The Ghost Keeper by Natalie Morrill

Author:Natalie Morrill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2018-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

3

Anna:

Tell me you are all right. I don’t know what to think. I never imagined as many airplanes could exist as I see in the newspapers. Sometimes it seems there will be no one left at the end of this. But I mustn’t think that way; after all, I know you are being brave. You’re always brave, my Anna. Keep being brave. Find a way to live through this, and tell Tobias I want him to look after you. He will be brave to protect you, I know he will. But he must also be sensible.

The Lord bless and protect you both, my loves. I am troubling Him constantly to look after you, so He can’t pretend to forget, not for a second, no matter what calamities are happening in the world. He’s numbered the stars in the heavens, they say, and so I suppose He has done for the hairs on your head, my darling. I wish I had thought to do that. I regret everything I don’t know about you.

The war does not turn so fast as they had hoped, and there is the draft now, though it does not affect the Schwartz family so personally, right away, as it does others. Herschel is too old, and Josef himself too ill. He is called in to an office in Manhattan, once, for a long interview—he is an enemy alien here, say the men in suits—but the refugee claim is a strong one, and this thin, quiet man staring through spectacles at them is no threat to the United States, they deem. He is sent home with new papers, stamped and signed, to be renewed each month.

The girls stop coming for German lessons. German is right out.

F—

Have you heard from A? From Z? Or anyone? Send word of any kind, please.

J

Darling,

I pray that this one will make it to you. I won’t say a thing about the war, and maybe that will help. I will just say that I miss our baby’s soft little head and his breath that smells like bread, and it hurts to think that that baby doesn’t exist anymore but that there’s a wild and thoughtful little boy for me to love, instead. Tell him I do love him, though I don’t know him. I have kept a space in my heart for him, so big and so liberal, that he can’t possibly outgrow it in any dimension of his personality. As soon as I meet him I will nestle it more closely around him, his real self. Oh my love, I do try to do this.

Sometimes I wonder whether there might be some kind gentleman in Shanghai who wants to look after you and Tobias, who would take you in and have you for his own. What would I do? What could I say? It makes my breath stop, just thinking about it. My mouth goes dry. But Anna, I mean this: if things are terrible, if you are desperate, I will forgive you anything.

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