Then Jutta popped up suddenly. “I almost forgot why we came up here. She left you something.” She stood and reached for the top drawer of the vanity. Jutta held out a small tin canister with a cottage painted on the front.
It was cold, and heavier than Sophia had expected in her hands. But she didn’t move to open the tin. She wasn’t ready to see what was on the inside. Instead, she asked another question. “My father? Did you know him?”
Jutta smiled, showing all her teeth. “Yes, he was very kind to our family. You have his forehead and eyes.”
“Do you know how I can find him?” she asked.
Jutta tapped the tin box. “This is all I have. I must confess that I’ve never looked inside. Jelka always told me that she was saving it for you.”
“May I take it with me?”
“Of course. Hopefully, it will answer some questions for you.”Jutta glanced up at the clock. “Shit, I have to go. My shift at the restaurant starts in thirty minutes. Did you want to stay the night? Chuck is away in South Carolina for work. I’m house-sitting and watching the cat until he returns.”
“No.” Sophia got to her feet. “A friend is waiting for me outside. We need to get back tonight.”
“Well, I hope you’ll come again.” Jutta led Sophia back down the steps and into the foyer. Then she bent down and wrote her information on a piece of paper. “This is the number to my apartment over by the College of William and Mary and my telephone number at work. Please, keep in touch. I want to get to know you.”
Then she pressed her lips to Sophia’s cheek.“Auf Wiedersehen,”she said, and opened the front door for her.
“Until we meet again.” Sophia squeezed Jutta’s hand, then clutched the tin can to her chest as she descended the stairs.
CHAPTER 52Williamsburg, VA, April 1966
ETHEL
Ethel watched Sophia stumble down the stairs and into the car, gripping a box so tightly that her knuckles looked white. Her face was tear-streaked, and she looked disheveled.
“What on earth happened?” Ethel asked as Sophia threw herself into the front seat of the car.
“My mother. She’s dead.”
Ethel reminded herself to breathe. How could this poor child have discovered her mother and then lost her all in the same day? Ethel reached into her skirt pocket for her rosary and started moving her fingers over the beads. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“She took her life. Because of me.”
“Oh, dear. When?”
“September ’64.”
“How did you find all of this out?”
“Her sister, Jutta.” Sophia crumpled against the car door. “If Ma Deary had told me the truth, I could have found Jelka before she was gone. Maybe meeting me could have brought her some peace, and she wouldn’t have killed herself.”
“Don’t you dare blame yourself.” Ethel slid across the seat and took the girl into her arms. Sophia shivered against Ethel like a puppy caught in the rain. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Ethel rocked her as Sophia sniffled and cried. They sat like that for a long time, and Ethel traced circles on her back to help her calm. It was how she had soothed her own children, and it was working on Sophia.
“I feel so useless,” Sophia said.
“Hey, there’s nothing you could have done to prevent this. You are the child in all of this. You can’t control what grown-ups do.”
Sophia’s eyes looked vacant.
“Let me get you home.”
On the ride up I-64 West Ethel continued to talk, in an attempt to quell Sophia’s pain, but after a while she could see that the girl needed to rest. With one hand on the wheel, she reached the other into the backseat for a blanket and draped Sophia with it. “You’ve had a long day. Why don’t you close your eyes, and I’ll wake you when we get close.”
Sophia clutched the tin box to her chest and fell asleep in an instant.
