“Will you?” It never occurred to Delia that Gita might someday leave the convent and the orphanage.
Gita shrugged. “I still don’t know. I came here because God called me to tend abandoned children. Nothing has given me greater satisfaction. But the war has created so many orphans that perhaps I don’t need to become a nun to care for them.”
If Finn didn’t make it, perhaps Delia would stay in Belgium with Gita to help care for the multitudes of displaced children and people. Peace would only be a starting point of the healing. The scars of the war would reverberate for decades, shaping the world in ways no one could yet imagine.
The fluttery call of a nightingale sounded in the tree outside the open window, and Delia wandered closer to listen. Itswhistles and trills were lovely, a reminder of the beauty of God’s creation.
And yet the nightingale was the bird of lamentation too. Its elegiac call was a symbol of lost beauty, of mourning and remembrance of the dead.
Oh,Finn,please hang on. What a terrible time you are enduring, but somedaysoon the darkness will lift from the world,and you will be free again. Just don’t die...
The call of the nightingale haunted her, and for the first time, Delia feared that Finn might not live to see the world at peace again.
41
Finn was coming to accept that he was probably going to die in prison, and he needed to get a final message to Delia. His best shot at that was to meet with Lucas de Koning in the yard today. Lucas was still in good shape and could get a message to Delia once the war was over.
That meant Finn had to fight through unbearable lethargy, sit up, and be ready to get himself to the prison yard when the guard came for him. Sitting upright made him dizzy, and he stared at his swollen, pudgy feet. They looked like they belonged to a different person and were so big he couldn’t get them into his shoes. He’d have to go barefoot.
They didn’t hurt anymore, which was a sign that the end was drawing near.
When the guard came for him, Finn was ready. The tunnel leading to the yard seemed longer than ever, but he was determined to get there. Once in the yard, he could sit on the bench and talk to Lucas.
It was freezing outside. The autumn wind carried speckles of sleet that slashed on his face. Some of the prisoners had stayed inside, but Lucas was here. Finn hobbled over to the bench tojoin him. Just lowering himself onto the bench drained his paltry reserve of energy.
“You okay?” Lucas asked.
“My feet have turned numb.”
The expression on Lucas’s face morphed from shock to grief and then to acceptance in the space of a few seconds. Finn scrambled for something funny to say.
“Hey, at least I won’t have to eat turnips after I’m gone.”
Lucas didn’t laugh. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Finn said. If his illness followed the same symptoms as Father Gerhardt, in the next few days his heart would start racing and breathing would become difficult. Time was growing short, and he had to get a message to Delia.
“Lucas, if you survive the war, I want you to get a message to my girl. Her name is Delia Byrne, and she works for the CRB. Tell her that she’s getting my kite shop. It’s in the will I wrote before I left. Tell her she can do whatever she wants with it...” The mental image of his shop caused his throat to close up. He’d painted the ceiling a pale shade of sky blue, just like the shop he and Delia dreamed about when they were kids. The memories were painful, so he cleared his throat to talk again. “Tell her she can do whatever she wants with the kite shop, but I hope she lives there and runs it.”
“You’ve got a kite store?” Lucas asked, a hint of amusement in his eyes.
“Yeah, I do.” And it had been great. He loved showing people how to look up at the immensity of the sky and fly, to transcend the bonds that held them down and watch their kites soar between heaven and earth. It would have been better had he run the store with Delia, but they’d been too hotheaded to make it happen. Yet they’d both grown up a lot in the past year, and maybe they could have made it work after all.
He looked up at the sky. The blustery autumn day made for good kite-flying weather. He gathered a breath to keep talking to Lucas.
“Tell Delia how grateful I am that she got the Germans to let us have this hour to see the sky. Tell her that every day I’ve been able to look up at the clouds and the sun, and I think about how lucky we were to find each other. Despite everything, how lucky we were.”
A thick layer of stratus clouds completely blanketed the sky. To the west, muted sunlight shone behind pewter-colored clouds. The sun’s bright radiance was trying to break through the gloom, but Finn wouldn’t be here to see it. The guards would be back soon, and he’d be shuffled back to his cell.
But for now, he still had a few blessed minutes to enjoy the sky. Yes, despite everything, Finn had been blessed with a wonderful life. He turned his face toward the veiled sun and smiled.
42
Delia was awakened by the ringing of church bells. She rose up on her elbow to see the hint of a sunrise through the filmy drapes. How strange for church bells to be ringing so early on a Monday morning. The bells went on and on, a cascade of clangs in a rhythmic cadence, echoing through the neighborhood.
She threw back the sheets and darted to the window, the tile floor icy on her bare feet. She looked toward the bell tower across the street and spotted Joseph leaving the church, moving as fast as his lopsided gait could carry him. She hoisted up the sash and leaned out into the chilly morning air.
“Joseph!” she called down, but her voice was lost in the ringing of the bells, for he didn’t stop as he hurried down the street and around the bend.
