A Faraway Island Read Online Free PDF

towels clamped under their carriers.
    They stop outside the fence, staring at Stephie and Nellie. One of them, tall and blond, says something to the others. They all laugh.
    As if we were monkeys in the zoo
, Stephie thinks.
    “What do they want, Stephie?” Nellie asks uneasily. “Are they going to hurt us?”
    “Oh, no,” Stephie says in her firmest voice. “They’re silly but they mean no harm.”
    A girl with bright red hair speaks to Stephie, who shakes her head to show she doesn’t understand. The girl giggles. There’s no ill will in her laugh.
    The blond girl pedals off; the others follow. They bike in a group down the hill, bathing suits blowing in the wind.
    “They must be on their way to the beach,” says Nellie. “To swim. I want to go swimming, too.”
    “We can’t,” Stephie says in her sensible, big-sister voice. “We haven’t got bathing suits.”
    For a long time they hadn’t been allowed to go to the beach in Vienna. Not since signs prohibited them, signs that read JEWS FORBIDDEN. When Mamma was helping them pack, she had pulled out their old bathing suits, but it was clear they had outgrown them.
    Aunt Märta arrives on her bicycle, a big bag dangling from her handlebars. Holding Stephie’s letter, she points toward the village.
    The post office
, Stephie thinks, and decides to go along. She needs to see with her own eyes when her letter is mailed, to feel confident it is on its way.
    “Wait here for me,” she says to Nellie. “I’m going to the post office. I’ll be right back.”
    The post office and the village shop are in the same building, a big, rectangular, flat-roofed structure. Stephie stands next to Aunt Märta, watching her buy a stamp from the lady at the window.
    “It’s for Vienna,” Aunt Märta says. “Vienna, Austria.”
    “The German Reich,” the lady corrects her. “Here you are, Mrs. Jansson. I didn’t know you had friends abroad.”
    “The letter’s from this girl,” Aunt Märta explains. “She’s sending it to her parents.”
    “And who is she, precisely?” the lady asks.
    “A young Jewess,” Aunt Märta tells her. “There’s trouble in that part of the world, so Evert and I agreed to take her in. Until her parents can leave the country. I understand they’re hoping to emigrate to America.”
    The post office lady sighs. “Poor little thing. All alone in the world.”
    “She’s better off here than there,” Aunt Märta says brusquely. “Her sister’s here, too, you know.”
    “Oh me, oh my,” the lady responds. “What terrible times we’re living in. Do you think there’ll be a war, Mrs. Jansson?”
    “Man proposes and God disposes,” Aunt Märta concludes, paying for the stamp with a coin from her wallet. “Thank you very much.”
    Stephie goes into the store with her, too, waiting while she shops. She recognizes the man behind the counter. He’s the red-faced man who was shouting and scolding the boy down at the dock the day before. As he helps Aunt Märta, he keeps shooting curious glances in Stephie’s direction.Something about the look in his eyes makes Stephie very uncomfortable.
    When they’re about to leave, a young girl walks through the door. It’s the same blond girl who made her friends laugh outside Auntie Alma’s yard. Her hair is wet and there’s a towel flung over her shoulders. She steps confidently behind the counter and fills a bag with toffees. Just helps herself, not asking anyone, and apparently not needing to pay.
    The shopkeeper smiles, patting her cheek. The girl pops a toffee in her mouth, chewing and making smacking noises. She stares at Stephie the whole time, until she makes her way to the door and closes it behind her. When Stephie and Aunt Märta get out onto the shop steps, Stephie sees the girl vanish around a bend in the road on her bright blue bicycle.

When Stephie and Aunt Märta return to Auntie Alma’s, Nellie is waiting by the gate. Her eyes are bright and she shouts as soon as she