The Time Between by Bryna Hellmann-Gillson

Author:Bryna Hellmann-Gillson [Hellmann-Gillson, Bryna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amsterdam Publishers

15 Jo, December 1942

Everyone said it was the coldest winter they could remember. All the canals in the city were frozen, and the small boats that had been a way to get around quickly were locked in the ice. People who were lucky enough to live in the center skated to work or school, and shopkeepers anchored crates onto sleigh runners and hauled their goods around the city that way.

There hadn’t been any cars on the streets since the spring, except for the trucks the soldiers used to take prisoners to the railway station, and the Daimlers for the SS officers. And in June, when the Germans ordered men to turn in their bicycles, and they got only a few hundred, most of them old and damaged, they’d gone out onto the streets and just taken them.

‘They need bikes and we don’t? Thieves!’ Elsie said bitterly.’

Dirk shook his head. ‘Leave it.’

‘I’ll say what I like in my own house!’

‘That’s right, Ma,’ Hendrik said, ‘we can say whatever we want in here. It’s just about the last place we can.’

‘Hendrik would like to tell them to their faces what he thinks,’ Jan said mildly.

‘You wouldn’t!’ Elsie put out a hand as if to clap it over her son’s mouth.

‘Oh Ma, of course I won’t,’ Hendrik assured her. ‘Going to jail for insulting someone doesn’t do much good. Now, a shot in the back, that would be a real insult!’

Elsie drew in a loud breath. ‘You wouldn’t!’ she said again.

‘Tell her you’re not that stupid.,’ Jan said, ‘though you act it sometimes.'

‘I’m not that stupid, Ma, I was only kidding, honestly. I haven’t been asked to shoot anybody.’

‘I don’t want to hear this,’ Dirk muttered.

‘Nothing to hear, Pa, nothing to worry about, but you don’t really believe we can just ask the Germans to go home and they will? We have to drive them out, and we’re going to, count on it.’

Dirk shook his head and grunted, he didn’t want to hear that either.

Elsie stood up and started to collect the plates, and Hendrik reached out and took the last two slices of bread.

‘No you don’t,’ Elsie said, taking them back. ‘That’s for Jo’s parents. Go on, Jo, I’ll bring their supper upstairs. Don’t be late.’ She thought Jo was going to visit her friend Lysbet, a nice evening out. It was only a half-lie, but it made Jo uncomfortable. The rule was never talk about your group, not even to your parents. Only Hendrik knew that Jo was with Adrian, and nobody in their group except Lysbet knew her last name. They couldn’t tell someone how to find her or, if they were caught, confess it to the police. She was just one of the girls who carried messages and didn’t know the important things the men knew.

She would never tell her parents, they’d be so frightened that they’d want her to stop. She wasn’t frightened, you didn’t need to be if you were careful. Putting on her warmest jacket in the hall, she could hear the radio whistling as Jan looked for Radio Orange.

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