Miriam filled the bathtub for Avi. Abba convinced him to sleep in his bed afterwards. Miriam returned to her own room but found it impossible to sleep, her mind racing with joy and hope. Avraham was here! They would start a new life together. For the first time since leaving Westerbork, Miriam fell asleep happy.

After Abba left for the university the next morning, Miriam and Avi walked hand in hand to the Huizengas’ town house. “This is Avraham,” she told Ans when she answered the door. “He’s here! He made it!”

Ans gave a cry of delight and pulled them inside. “What an answer to prayer!”

“Yes. We’re together again, and we want to get married —”

“That’s marvelous news!” Eloise interrupted. She had followed Ans into the foyer. “You must come in and have some coffee and tell us everything so we can help you plan your wedding!”

Ans served the coffee as Avi retold the story of his escape. He perched on the edge of the brocade settee, looking out of place in his raggedy clothes. His discomfort in these luxurious surroundings was obvious. Miriam had seen him only in the rustic barracks at Westerbork and briefly in her tiny apartment. Her grandmother’s home had once been this opulent, but Avi came from an ordinary middle-class family in Berlin, his father an accountant, his mother a homemaker.

“We’re hoping to get married as soon as possible,” he said. “We don’t know what the future will bring, but we want to face it together.”

“What do we need to do in your country to be married?” Miriam asked.

Eloise quickly took over in her breathless, chatty way. “I will take you to the registry office myself. You’ll need to apply for a marriage license, which isn’t difficult to do, and then there will be a civil ceremony. Do you have identification? Birth certificates?”

“We brought everything with us from Germany,” Miriam replied.

“Avraham isn’t a Dutch resident, but you are, Miriam. You and your father have been legally registered as residents, and he has a good job at the university, so that should be enough to make it official. I’ll go with you to be one of your witnesses. Ans will, too, won’t you? I can be ready to leave for city hall as soon as you are. What do you say? Shall we get things started?” She stood, ready to leave immediately, but Ans held her back.

“Eloise, wait . . . Miriam will want her father to be there. And perhaps their other friends —”

“Of course, of course. We can finish our coffee first. But anyone can see that they’re eager to be together, and I’m ready to help any way I can. Perhaps we can go to city hall —”

“Wait,” Ans said again. “Eloise . . . you haven’t been to city hall since the surrender. You need to prepare yourself . . . There are enemy soldiers and swastikas everywhere.”