When the Skies Rained Freedom: A gripping historical novel about the Berlin Airlift by Annette Oppenlander

Author:Annette Oppenlander [Oppenlander, Annette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-one

If you could measure Berlin’s temperature after the protest, you’d find it feverish. Yet, beneath all that excitement over Reuter’s speech, I’m anxious. I know that seventy-five percent of all the goods flown in is coal that goes to the power companies. What’s left is not enough to feed two million Berliners, it’s as simple as that.

Even with some extra goodies like Thomas’s coffee, the amount of flour, dried potatoes, milk powder and bits of sugar we’re allowed leave us at the edge of hunger. I’m craving vegetables, simple potatoes have become a delicacy. We scrape through every day and only my work at the airport keeps me sane.

Tilly appears nervous and hardly speaks these days. I catch her watching Margo, who has grown into a lanky girl of thirteen whose bony knees appear thicker than her thighs and whose eyes are too large for her face.

“I’ve decided to send Margo to my cousin Hannelore in Lower Saxony,” Tilly announces one evening after Margo has gone to sleep. “General Clay is urging parents to fly Berlin’s children out, if they can stay with family in the west.” Unshed tears brighten Tilly’s eyes. The last months have aged her, the skin around her mouth and nose appears almost translucent. I know Margo is the reason why she has continued to fight with such energy.

Mama covers her mouth with her hand to stifle a shout. “You can’t,” she finally says.

Tilly resolutely shakes her head. “I must. I’m not going to watch Margo starve any longer.” A single tear rolls down her cheek. “The girl has been through too much.” She pats a letter on the table. “Hannelore lives next to a farm. There’ll be food and animals, she can be a child for once, go to school with a full belly and without freezing.”

I pat Tilly’s hand. She is right. Every person we can safely take out of Berlin also helps keep the remaining population supplied. And if the Soviets start another war, she’ll be far away.

“I will ask at work,” I say quietly. “Besides, she’ll return as soon as this is over.” We look at each other as I secretly wonder how long the Americans will keep flying, before they lose interest. Mayor Reuter’s speech was fiery, but in the end, it’ll be insanely expensive to continue. Cold creeps up my back as I jump to my feet. The lights have come on, we’ve got a two-hour window of electricity. “Let’s make coffee.”

“A friend of mine needs to send her granddaughter with Operation Stork,” I say the next morning, as soon as I discover Thomas in the backroom. The chocolatey aroma of cocoa he is fixing makes me salivate.

“Want one? Don’t have milk right now, but it’s still pretty good.”

I nod, my gaze against my will on the delicious brew. Hunger makes it hard to concentrate, it weakens my braincells, makes my thoughts foggy. While Thomas fixes a drink for me, I force myself to think of Margo and Tilly. “Do the Americans fly children west?”

Handing me the scalding hot cup, Thomas shakes his head.

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