9

Ella

Two weeks after I had first spoken to Sadie, I set out from our house on a Sunday morning to see her. I stepped onto the street and inhaled the fresh air gratefully. It was nearly May now, and the breeze was warm and perfumed with the fragrance of flowering linden trees as I crossed the Planty. More people seemed to be out today than I had seen since the start of the war, running errands or visiting friends or family. They still walked swiftly and kept their eyes low, not greeting one another or stopping to chat, as they once might have. But there was a kind of defiance in their steps, the way they lifted their chins, even briefly, to admire the way the sunlight bathed Wawel Castle in gold. It was as if to say to the Germans, You will not steal this beautiful day in our city from us.

I had gone to see Sadie the previous week on Saturday as promised at the same time, bringing with me a bit of sheep’s cheese I’d managed to sneak from our kitchen. But she had been late and seemed nervous. “I can only stay a few minutes,” she said. “I’m not supposed to come see you. I promised I wouldn’t.” She, too, had others who might notice and mind if she was missing.

“If you can’t come anymore, I understand,” I said, feeling a surprising tug of disappointment. The first time I had returned to the sewer out of curiosity about the girl, the second because I felt bad for her and she seemed to need my help. If she couldn’t meet me again, it really shouldn’t matter to me at all. Yet somehow it did. I liked helping Sadie and even the little bit I had done made me feel as if I were doing something that mattered.

“Of course I will come again,” she said quickly. “Sundays would be better,” she added. “The other family, the Rosenbergs, they stay in the chamber where we live all day on Saturdays to observe the Sabbath, so it’s more obvious when I am not there.”

“Sunday, then,” I agreed. “I’ll try to come every week, even tomorrow, if you’d like.”

“I would,” she said with a smile. “Meeting up, even for a bit, well, it makes the rest of the time down here just a little easier to bear. Does that sound silly?”

“Not at all. I enjoy coming here, too. I’ll come tomorrow. But you’d best go back now.” I didn’t want her to get in trouble and not be able to come anymore at all.

But the next morning, Ana Lucia decided it was time to spring-clean the house. In addition to running Hanna ragged, my stepmother enlisted me, too, with a thousand small chores that made it impossible to get away. It was as if she knew my plans and had devised the impediment deliberately. So I had not been able to go see Sadie that day at all. I imagined her, standing at the grate, disappointed and wondering why I had not come.