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“Can I put some shoes on?” Louis asks, looking down at his slippers.

“You won’t need shoes where you’re going.”

At gunpoint, Tina and Louis are marched out of their apartment, one militiaman remaining behind, settling into Louis’s chair with a satisfied smirk.

As they walk through the foyer, Maurice steps out of his apartment, his face anguished.

“Thank you, Maurice. You’ve been a good friend,” Louis calls to him.

“I’m sorry,” is all Maurice can say. “I’m so sorry.”

The leader turns on him. “Get inside before I decide to question you too.”

Maurice retreats but stands in his doorway, watching them go. Bearing witness.

The sound of a young couple laughing, looking for a discreet place to be together, wakes Josie. Crawling out from the bush that protected her, she sees the couple walk away, arms around each other, oblivious. She doesn’t know how long she has slept.

She must decide. Go back to the apartment or go to Monique’s. She decides she can do both. She can walk past the Levallois apartment building. She must, to get to Monique’s. Perhaps M. Dupont can tell her if it’s safe to go home.

Brushing off bits of dirt and leaves, she walks to the steps that lead up from the park to the street. In the warm summer evening, plenty of people are out walking. Families. Couples. She can merge in with them. Try to stay invisible.

Turning on to rue Blomet, Josie slows her pace. Two cars are parked outside her apartment building. She can’t remember if they were there when she came home from school. Slowly, she approaches the building.

She’s next door now. She stops. What to do?

The decision is made for her. The door to her building opens and Grand-Mère and Grand-Père are marched out, each with a militiaman holding on to their arms, gripping them like criminals.

Gasping, she pushes herself hard up against the building, trying to disappear into stone.

Both Tina and Louis seem to sense her presence and turn in her direction. They’re smiling at her. Actually smiling. As if this is normal. As if everything is fine.

She can’t smile back. Her face is frozen. Her body is frozen.

The man holding Grand-Père pushes him toward one of the cars. “Take her in the other,” he calls out to his colleague holding Grand-Mère.

“Please, can’t we go together?” Grand-Père calls out, his voice cracking.

“Say goodbye,” the man says, smirking, enjoying their pain.

As Louis is pushed into the waiting car, he turns his head to Josie, mouthing words she can read even in the darkness. “I love you.”

Frozen against the wall, Josie watches the two cars drive away. As they turn the corner, Maurice steps outside onto the pavement. Turning to go back inside, he sees Josie and rushes to her.

“Are you all right?”

She can only nod yes. Her voice is gone. Everything is gone.

Josie looks at the door of their building, starts to move toward it.

“No, Josie, you can’t go in. They’ve left one of the cowards upstairs in your apartment. Don’t let them take you too.”

Josie nods again. She understands.

“Do you have somewhere you can go?”

She finds her voice, small and broken. “Yes. I’m to go to Monique’s.”

“Your friend.”