Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray(64)
Danny’s avatar—Transformers as K-pop stars—pops up on FaceTime. Behind him is his new obsession, a full setup for a game-streaming channel he’s sure will make him a Twitch star. The month before, he was selling sneakers on Poshmark. Before that, it was ASMR TikToks of him eating his mom’s kimchi and internet stand-up performed in his bathtub.
“Zoom Prom. Dude, I am face-palming for the whole of humanity.”
Two texts from Chloe float down over the top of Danny’s head: ChloeintheDark: I got fresh intel ChloeintheDark: Call me!
Miles swipes the notifications away, but his attention goes with them. “Uhh. So. You going?”
Danny’s head swivels. “Are you high? Heeeelll noooo! Gonna roll through Borderlands 2 again. Tiny Tina awaits.”
“That game makes you cry.”
“I’m addicted to pain.”
Another text from Chloe: Nobody home? Dying to tell you.
“Dude, who you keep two-timing me with? I’m wounded,” Danny says.
“Huh? Nah. Just a … thing.”
Danny raises both eyebrows. “Aww, heyyy. It’s a laaaadyyyy! Bow-chicka-wow-wow.”
“Yeah. It’s your mom.”
“So wrong, dude!”
“But it feels so right. Go kill things! Daddy’s so proud!”
“Wait—!”
Miles clicks off on the conversational cliffhanger. He could’ve just told Danny it was Chloe, but that would’ve led to Questions and he is not ready with Answers. Besides, this is probably the most titillation outside of PS4 that Danny has had all week. Miles’s call rings through to Chloe’s voicemail. Funny how he used to dread having to talk to an actual person on the phone. Now he’s disappointed to get a recording. Before he can leave a message, she’s on the other line trying to break through.
“Hey-o. What’s shaking?” Miles answers.
“I found Die Eichel!” Chloe says. She’s a little breathless.
“Whoa!” He’s intrigued and a little jealous that she found it first.
“I was on Ancestry.com—PS: If you ever tell Joyce I did that, I really will kill you. It would be her dream come true, right after me getting a job at Prada. Anyway. Somebody was trying to find information on family lost during the Holocaust. There was a story from a man in his eighties, who says that members of a German resistance group helped him and some other kids escape Germany using forged documents. Hold on.” Chloe rustles through a stack of printouts. “A Josef Keller in Tel Aviv. He said he never met them, never knew their real names, just their code names—Hawk. Eagle. Owl. What he did know was the name of the resistance movement.” Chloe spins her chair around. “Die Eichel!”
“Holy Scheisse,” Miles says.
“Yeah. He said they weren’t around for long because they were betrayed from within. The documents stopped completely at the end of 1941 … right when Sophie, Hanna, and Oskar disappeared.”
“So were Sophie, Hanna, and Oskar part of the resistance? Or … did they betray Die Eichel to the SS?”
Chloe shakes her head. “If they were the moles, then why would they have to disappear?”
“True.” Miles drums his fingers against the edge of his desk, thinking. “Maybe they were killed by the resistance? Or they got tipped off that the resistance was onto them and they had to leave in a hurry. Maybe that was one of Mormor’s missions—tracking them down and…” He draws his finger across his neck.
Chloe grimaces. “Kind of hard to think of my grandma as a killer.”
“Just a theory.” Miles has another, more uncomfortable theory. He keeps that one to himself.
“Hey, maybe you could ask your mom about Die Eichel?”
“She’s old but she’s not that old!”
“Don’t be a jerkface! I meant since she’s putting together that exhibit about resistance movements, she might know something about them?”
“Long shot, but I’ll ask.” Miles makes a note to text Mama D.
“Mr. Keller also said there was some kind of courier system so the documents could make their way to wherever they were needed. In his case, Berlin. God. Imagine doing the right thing, putting yourself in danger, and history will never know your name. It’s a little sad that these stories are dying out with these people. And that there is an internet full of Holocaust deniers.”
“Ms. Diaz says that memory is an act of rebellion.”
Chloe takes this in, nodding.
“Which reminds me, what about Mormor’s tapes? Anything there?”
“Yeahhhh.” Chloe winces.
“What?”
“The story … it’s not the version I remember.”
“Did she add dinosaurs? ’Cause everything’s better with dinosaurs.”
“Yeah. That’s it.” Chloe rolls her eyes. “No. It’s, um, grittier than I remember. Less sweet, more Brothers Grimm. But, like, really grim. Honestly, it’s kinda hard to listen to.”
“Lisa says sometimes before a big stroke, people experience these ministrokes and it can really mess with their brains, even change their personalities. Maybe that was happening to Mormor.”
“Maybe.” Chloe goes quiet for a second. “What’ve you got on your end?”