Page 34 of The Berlin Sisters
‘Sixteen,’ Hanna said.
Sixteen. Sixteen children who her sister had risked her life to save, who had been given a chance at living when so many others hadn’t. Ava might be doing her best to follow her father’s orders and memorise paperwork in the office, but it was going to take her a long time to do anything even remotely as ambitious or impressive as what her sister had already done for the cause.
‘Thank you,’ Hanna said, as she passed her another jar.
‘What for?’ Ava asked.
‘For not trying to stop me.’ She paused. ‘Nothing has ever meant so much to me, Ava. I feel as if this is the only thing keepingme going sometimes, giving me a purpose, giving me something to focus on.’
‘Then we shall bury every single jar together,’ Ava said, her heart breaking when she saw the pain etched on her sister’s face. ‘But we must do it quickly, and then never speak of it again until the war is over. Agreed?’
Hanna nodded. ‘Agreed.’
Their mother came closer and knelt beside them then, and the three of them silently buried jar after jar, until all that was left before them was a patch of tilled soil, and a pile of plants that had to be thoughtfully placed in the earth to disguise the precious records buried beneath.
‘What we’ve done here is a beautiful thing,’ their mother said. ‘One day, our bravery could allow a mother to reunite with her child, and then, despite everything, it will have been worth our risk.’If the mother and child were still alive to see that day. Ava couldn’t help but think that those were the words her mother was thinking and had chosen not to utter.
When they stood, in a line, the three of them facing the garden, Ava knew she’d just witnessed something that would stay with her for the rest of her life.
‘There’s something I’ve been thinking about,’ Ava suddenly said, looking from Hanna to her mother. ‘Can we not take up extra mattresses to the Goldmans?’ she asked, lowering her voice. ‘Surely we can do something to make it, well, to make it more comfortable up there? Can we bring them more clothes, too? More books?’More luxuries?
‘We can’t do anything that would draw attention. If we were to take a mattress from one of our beds, Zelda would notice, and if we had a new one delivered, the old one simply couldn’t disappear,’ her mother said. ‘We’re doing everything we can, but we have to be careful. Every decision we make, every item we take up there, has tobe done in a way that will avoid notice entirely, which is why we’re simply trying to put what was already stored up there to good use.’ Her mother paused. ‘But perhaps you could find more books or board games for Eliana and David? Those are the types of personal items we can easily give them.’
Ava nodded. Finding books for them was the least she could do.
That night, when the house was silent and it was just Ava, Hanna and her mother in residence, she went up to the attic while the other two prepared food for their guests – only her second time going back up since she’d discovered them living there. She was surprised how homely they’d made the attic with what little they had, although that didn’t diminish the sadness she felt at seeing them all crammed into the small space. She imagined it would be like being a caged animal; pacing back and forth with no way of escape, desperate to get back out into the world again.
‘Ava,’ Eliana said the moment they saw her, the light from their oil lamps sending shadows around the space and making it difficult at first to see all four of them. Ava could see that her presence made them nervous, and she wished she could tell them how truly sorry she was, how much she regretted the way she’d behaved. But she knew that the way to gain their trust was to prove to them that she cared, which was what she intended on doing.
‘I don’t know how to begin,’ she said, the words difficult to find. ‘I—’
Her eyes found their way to David, who was watching her intently. She remembered him then, years earlier, when he’d carried her library books for her all the way to their apartment block. But with that memory came another, and she wished she could shut it out.
Ava and her BDM friends sat at a little table, licking their ice creams and chatting in the sunshine. Until one of the girls shrieked in horror and pulled her seat back as a well-dressed young man walked down the road, a yellow star pinned to his chest, marking him for the world to notice.
Ava knew immediately who he was, but when the other girls began to make a fuss and chant a song, as his eyes met hers, pleading, she looked away. She sung the little song beneath her breath, expecting him to hunch his shoulders and walk away, but instead he straightened, as if he couldn’t hear their cruel taunts.
‘Dirty Jew,’ called one of the older girls, hurling her ice cream at David and hitting him square on the back, like she’d thrown a ball at him. But instead of a ball rolling to the ground, the creamy liquid stuck to his jacket and then began to dribble down the fabric. But he didn’t stop, just kept on walking, his head still held high.
‘My father says they’ll all be gone soon,’ one of the other girls said.
Ava returned her attention to her ice cream, only looking over her shoulder once to see where the boy was, to see whether the sun had baked the cream stain into his jacket, but he had already disappeared.
‘My father has asked me to share some news with you,’ she said, transferring her gaze to Eliana and trying not to think about the past. ‘I’d also like to say that I deeply regret the way I behaved when I first discovered you here. It came as quite a shock to me, but—’
‘You have news?’ David interrupted. ‘Please, tell us what you’ve come up to say.’
She glanced at him, clearing her throat while his parents moved to sit on the footstools that had been placed near the centre of the attic. She chose to perch on the floor, rather than take one of their precious luxuries from them.
‘My father has returned to Berlin, but he entrusted me with these before he left.’ She took the papers from her pocket and passed them directly to Eliana.
‘What are you giving me?’ she asked.
‘Identification papers,’ Ava replied. ‘You are now Eleanor Müller, or Elly for short.’
Eliana’s eyes widened as she examined the papers, before looking up. ‘Where are the rest? You only have the one set?’ She frowned. ‘I’m to share your surname?’
Ava shifted uncomfortably. ‘I’m sorry, but this is all he’s been able to obtain so far,’ she said. ‘He told me that it’s a painstaking process to ensure that the lineage is perfect, that no one can question who you are. He wanted the papers to be watertight, especially as you would be living as one of our family members.’
