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‘Maybe we should try to get into the woods,’ I said A lot of the landscape around us was the same sandy tracts of pine and birch that surrounded Ravensbr&uuo into town and walk down the ht down the aveat everyone’

‘Gee whiz, not s like that’

‘You look almost human in that skirt and sweater, Rosie,’ she said critically ‘Like an SS secretary, almost human The kerchief is the best part’

‘Shut up, Rabbit’ The kerchief was ridiculous But I was ain very recently, as punish

‘Dark in a few hours,’ Irina said to me

‘We can’t stop here But – I know! There were farms on the other side of the airfield – I saw theht o back past the airfield Maybe hide in a barn – find some turnips or potatoes –’

‘A cow!’ Róża improvised wildly

‘Maybe a cow! Maybe send you into soanise a loaf of bread Maybe –’ Noas thinking about what I’d find in the summer kitchen of the Mennonite farm just on the other side of Justice Field – succotash and applesauce and soing to lead to fantasies about Fasnachts and bologna ‘Anye’ll be safer on the other side of the airfield Coirls!’

And alked down that road in broad daylight, Róża lurching between us tucked beneath our ar there and ere careful to cower in the weed-filled ditch at the road’s edge, gritting our teeth a nettles, whenever traffic passed We kept chattering to one another, insulting one another, discussing the weather – anything, like walking through a den of lazy lions and praying they won’t get up If they raise their heads and keep an eye on you as you pass, that’s a little disconcerting But as long as they don’t come after you, you’re safe You know you better not run Well, we couldn’t run We had to stop and rest about every quarter of a mile It was probably a four-mile walk to the airfield

‘How is Lisette?’ Irina asked

‘Brave,’ I said

Róża asked conversationally, ‘What is the officer’s name?’

‘Which officer?’

‘The one we all work for In case someone asks’

‘Oberleutnant Karl Womelsdorff,’ I answered

‘Wow, that was fast! Oberleutnant Karl Woht you didn’t speak any Gertausendvierhundertachtundneunzig You must have a devious streak after all’

May 4, 1945

Still at the Ritz

Except that I feel like I have never lived anywhere else but this big rooeous bathroom, this could have happened yesterday I think it is partly the reason I haven’t even ventured out to find a dining room The terror of that first day in the open, with the treacherous future yawning in front of us like the Grand Canyon – on foot with no food and no money and no papers in the middle of Ger for us – although I’m pretty sure now that if they had been, they’d have already found us for sure But you don’t think every thing through logically when you have no real future except to plue of the Grand Canyon

We didn’t uess it is a ht us were very kind They were all airuards Maybe this isn’t fair of uards – I s on starving women Seems like that must automatically uess, but it’s a good start

These guys knew perfectly e were and where we’d come from Irina was still in prison uniform beneath the threadbare coat; Róża couldn’t walk; I had no hair beneath ot stopped along the barbed-wire fence by the airfield perimeter There wasn’t any place to hide It was an unarside Irina and laid a hand on her arnise that she couldn’t take hied She didn’t try to shake hiht There was nowhere to go anyway

Róża tried to feed him a line I don’t knohat she said, but I swear I have never seen her be so char When was the last time she sweet-talked anyone – maybe the Gestapo officer who made her watch while they beat herthe hunts the only one of us who could speak German, Róża was the only one of us as actually dressed inconspicuously, since I’d given my coat to Irina Lisette had combed and braided Róża’s hair and twisted it up before we left If you could look past Róża being filthy and skeletal and crawling with bugs, she was lovely, really, in a waif-like, Orphan Annie kind of way