“They might have gone the other way,” Rosalie whispers. “There was a truck and a car.” Her voice shakes through every word. “I should have done something. I’m so sorry…I just?—”
“This isn’t your fault,” I tell her.
“Your father saw me. He made it clear he didn’t want me to make my presence known.”
“Then you did what’s best,” I say, trying to keep the sound of my panic at bay. Though she doesn’t need to hear me to know what I’m feeling. The splotches of colorful auras and twitching nerves.
She sees. Nothing gets past her.
“We need your medicine. And—do you have all your documentation?”
Those are the thoughts that just began to percolate. I have the last of the pills I’ll be able to get my hands on until the borders release power. The pharmacist did all he could but warned me this day would come, and it came. I have enough to last me almost two years. I’ve been praying it’s enough. Now I’m praying I can retrieve it. “I don’t have my medicine. Or any money. I need to get back into the house,” I tell her.
Her eyes grow wide as she stares past me. “Don’t the Nazis only remove people from their homes when they’re billeting them?”
“From what I’ve heard, yes.” There’s a variety of stories. Some move in with families, others kick them out entirely. Apparently, our effort to scare them away from the façade of a dilapidated estate didn’t work.
“You can’t go back in there. They’ll know you aren’t in the United States,” she says.
“They couldn’t have possibly believed that. They know everything about everyone with the amount of census data they have.”
“The Nazis didn’t argue with him. They just forced them into the truck.”
Imagining them being treated that way, when I should have been by their side, will eat at me forever.
“You need to stay here. I’m going to check if they’re gone. If they are, I’ll go inside and grab your medicine.”
“No. No way. You’re not going back there yourself. I’m going with you. And the money, it’s under a floorboard. There’s no way you’ll find that,” I argue.
Rosalie drops her head into her red, cold hands. “We should stay in the woods and follow the road back up from here so we can see if the cars are gone.”
This is a bad idea, but also a choice we don’t have. Without my medication and money, we won’t survive.
The hike up the hill leaves us both breathless but also a sigh of relief when we see there aren’t any vehicles in front of the house.
“They must be gone,” I say.
“Are you confident?” Rosalie asks, still staring toward the front door.
“Yes. Not one of those Nazis would walk up here on foot or stay behind, stranded.”
“Very well. Then I’m going in myself first and when I confirm no one is inside, I’ll come back for you.”
She’s cornered me in a duel I didn’t know we were fighting. “No, I’m coming in with you.”
“It’s life or death, Stefan. Whether you’re confident or not that no one was left behind, a mistake will cost you your life. I won’t let that happen.”
“Forget it. We’ll wait. I can go a day without my medicine. We’ll go to the factory. There’s a place we can hide out in there that will be safe. We’ll figure the rest out from there,” I press.
“If the Nazis aren’t here now, they will be. They didn’t just kick your family out for fun, especially with that protection clause. They’ll be back, and likely before tomorrow.”
“You’re leaving me with no option,” I say with a frustrated groan. “I need to keep you safe, despite your determination to throw yourself into danger.”
“I’m not a flower, Stefan. I’m not going to wilt upon entering your house. I’m nothing to the Reich. That isn’t the same for you. Let me now take that advantage and make sure it’s safe to go back inside.”
“I won’t agree,” I tell her, my stubbornness doing little for me.
“Then don’t,” she says. Her breath hitches as she breaks our stare. “Ju-just wait…here.” She stalls for only a short second before jolting out of the woods to a sharp right behind another tree and doing that twice more before stepping out of the woods and trekking up the pebbled driveway.
