In This Hospitable Land Read Online Free PDF Page A

of chemistry.
    Einstein and André had also spoken of their mutual devotion to pacifism. What Einstein had had to say about peaceful resistance to tyrants had been as much an encouragement to André as his scientific accomplishments. Einstein’s thoughts had seemed altogether consonant with the Peace Testimony of William Penn, which had had a formidable impact on André, reshaping his personal philosophy. André remained deeply interested in the Friends. But he had yet to meet a Quaker.
    After another blast of whistles the train moved slowly out of medieval Bruges, along the Boudewijn Canal, and past low fields surrounded by ditches. Simple single-storied whitewashed farmhouses, their roofs pitched to shed the constant rain, stood forlorn along narrow roads. André could barely make out the carefully kept green pastures blending into the dark of the indistinct horizon as the train jogged a little south and then swung wide to the west, beginning the half-hour leg leading to the end of the line at the coast.
    The train pulled into Ostend close to schedule. André rose reflexively and made his exhausted way onto the platform, then walked the short distance to the station for the tram that ran along the coast between the French and Dutch borders. It would be at least twenty minutes before he reached Le Coq. Yet seated almost alone on the electric transport he felt oddly at ease. Physically and emotionally drained, lulled by the tram’s rocking and clacking, André wondered whether Einstein hadn’t been right. Maybe André needed to consider rejoining the Belgian army to do battle with the Nazis.
    And maybe not. Though he felt too tired to be certain of anything it occurred to André that the moment when one’s ideals are most sorely tested is the moment one must cling to them most strongly.

     
    Three hours after leaving Brussels, André struggled uphill on foot from the Flemish-style tram station to reach the villa, his family, and rest.
    What worried him most now he had no intention of sharing with anyone, especially those he loved best. Recent arcane developments in the study of the elements had made an atomic bomb a distinct if highly theoretical possibility. André suspected Hitler already had his best scientific minds and technicians hard at work making that potential actual. Fascists were splitting the world. Physicists were splitting the atom. It was hard to guess which was more dangerous. But nothing could be more fateful than the two combined.
    Denise was standing by the door willing André’s return. When he finally walked up out of the gloom, she ran to him and pressed her face against his, holding him tight.
    “I’m home,” he said simply.
    “Thank goodness,” Denise whispered with deep emotion.
    She led him into the villa and through the gathered family. André greeted each in their special way. Then Denise guided him to their room where he collapsed gratefully onto the bed and instantly fell asleep.

CHAPTER TWO
     
    LE COQ
     
    M AY 10, 1940
     

     
    Friday had started well for Denise as she rose to the cheerful sounds of children playing.
    Easing into the living room she marveled again at her surroundings. Compared to her previous homes this villa was cramped and threadbare, but with its low dunes and long smooth beach, Le Coq was a delightful retreat. At the height of summer Belgians arrived there in astonishing numbers to swim, sunbathe, and play ball. The rest of the year it was more desolate, but even in the continued cold of early May, Denise reveled in the resort’s stark, elemental nature.
    “Tea!” her eldest daughter, Ida, called out gleefully, abandoning her composition book and racing to the antique toy chest jammed into the less-than-commodious space. At five and a half Ida read constantly and worked hard at learning to write, frequently camping out in a corner of the couch, knees pulled up to brace her notebook as she traced and retraced her letters, the pale-pink tip of her tongue