Dear Marion and Dulcie,

I received yesterday your letter. But remember please two pages. Two pages only were given to me by the senser. So I miss out on the rest of your news. Maybe other pages are returned to you. You can write on bigger paper but only two. It is very cold here and nothing to do, not like on the Island. There are good meals. But I should not be here. I have written my objections to the authorities. There are many arguments and fights here between the Nazis and Anti Nazis and we are separated in our barracks. I keep away from all the trouble not being a Nazi or a Socialist like others. For you my dear wife and daughter I am chosing paua shell broches made here by my friend Helmut. He has quite a business and wants me to join him. But I am pleased to work outdoors instead. A change from baking bread as I did at Somes. But still I help him with the drawings. Sometimes I do the cutting out for him. Only the sawing is done by hand. The grindstone and polisher machines are driven by electricity. He gifts to me broches in return. My selection are butterfly and seahorse. Also there is a ticky for Oriwia who is a helpful friend. The paua shell ornaments are sent out to Yewellers all over the country and go all over the World. I have written now three letters to my Mother. I have received no reply so I worry. Helmut’s brother is missing on the Russian front. So he is worried. His parents’ house is bombed and most of the city is bombed also. Both are injured and now they live with his Sister. Please can you go to Buckle Street and get a permission to visit with him. His Uncle is in Auckland. Too far to come and his Uncle is old. His Uncle writes sometimes all the bad news. Our sons are well. They will write their own letters. But they should not be here. They are against that Maniak the same as me. I will try not to complain next time.

Your loving husband and father,

Harry Krauss.

But how did Chappy’s deportation fit with what Aki had said, which Oriwia had been counting on? Why would they repatriate a man who could then take up arms against them?

Aki told her later that all those evacuated would be old men, or else too unfit to fight. This is what Ela’s brother-in-law Ishy believed. Oriwia thought of the message contained in one of Harry’s drawings depicting the little star in the hospital bed, thought of her husband’s scars and his fevers. She waited, believing that Chappy would find some way of contacting her.

After a year, she wrote to Aki, asking him to go and find her husband for her.

Chapter 15

Aki