Yvonne shrugged. “I don’t know. Normal-looking. Nice-looking, I guess. Shirt and tie. Hats. You know. Like businessmen. But not from around here.”
The unease doubled in intensity. “And they did not say where they were from or who they were?”
“No. I asked and the one who did all the talking just said they’d come back. He asked if you were going to be home on Christmas and I said I sure hope not. So he said they’d come back the day after.”
“Did he say what they wanted?”
Yvonne laughed lightly. “You sound so anxious, Eva! They didn’t look like criminals, honestly. And the one fellow sounded very nice.”
“But did he say what they wanted?”
“Well, it was the strangest question, really. They wanted to know if you were German. I told them you were Polish.”
Eva’s breath stilled in her lungs.
A million thoughts began darting like arrows around the confines of her mind.
The lies on her immigration papers had been uncovered.
She would get deported.
She would be sent to Moscow.
She would be sent to Siberia.
Or, worse, the men were there because of the body.
The body had been found! The police had found Ernst’s body. Louise was in trouble.
Louise had been arrested.
Louise had told them how Ernst’s remains wound up off a deserted road two hours outside Munich…
Yvonne opened the fridge to get out a small carton of half-and-half as these thoughts somersaulted wildly in Eva’s mind.
“They seemed so friendly, though. Very polite.” Yvonne began to pour the creamer into her coffee cup. “Maybe one of them saw you on the bus and followed you home because he wants to ask you out.” She smiled as she began to stir. “If I were younger I wouldn’t mind going out with one of them. I…”
But Eva didn’t hear the rest. She’d flown out the front door with her bag to run to the bus stop.
23
Melanie awoke with a heel poking into her back and an arm across her neck. She knew without turning to look that Nicky had crawled into bed with her again.
Her closed lips curled into a tiny grin. Four nights ago when he’d done this the first time, she’d been annoyed by the intrusion of a four-year-old who stole her blanket and splayed his bony limbs across her body. But the last two mornings felt different. She felt different. Nicky was becoming less and less the little kid taking up space in her life and on her mattress, and more and more her nephew. Her brother’s son. She was his auntie and she was starting to care for him deeply. And it was because of this, she’d made a decision.
She looked across the semi-dark room at the dresser and the envelope atop it that had arrived yesterday by courier. Inside were two one-way airline tickets to Omaha that she’d bought with the last of her savings. She’d be taking Nicky to her parents’ in five days, though they didn’t know it yet. All they knew from her phone callto them last night was that she was coming home to see them after Christmas, and for an as yet unknown length of time.
Melanie had considered for a moment telling her parents she was bringing their grandchild with her, but then she’d just as quickly decided she wanted them to meet Nicky the way she had. A surprise could be both hard and wonderful. Better to experience it in person, she thought. And besides, Nicky, too, deserved to meet them face-to-face.
June had been in Melanie’s kitchen the previous evening to show Nicky how to make popcorn balls when she told June about the tickets to Nebraska.
Melanie already knew June would approve of the trip home, but she surprisingly still wanted her affirmation. It only took seconds for June to give it.
“I’m sure your parents will be very happy to meet their grandson,” June said. “I’m glad you’re doing it.”
Then Melanie told her she was planning to stay in Omaha for a while, though she didn’t know for how long.
“But…but I already said you can stay here with me,” June said promptly, as though instantly worried Melanie’s willingness to play along with June’s deceptions—which had seemed to hinge on that offer of a place to live—was now off the table.
