The Nightingale Sings Alone: a Story of Courage by Monika Savic

Author:Monika Savic
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: -
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2021-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

XXVI

The next day dawned bright and warm. The early morning air was filled with bird song, so sweet and loud that it awakened Anneke from her light slumber. She did not know where she was at first but then felt her mother, still sleeping, beside her, and remembered everything. Moving carefully so as not to awaken Josline, Anneke slipped out from under the faded green and yellow coverlet, pulled on her brown cotton socks, which she had placed carefully on the floor beside the bed the previous evening, and stepped to the large front window overlooking the drive that curved up from the road, hidden from her view behind a line of tall chestnut trees. The morning light caught each flutter of the soft green leaves, each flash of the birds winging in and out, soaring into the lightly tinted sky. The only other sound was the distant call of a rooster from an adjacent farm.

Anneke had unpacked her journal just before they had gone to sleep. It had been on top of her few possessions in her scuffed blue suitcase and, just before turning out the lights, she had put it on the writing desk near the window. Now she pulled it towards her and opened it to her last entry, dated July third when she was still in Germany. She had not written anything since, too distracted by Jeroen de Wit and the goings on in the weeks leading up to their departure for Drenthe. And now as she sat by the window, the morning light brightening the room behind her, she still could not find the words to express the tumult in her young heart. Would Tante Augusta like her? What would her chores now be in this big house? Would Mama really stay with her this time? Would Papa be able to find them? And what about school?

Suddenly her mother’s hand was on her shoulder. Josline had actually been awake for the last hour and had remained resting in bed, watching her daughter for several minutes, noting how Anneke seemed unable to put pen to paper despite the open book and the waiting pages. Now she pulled up a small wooden stool, scraping it along the paneled floor, and sat beside her daughter. Pushing her long dark blond hair from her still lovely face, Josline placed her hand on her daughter’s and offered an encouraging smile. Then together they watched the summer morning strengthen, the light beginning to flood the room up to the ornate plaster ceiling far above their heads. Cows could now be heard lowing in the field beyond the road as they left their milking barn, and a small group of women walked by the house, the soft tramping of their feet on the hard dirt road mingled with cheerful feminine voices.

That first day was surprisingly busy. Tante Augusta, moving ever so slowly and painfully, joined her house guests for a simple breakfast of toasted bread with gooseberry jam. As they sat together

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