“Out. I don’t know where he goes.”
He nodded toward Marta. “Will she let me hold her?”
“Perhaps.”
Marta resisted at first, squirming in his arms, but she settled quickly against his chest as her cough subsided. Sometimes the simple things, like the breath of fresh air, were the best cure for an ailment.
Luzi collapsed onto a bench, her shoulders drooped forward as if the burden was too much to bear.
Max paced beside her. “You are exhausted.”
“Marta cries often, and my mother...”
“Is your mother ill?”
“Ill with worry. She’s taken to her bed.”
He couldn’t imagine the spirited Frau Weiss confined to her room.
“I fear she’s lost all hope.”
“Your father hasn’t been able to get a visa?”
She shook her head. “Even if we’re able, my mother could never make the journey.”
Tears filled her eyes, shocking Max. In all the years he’d known Luzi, he realized that he’d never seen her cry.
“If you went now, your mother could come later.”
She shook her head. “If we don’t leave as a family, we’re not leaving at all.”
He glanced around at the trees as if someone might be listening, but he didn’t see anyone. “My mother is traveling to France tomorrow.”
“Why is she going away?”
He almost told Luzi the truth about his Jewish ancestry, but he didn’t want to burden her further now. “She’s visiting her sister.”
“You should go with her, Max.”
Those were words he didn’t want to hear. Did she want him to leave Vienna without her?
“If we can obtain a visa, my mother would like you to join her.”
“I can’t—”
“Once you’re there, you can send for your entire family. And I will come as soon as I’m able.”
“The consulate won’t give me a visa.”
“We have to try.”
“I can’t leave Mutti or Father in this state. Or Marta.”
“Your father asked me to get you out, Luzi. If we can’t fight the Nazis, we must flee.”
“I’m not going,” she insisted.
“I will speak with him.”
