Page 20 of The Little Liar
Fannie heard her father’s voice in the distance.
“Please! It will only take a minute!”
She spotted him in front of his apothecary, pleading with a German soldier who was gripping a rifle.
“It’s medicine, don’t you see?” Fannie’s father said. “People must have medicine. What if they fall ill, or have an accident, or cut themselves? You can see that, right? Just let me go inside and fill a bag with medicines. I will come right back out and we can be on our way.”
Fannie allowed herself a breath. Her father was a good talker. His shop, because of the medicine it dispensed, had been allowed to stay open when other Jewish shops were shuttered. Fannie had no doubt her father would work his way inside. Once he did, she would go to the rear entrance and join him. She watched as the soldier who had been shaking his head looked to the sky, seemingly exasperated. Finally, he stepped aside.
“Thank you,” her father said. “I won’t be a minute.”
He moved past the soldier, heading for the door.
What happened next, in Fannie’s mind, seemed to take place in watery slow motion. As her father went to enter the apothecary, another Nazi pushed the first one out of the way, raised his pistol, and shot Fannie’s father twice in the back. He died with his hand on the doorknob.
Fannie screamed, but she could not hear her own voice. Everything in her brain was a throbbing boom, as if a bombhad exploded inches away and sucked all sound out of the atmosphere. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was the feel of two arms under her own, and her body falling in line with the others, in a long, dragging march to the ghetto.
Sebastian could barely sleep.
The poor boy was fraught with guilt over not telling his parents about Nico. He spent the first night in their newly assigned dwelling lying on the floor with a stomachache. The more he looked at his mother’s face, the worse he felt. The more he thought about Fannie, the worse he felt. He had a bad dream about Nico yelling from inside a fire, and when he woke up sweating, Sebastian decided to come clean.
As fate would have it, he didn’t have to. Just before 8:00A.M., there was a soft knocking from outside a window. Sebastian, still wearing his clothes from the day before, was the first to hear it. He dragged himself to the door, and when he opened it, his heart skipped. An old woman he recognized as the baker’s wife, Mrs. Paliti, was standing in the doorway. Next to her, wearing his raincoat, was Fannie.
“Where is your father and mother?” Mrs. Paliti said.
Before he could answer, he heard them rushing to the door. He tried to get Fannie’s attention, but her look was vacant and far away, as if she’d fallen asleep with her eyes open.
When Lev and Tanna appeared, the woman said, “Fannie has news about your son.”
She nudged Fannie.
“We were in your house,” the girl mumbled. “Under the stairs. We were hiding.”
“Oh, dear God,” Tanna said, clutching her hands. “Is he all right? Where is he now? Is he safe?”
“He was when I left.”
“Why did you leave? Why did you leave him?”
“I went to find my father.”
“Did your father go and get him?”
The baker’s wife caught Tanna’s eye and shook her head slightly.
“He’s with the Lord now,” she said.
“Oh, no,” Lev mumbled.
“Oh, Fannie,” Tanna moaned. “Oh, Fannie, come here.” Tears dripped down Fannie’s face. She leaned into Tanna as if her legs were tied together.
Sebastian didn’t know what to do. He had a deep yearning to put his arm around Fannie, to feel her hair against his shoulder, to whisper something comforting in her ear.
But all he said was, “You can keep my raincoat.”
Nico Dreams of the White Tower
Salonika is a city of great beauty and history and many stories connect the two. On his first lonely night away from his family, Nico lay in bed, fighting tears, remembering one such story. It brought him comfort, and he fell asleep embracing it.
