his gaze upon us. Scrutinizing. From another man, it might have been lust. But Herr Jaeger was not just another man. He was always searching for prey. For trophies to bring home. That was his true lust—power.

“Why are you not at the celebration, Fr?uleins?” Not a question. Always with him an accusation. We were in the crosshairs now. We could feel it. For once, I had no voice. But Sophie always had the words, you see. A natural storyteller. What magic I know in words I learned from her. Somehow, she managed a smile. “Yes, Herr Jaeger. Only we have forgotten the cookies. We are just going back with them now. Will you honor us by having the first one?”

“Bitte. But first, there is the business of the car. Herr Schmidt?” Herr Jaeger was not a man to be kept waiting. Karl would have to fix the car.

“We’ll see you at the tree,” Sophie said, and smiled. “So we can light a candle for solstice.”

“Do you really think his car isn’t working?” Sophie asked, once Karl had left with Herr Jaeger. She and I had reached the edge of town.