Mama reached out to take me in her arms. ‘Leo, darling, it’s all right. We’ll be okay. We will find a way.’

I shook my head. Holding out the letter, I found my voice. ‘They said yes, Mama,’ I said. ‘The Stewarts said yes!’

‘What?’ Mama took the letter from me. She read aloud. ‘ “We will do what you ask. Of course we help you. Your kindness and generous day we always remember. Please tell exactly what you need and we do it immediately. Our best regard, Aileen and Eric Stewart.” ’

Mama stared at me. Finally, I let my face break into a smile. ‘They are going to help us,’ I said in a whisper. ‘I can’t believe it.’

Mama smiled back at me – but I could see there was something bothering her. I didn’t need to ask what it was. I felt the same way.

‘Papa will find us,’ I told her. ‘He will join us as soon as he can.’

Mama nodded, tight-lipped, but didn’t say anything. I thought of the coded note Papa had sent to me. I had to be the strong one. ‘And Omama will give us her blessing,’ I added. ‘She will never leave here, she has told us so many times. But Mama, we have to go.’ I put an arm around Mama’s shoulders. ‘Papa wants us to go; he needs us to go.’

Mama slumped against me. ‘I know, Leo, my love. It’s just…’ Her sentence trailed away.

‘It’s hard,’ I finished for her. ‘I know. It’s really hard. But Papa would be even more unhappy if he thought we had stayed here when we had a chance to leave. It’s an awful choice, but this is the best of the two horrible options.’

Mama leaned away from me. Looking into my eyes, she put her palm against my face and stroked my cheek with her thumb. ‘When did you grow into such a sensible young man?’ she asked.

When I had to, I thought.

I didn’t say that, though. Instead, I kissed her cheek and whispered, ‘I love you, Mama.’

‘I love you more, my darling boy,’ she said. Then she took a breath and seemed to gather herself into action. ‘Come on, then. Let’s take the letter to the authorities and see what hoops they make us jump through this time.’

We wrapped up in our biggest coats and thickest gloves and hats and began the trail of embassies and offices and administrative buildings that we had become used to visiting. We armed ourselves for another day of standing out in the cold, and for the usual rejections, laughter and scorn.

But they didn’t come.

The day ended with something we never thought we would receive: a visa.

ELSA