Ever since Ans awoke to the sound of bombs five days ago, each day had passed as slowly as a year. Professor Huizenga still had not returned home. The Huizengas’ cook and housekeeper had stayed home with their families, and Ans had been doing all the cooking, making do with whatever she could find in the cupboards. Neither she nor Eloise had an appetite. Nazi planes flew over constantly. Sirens blared. Leiden, located between Amsterdam and Den Haag, felt like the crossroads of the war. At night, Ans and Eloise dozed beneath piles of blankets in the front room beside the radio in case they needed to flee to the basement. Ans was exhausted, afraid to sleep for fear Eloise would do something rash, like go up on the roof again.

Eloise had been inconsolable after learning that the Nazis invaded Belgium on the same day as the Netherlands. She refused to take her medicine, knowing it would make her sleep. “I have to know what’s going on!” she’d insisted. Ans feared they would both lose their sanity, cooped up in the house beside the radio. Two days ago, she had decided to take a chance and coaxed Eloise to leave the town house.

“It’s Sunday. I think we should go to church.” She’d promised Professor Huizenga she’d keep Eloise inside, but the Pieterskerk was only a five-minute walk away.

Eloise had looked at her with a mocking grin. “Why do you want to go to church? God isn’t answering any of your prayers.”

“But . . . you and the professor have always gone to church. Every Sunday since I moved here.”

“Only because Herman finds comfort in it.”

“Well, I would like to go, but I won’t leave you here alone. Please come with me. I need comfort too.” She’d managed to convince Eloise. The church had been packed.

Today, Tuesday, was the fifth day of the war, and Eloise seemed to be pulling out of her slump once again by planning how she would fight back. “We’ll take to the streets, if necessary, and fight the enemy hand to hand,” she said. Ans didn’t know whether to discourage her or play along. She wished the professor would come home.

Late in the afternoon, an urgent news bulletin interrupted the broadcast. Ans heard the trembling emotion in the newscaster’s voice and immediately went to sit beside Eloise, gripping her hands. She tried to brace herself for more bad news, but the announcement was even worse than she imagined. The Nazis had bombed the city of Rotterdam. The center of the city had been demolished. Estimated civilian deaths approached one thousand. Tens of thousands were homeless. “No . . . This can’t be happening . . . ,” Ans moaned.

But there was more.