Hope at Dawn Read Online Free PDF Page A

required information, but he had the pencil pressed so hard to the paper, it tore in one place. Not caring, he thrust the application and pencil at Joe.
    The man grinned as he took them in his free hand. “We’ll see this and your money get to the bank. You can pick up your bond there.” He swung the rope over his shoulder. “I knew a smart, patriotic young man like you wouldn’t be needin’ the likes of this. Have a nice night now.” He whirled around and marched down the porch steps. The rest of the mob trailed him across the yard and out the picket fence.
    Friedrick watched them from the doorway, making certain every last one of them left before he shut and bolted the door. His hands shook slightly as he removed his boots for a second time. Instead of carrying them to the kitchen, he dropped them in a heap beside the front door. Elsa would surely forgive him if he left them there tonight.
    “Oh, Friedrick.” Greta appeared in her long, white nightgown and threw her arms around his waist. “I’m so glad you weren’t hurt.”
    Friedrick gave her a tight hug in return. “Me, too.”
    Harlan joined them in the hall. Though the danger had passed, their faces were still pinched with worry. Friedrick didn’t want them to go to sleep and think of nothing but seeing their mother upset and their family threatened. “Why don’t you two go wait in your beds? I’ll come up and read you a story.”
    Harlan lifted his chin. “Really?”
    Friedrick nodded.
    The two raced back up the stairs. Friedrick went into the parlor and grabbed the first storybook he found from the bookcase. Before heading upstairs, he decided to look in on his father. He paused outside the door when he heard Elsa talking.
    “It will be fine, Heinrich. You’ll see.” The bright tone to her words sounded forced to Friedrick, but his father was likely too sick to notice. “Remember how trouble always comes before the dawn, before the sun returns. Friedrick will make things right. You’ll see.”
    Friedrick turned away, not wishing to disturb them. There was nothing more to be said at the moment. He started up the stairs but halted halfway up as the weight of what he’d had to do tonight descended with full force upon him.
    With his free hand, he gripped the banister tightly, one foot resting on the step above him. They’d skirted the danger this time, but what about the next? He didn’t think for a second the conflict was over. And now he had the added burden of stretching their last five dollars.
    He could buy seed for spring planting on credit, but if the crops didn’t produce well…There was the option of selling both bonds for cash, to recoup their money, but he feared Joe and the mob finding out. How disloyal would he and his family appear then?
    The weight of providing for and protecting his family pressed down on him, threatening to crush his spirit. He’d given away their money—money meant to help his father—but was that really protecting the ones he loved? Or hurting them? If he’d refused to buy the bond, he might have ended up half-dead, or worse. What would Elsa and his siblings have done then? Whether he fought against the injustice or submitted to it, his family lost something either way.
    Friedrick pushed away from the banister and resumed climbing the stairs. Harlan and Greta were waiting for him. But the opposing viewpoints and compromises still squeezed at him, making it hard to swallow. Almost as if he had Joe’s rope around his neck after all.

Chapter Two
    F riedrick shepherded his mother and siblings into the white clapboard church and up the aisle to their usual pew on the left, three rows from the front. The murmur of German voices pitched and roiled, louder than normal. An undercurrent of tension pulsed through the room.
    “What is going on?” Elsa asked him.
    Friedrick shook his head. He hadn’t seen the congregation this agitated since the United States had entered the war overseas.
    Elsa twisted in her