Charlotte smiles at me before turning the page, content in who she is even though her past is muddied. I admire her courage and grace with children and adults alike.
Did she inherit these qualities from Luzia, or did she learn them from Nadine?
Last night I asked Sophie to look for Luzia’s name in thearchives, but I may never find anything else about Luzia until I get myself on an airplane to Austria to search through the records of the many churches and synagogues in Vienna.
How do other people do it with such ease, the traveling away from all they know to a place of total unknowns?
“Callie,” Brie whispers as she steps beside me, “I’m afraid we have an unexpected visitor.”
I glance over at her. “Why are you afraid?”
“It’s Scott.”
I stay frozen beside the row of Star Wars books, feeling as if I’ve been invaded in my safest of places. Scott and Kathleen join the adults in the back while Jack squeezes between the other children to create a new seat.
Scott has gained a few pounds since the night before our wedding, his midsection expanding within the comfort of marriage. The last time I saw him was at The Alcove, during our rehearsal dinner. I distinctly remember thinking how handsome he was. And how lucky I was that he’d picked me to be his wife.
I suppose there’s a chance—albeit slight—that he would have been faithful after we said our vows, but his heart wouldn’t have been mine. I hope for both Kathleen’s and Jack’s sake that he chooses to remain faithful to them.
As Brie slips back to the refreshment table, Scott catches my eye, and I respond with a quick nod before looking away, any fondness between us gone.
I’ve wondered often in the past two years what would happen when I saw him again. I’m greatly relieved to realize that I feel nothing at all. The longing in my heart, the regret, is gone. I can’t change my past—I’m well aware of that—but I can change the course of my future. Like Charlotte, my past doesn’t have to define me.
“I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
The words from the Bible—the most powerful book of all—flood through me. I might sequester myself in my room, trying to hide away, but God is with me here just as He would be on an airplane across the ocean and into Austria.
I know I must go now—to help Charlotte find her family. And if this Luzia isn’t related, Charlotte will never know. She’ll just be pleased that I was courageous enough to fly to Europe on my own.
Hours later I slip into the office at the back of the store. I’ve agreed to work the evening shift so Brie can transport her boys to the pool, but before she leaves, I want to search for plane tickets to Salzburg, the nearest airport to Hallstatt.
A message from Dr. Nemeth appears in my inbox. It’s a long note detailing their find in Lake Hallstatt this morning, a watertight box with a list and silver coins inside. The World Jewish Congress is extremely interested in it, he says. Sadly the list he found is very different from the one in Annika’s book. It’s the names of Austrians who were taken to a concentration camp.
My stomach turns. Not only did the Nazis try to rid themselves of the people on this list, like the children at Charlotte’s orphanage; they tried to hide any record of their imprisonment and, presumably, their deaths.
The evil that raged during that time... it still rages all over the world today. How can people be so cruel to others? This is one thing I don’t want to ever understand.
I read the rest of Dr. Nemeth’s email.
No one we’ve asked seems to remember Annika Knopf or Annika Stadler, though we’ve discovered the current owner of the property, a man named Jonas Stadler. Probably her son or grandson. Tomorrow I’m going to theestate to see if anyone is at home.
My fingers hover over the keyboard, trying to form the words in my head before I type. He invited me to join their search when he visited the bookstore. There’s nothing wrong with accepting the invite.
I type a short email back to him.
If the invitation is still open, I’d like to join you and your team in Hallstatt this week.
I stare at the message for a moment and then hit Send before I change my mind, expecting it to take hours before Dr. Nemeth contacts me in return.
Minutes later, my cell phone rings.
“You’re really coming?” he asks, clearly surprised.
“I believe I am.” I’m not ready to tell him or anyone except Brie about Luzia yet. I’ll just search while his team is diving.
“We’ll be in Hallstatt all week, but you should stay in Europe as long as you can.”
An idea slowly occurs to me—Ella and her grandmother are planning to visit him soon. Perhaps they wouldn’t mind if I join them on the plane. “When are Ella and Lottie flying over?”
